The opposition federal lawmakers in the National Assembly have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to give the much-anticipated assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2022.
The lawmakers under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party National Assembly Caucus made the demand on Tuesday at their meeting with the leadership of the Board of Trustees of the main opposition party.
Both chambers of the National Assembly had on January 25 passed a reworked draft of the Act to include Direct, Indirect and Consensus as options open to political parties to pick their candidates.
The reworked Bill was in deference to the request of President Buhari that the parliament should not restrict political parties to only direct primary as the only option to pick their candidates.
Buhari’s Senior Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Babajide Omoworare, had on Monday confirmed that the Clerk to the National Assembly, Mr Olatunde Amos Ojo, has transmitted the authenticated copies of the Electoral Bill 2022 to President Buhari.
Speaking before the PDP NASS Caucus dissolved into a closed-door meeting, Senator representing Abia South Senatorial district and Leader of the Caucus, Enyinnaya Abaribe, said the National Assembly and Nigerians have exercised enough patience and there was no reason for President Buhari to decline his assent to the Bill.
He said: “We want to urge President Buhari to sign the Electoral Act. Everything he has requested for, we have given to him and we’re hoping that he will sign it.”
Honourable Ndudi Elumelu who is the House Minority Leader spoke in a similar vein as he alleged that there was a gang-up by the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors to frustrate the passage of the Electoral Act.
Elumelu also taunted the ruling party over moribund statutory organs, the absence of Board of Trustees just as he claimed that the conduct of a national convention of the APC has remained like every unfulfilled promise.
“Let me say that it is disheartening that APC just a small council election they have turned it into a battleground.
“Even those who could not win their polling units are fighting themselves instead of administering, they have abandoned their states for just Federal Capital Territory council election even though in the last election the president lost his unit in the villa in the last election so, I wonder why all of them are battling to come and take what they know they can never get, the FCT area Council election.
“Let me also state that we are not like APC. Let me thank the BOT for finding it worthy to come and interact with us. We can never be like them. They have promised Nigerians so many things: N1 to $1 today it is N596 to a Dollar. They have promised Nigeria that farmers would be able to go to the farm and produce good food for us. Today no farmer can go to the various farms because of insecurity. They have promised Nigerians that they will give us good roads but today go to the airport you see crowds because we don’t have good roads. The legacy left by the PDP government is still what we are enjoying today because of failed promises by APC. They are trying to mortgage the future of our children by trying to get China to colonise us. Loan, Loan, Loan. APC is known for loan taking and that is very bad.
“The BOT coming here to interact with us is something that a focused party can do. APC can’t do it, they set out to elect state officers they succeeded in electing 92 chairmen and they have not reconciled them in 36 states plus FCT and they said they are going to do a convention. Let me take Kano, for example, Ganduje is leading some, Shekarau is leading some so I wonder which people are coming for the convention.
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“It is going to be another promise like $1 to N1 and we can go on and on, we are not like them who will go to United Nations and lie that they have built specialists hospitals in 36 states, you know that it is a lie. But for the President of Nigeria to get there and say such a thing, is a big shame.
“We can also go on and on and we will not leave here. Let me tell the Board of Trustees that the two chambers PDP caucuses are doing very well.
“We promise you that just like we have made them, they said they wanted direct primaries, we said if it would mean giving Nigerians a very sound electoral reform we accept, they came back again they said, oh we have rejected. They are the ones rejecting. They say okay, they want indirect we say we agree but give Nigerians electoral reform. They came back again and said they want consensus, we have given them consensus, we have given them consensus again I am hearing that among them, those APC Governors are still plotting for the President not to sign the Act.
“Nigerians are tired of APC, so for coming here we are proud of you people. Your coming has further energised us to know that we are doing the right thing and we will never let you people down.”
Further checks by Nigerian Tribune revealed that the APC NASS Caucus also held a meeting but they refused to talk to journalists at the end of their closed-door gathering which lasted for over three hours.
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