APC has turned democracy into Autocracy — ADC

The ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) has been accused of turning Nigeria’s democracy to an Autocracy in its twist of the peoples mandate to suite her governance style of anti-democratic ethos.

Stakeholders of the reform in the electoral law amendment bill before the national assembly for a more definite control by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said this in an exclusive interview with Sunday Tribune on the electoral act amendment.

While they maintained that the electoral law remained key to the 2023 election, the concerned stakeholders say it must be amended to meet public aspiration.

Chairman, African Democratic Congress (ADC) Chief, Ralph Nwosu and Comrade Stella Udobong Women in Politics said this to Tribune Online separately in an interview.

They argued that the delay is hurting the electoral system of Nigeria and the challenge it has now is the time the national assembly has set for itself.

They said that the 2023 election can only hold when the electoral act amendment bill has passed and assented to by the President for usage by the commission.

The president of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan assured that the national assembly will pass the electoral act amendment no July.

For the the stakeholders, there should not be further delay to the amendment of the bill.

Nwosu told Tribune Online: “The delay is hurting the system, APC as a party has been using the mandate they got from the people to deny the people the right to vote.

“They have converted the goodwill of the people to a dictatorship. They have deliberately created an autocracy out of democracy and it is fraudulent.

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“It is for the people to stand up and speak,, I do not see how why a democratic government would be holding back to improve on the democratic system.

The ADC chairman maintained that: “The whole game is a conspiracy between APC the presidency and the national Assembly” but argued further that “Nigerians are watching and it is high time we do good that we can be proud of our democracy. For now, it something else and it is a shame.”

Comrade Stella Udobong of the civil society organisation, Women in Politics, (WIN) said in its of the level of engagement over the amendment between the national assembly and the civil society and the International Parliamentary Union, time was of essence.

She said the deficiency of the act are public knowledge but said the issue of time and political will was paramount.

According to her the civil society body have not gone to sleep about the matter, therefore, it will mount the desired pressure on the national assembly and the executive to do the right thing because it put the 2023 election in a jeopardy.

“I know a lot of engagement are going on and a lot of the women are out speaking about it a lot of programmes on the agencies on women and the International Parliamentary Union (IPUl is doing a lot of engagement with the office of the speaker on this.

“A lot of issues are going on. However, with regards to the limited time, and fact that that they are incumbered in many issues in the country and the ongoing constitutional review.

“Whether they are able to meet up or not, it will not stop the engagement, that is what I know, 

“With the electoral bill, it has been long in coming and we have had a lot of back and fort about it. The political will is an issue, once the political will is not there government will continue to have issues about it.

“For us in the civil society we should not rest on our oars, we should continue to speak about it.  More that the Senate has given her word that it is going to be in July of this year, so, probably in a week to the expiration of the date. We in the civil society can begin to make noise about it.

“We should state that the government should speed up to get this bill done as without the bill there will be no election in 2023. This bill as far as civil society is a concerned is to give pressure on the national assembly as regards the timeline.

“The issue is about the timeline right now as the issues of electoral amendment has already been there and the timeline is all that we are about if they do not get it done now, it is it is not as off they can do it at another time, it is this time that we have.”

“As they are reviewing the constitution, this is something that they should also pass to be in tandem with the constitutional review that is on-going.”

Only recently Lawan repeated the assurance of bills”s passage in a chat with editors. He said “We are also set to pass the Electoral Act amendment Bill this June.

“This bill contains provisions that address identified deficiencies in our electoral process so that we can sustain the progress that is being made in the system under the Fourth Republic.” 

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE