IT seems the two pieces of legislation that are crucial in the tenure of the Ninth National Assembly are the Electoral Act amendment and the Petroleum Industry Bill. Though other bills have their place of importance in the Ninth assembly, these two legislative pieces are deemed crucial in addressing the challenges of the nation both politically and economically. Stakeholders have considered the Electoral Act amendment bill as capable of eliminating weak aspects and loose ends of the Nigerian electoral processes. Aspects of the bill especially those of transfer of result and the penalty to any electoral act offender, are considered by stakeholders as germane to the entire electoral process. They argue that it lends credibility to the process because it eliminates the physical transfer of results from point A to point B. Such provision, stakeholders note, eliminates the tendency for political thugs to intercept the process of conveying ballots and the result from polling unit to collation centre. This also will reduce the possibility of electoral officers being compromised, thereby affecting the sanctity of elections.
Meanwhile, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has maintained that the July deadline for the National Assembly to complete its work on the bill stands. At various fora, Lawan has restated that the twin chamber will treat the bill before proceeding on its annual break. Lawan had recently said: “We are 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.”
However, some stakeholders have challenged the Ninth Assembly to urgently pass the bill so that the law can be tested ahead of 2023. Among others, Chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Ralph Nwosu said the Ninth assembly owes Nigerians the duty to pass the bill so as to checkmate fraud in the nation’s electoral system. Nwosu said: “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. It is for the people to stand up and speak, I do not see how a democratic government would be holding back to improve on the democratic system. The whole game is a conspiracy between APC the presidency and the national Assembly but Nigerians are watching. It is high time we do good that we can be proud of our democracy.”
The Nigerian Women In Politics (WIN) reinforces the importance to pass the bill, to make for a seamless conduct of the 2023 election. Mrs Stella Udobong of WIN viewed the amendment as critical to the conduct or not of the 2023 election. Udobong said: “I know a lot of engagement is going on and a lot of the women are out speaking about. We are also having a lot of engagement with the office of the speaker on this. The bill has been long in coming and we have had a lot of back and forth on it. The political will is an issue; once the political will is not there, government will continue to have dilly-dally on the Electoral Act bill. For us in the civil society, we should not rest on our oars. We should continue to speak about it. More so that the Senate has given her word that it is going to be in June, 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.As they are reviewing the constitution, this is something that they should also pass to be in tandem with the constitutional review that is ongoing.”
While the National Assembly works towards the passage of the electoral amendment bill to ensure the election of leaders of popular choice, the same fervour should be applied towards the passage of the PIB for which a public hearing was held.
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