House Committee on Service, Hon Oghene Emma Egoh has said overriding the president where he vetoes the updated version of the Electoral Act amendment bill sent to him by the National Assembly could be difficult.
Hon Oghene who represents Amuwo-Odofin federal constituency in Lagos State said the issues of religion, region and ethnicity would come to play during such consideration.
Hon. Oghene Egoh said this on Friday while responding to questions from the panellist on the Channels Tv morning show monitored by our correspondent.
He maintained that the National Assembly has acted on the side of the people and sent the Electoral Act amendment bill to the President to accommodate all options for elections of candidates by any political party and the in us now rest with the President to act in accordance with public expectation, a tenet of democracy.
His words: “National Assembly, has listened to the yearnings if Nigeria, like we said, that section was not there, we came back, and said okay, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), you said you can do electronic voting, we gave INEC all the power to use electronic voting or whatever system they are going to use to make the election more transparent.
So, we listened to the yearnings of Nigerians. The ball is now in the court of Mr President. We cannot legislate and be the ones to assent to it the law. All we can do is to wait for the Presidency, if the period passes, we may sit back and say wait a moment, this is what Nigerians want, let us override the President.
“Let us see how it goes further, I cannot sit here and say what will happen. What I can say is that the National Assembly is a responsible organisation, they know that Nigerians are looking forward to them, they know that they are put there on behalf of Nigerians, and they swore to an oath to uphold the constitution of the Country.
“I believe we will see it through but do not forget that we need a two-thirds majority, to override President Veto.
“So, it will not be very easy for to sit down here and say, we will do it. Like I said in one of my interviews when you are doing a veto in a big country like this where you have over 200 million people, and with 360 members in the sitting, it is a bit complex, so many things come to play.
“Some of them have the interest of Nigerians but things like tribalism come in; things like religious difference comes in; geopolitical zone comes in and party interest also comes in but I am sure that the National Assembly will do what Nigerians want.
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