For the first time since the Senate was inaugurated in June 2019, no fewer than 76 senators, yesterday, indicated their readiness to go against the veto of President Muhammadu Buhari to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.

As tension enveloped the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly, the 76 senators drawn across party lines, Vanguard gathered, wrote down their names as those interested in overriding President Buhari’s veto.

The senators took the decision after, Senate President Ahmad Lawan read President Buhari’s letter withholding assent to the 2021 Electoral Act Amendment bill that was passed by the National Assembly.

President Buhari in the letter dated December 13, 2021, and addressed to both the President of the Senate, Senator Lawan and the Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, said he withheld assent because of imposition of direct primaries for picking candidates on political parties violates the spirit of democracy.

With direct primaries, which he said was undemocratic, there would be a plethora of litigation from party members and stakeholders, the process would fuel corruption and encourage over monetisation, cause a huge financial burden on political parties, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the economy and security agencies.

Buhari, who explained that his decision to withhold assent to the electoral bill was informed by advice from relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government after a thorough review added that signing the bill into law would have serious adverse legal, financial, economic and security consequences on the country, particularly in view of Nigeria’s peculiarities.

The letter was read during the start of the plenary by Senate President Lawan after the senators came out from a closed-door session that was held from 10.42 a.m. to 11.42 a.m.

On a day that President Buhari’s letter generated mixed views in the polity, the move generated tension in the Senate.

It was gathered that three ranking Senators from South-South, North-Central and North-East respectively went round the Chamber with lists to collate those who are against overriding President Buhari’s veto.

It was gathered that 76 Senators across the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the All Progressives Congress, APC and the Young Progressives Congress, YPP, have already written down their names. The number is three more than 73, which is two-thirds of the 109 members of the Senate required to override the president’s veto.

According to a source, the President of the Senate who was worried over the development at the Chamber insisted that everybody must be available, but the Senators disagreed with him as they said no to his position, as some senators complained that Lawan did not handle the situation properly.

Senate delays passage of 2022 budget

To express their anger over the rejection of the Electoral Act Amendment bill, the senators refused to pass the 2022 Appropriation bill that was slated in the order paper as the second report to be considered.

The Senate was to receive the Senator Jibrin Barau-led Committee on Appropriation’ report.

A source told Vanguard that the President of the Senate at the meeting told the Senators that the 2022 Budget would first be considered today (yesterday) at plenary, but the Senators vehemently refused to accept his submission as they have resolved that the Electoral Bill must be tackled before the issue of the budget will come up.

Meanwhile, the Senate, yesterday, dissolved into a closed-door session twice to deliberate on the letter of President Buhari.

The move to break into an Executive session at 1.57 p.m., which lasted for 45 minutes was sequel to a point of order raised by Senator George Sekibo (PDP, Rivers East), who came via Order 14 and 15, who said that the closed-door session became imperative because the Senate after, yesterday’s session would commence the Christmas and New Year holiday.

Gbaja shuts down motions to debate President’s rejection

Meanwhile, in the House of Representatives, Speaker Gbajabiamila averted a stormy session by shutting out debates on the letter, which he shifted to next year and assured his colleagues that the Electoral amendment bill would survive.

This was after the legislators passed the 2022 budget.

Miffed by President Buhari’s rejection of the electoral bill, Mr Solomon Bob representing Abua/Odual and Ahoada East Federal Constituency of Rivers State, at a point during the plenary raised a point of order, pleading with the Speaker to allow the House to debate the matter.

“Mr Speaker, you read correspondence from the President. We need to at least be able to exercise our rights as a House of the people. That bill that has come back to us we invested a lot of energy into it,” he said.

In his response, the Speaker said there was a lot to still discourse ahead, asking him to wait until the House resumed in January.

“When we come back, we will look at the issue. We cannot rush it. We have the Appropriation bill, Finance Bill and all that,” Gbajabiamila said.

Similarly, the Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu, at a point called the attention of the speaker to the bill, saying that since the House was adjourning till January 18, 2022, it would be patriotic to debate the withholding of presidential assent.

He said: “Mr Speaker, on the issue of the electoral bill, you said that the National Assembly will find a way to resolve the issue. Nigerians are looking up to us. If we wait to resume before we can talk to Nigerians, it will be too late. We can suspend our rules and look at the bill and amend that clause, this I think will make Nigerians see us as good representatives. This is my submission.”

Responding, the Speaker said that the National Assembly was a bicameral legislature, meaning that even if the House decided to make a decision, it would not be valid until a concurrence was secured with the Senate.

“We run a bicameral legislature. Whatever we do here today comes to nothing if it is not done on the other side. While your point is well noted, it is not practical,” he said, pleading with his colleagues to wait till the House resumes next year.

Bill must survive — Gbaja

In his remarks to round off the last plenary session of the year, Speaker of the House, Gbajabiamila who expressed disappointment that the bill returned to the National Assembly unsigned, however, assured that it must survive.

He said: “By the time we resume next year, we will be closer to the end of our tenures, with national elections rapidly approaching. In the past, election years have witnessed a decline in governance activities as political pursuits cloud the calendar. That will not be the case this time around. As you are aware, we have a legislative agenda in this 9th House of Representatives, which we tagged ‘Our Contract with Nigerians’.

I expect that we will do everything within our power to keep the commitments we made in that document so that when we appear before our various constituencies, we can stand tall in the knowledge that despite challenges and difficulties, we did what we promised to do, and given a chance again, will do even more.”

On direct primaries, we agree with Buhari — Afenifere

Buhari’s letter drew mixed reactions, yesterday, with the Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, saying it aligns with the President on direct primaries, noting that the country’s electoral process was expensive.

Afenifere’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Jare Ajayi, said: “Our position is that primary elections should be left to the political parties to conduct. It does not have to be direct because of the peculiar nature of Nigeria.

“As things are now, our electoral process is expensive and if you now add this, you are complicating it the more because rich men will buy the delegates and that is why we say this is the time for independent candidacy.

“Our position is that the amount of money must be brought down considerably. If the reason the president is withholding his assent is because of direct primaries, to that extent, we agree because the cost of our electoral process is too much. That is Afenifere’s position.”

Override Buhari’s veto, LEDAP tells NASS

The Legal Defence and Assistance Project, LEDAP, called on the National Assembly to rise up to its responsibilities as representatives of the masses and veto President Buhari’s assent to the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021, for the interest of our democracy and good governance.

National Coordinator, LEDAP, Mr Chino Obiagwu, SAN, said: “On November 19, 2021, the National Assembly transmitted the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021 to President Buhari for assent. However, despite the long wait, the President refused to assent to the Bill, which many Nigerians believe will provide a robust legal framework that will make the country’s political and electoral process more inclusive and credible.

“Among other issues, this Bill seeks to resolve matters relating to the use of modern technologies in the country’s electoral process as well as prescribes the adoption of direct primaries for political parties as a means of selecting candidates for general elections and party positions as contained in articles 52 and 87 of the bill respectively. It can be recalled that this Bill went through several deliberations and inputs from various stakeholders before it was finally passed by both Houses of the National Assembly in October 2021.

“Various reports indicate that President Buhari withheld his assent to the Bill due to the provision of the Bill that prescribed direct primaries for all political parties on the grounds that direct primaries will lead to an ‘increased cost of monitoring the primaries of various parties across the country; marginalisation of small parties; possible litigation; security challenges of monitoring direct primaries, violation of rights of citizens; and possible manipulation of the primaries’.

“On the contrary, LEDAP is of the view that direct primaries will guarantee inclusiveness and participation of all members of the political parties in the selection of candidates for various elective offices such as the nomination of party flag bearers for general elections as well as party officials at congresses and conventions.

“The indirect primaries hitherto practised by most parties only allow a few money bags and selected privileged few to participate in the nomination processes for candidate selections at the party level. It is expected that the adoption of direct primaries by all political parties will allow only popular candidates to win the party primaries rather than leave it for the highest bidder.

“Consequently, as an NGO which seeks to promote the rule of law, LEDAP calls on the National Assembly to immediately veto the assent of the President by virtue of section 58(5) and 59 (5) of the Constitution which empowers the National Assembly by a two-thirds majority of its members to veto the assent of the President for ordinary and money bills respectively.

“We reiterate the fact that by section 4 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), the National Assembly is empowered to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of Nigeria. Therefore, in line with their oath of office and responsibilities, the National Assembly is being called upon to veto the President’s assent and pass this Bill into Law as a new Electoral Law will address the problems of candidate imposition by political parties which is the bane of our political process which often leads to electoral fraud and electoral disputes.” (Vanguard)

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