Two major legislations that will be focused upon by both chambers of the National Assembly on resumption today, are the 2021 Electoral Bill and Report on Constitution Review. TAIYE ODEWALE reports.
Electoral bill
The required laws, rules and regulations inform of an Act, that will guide the conduct of the 2023 general elections when passed and assented to by the President; will be the first legislation to be considered by both chambers of the National Assembly this week.
Need for urgent action
This is, moreso, going by the fact that in meeting up with the time frame allowed for such legislation as guidelines for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for conduct of elections, the National Assembly had in November 2021, passed and transmitted the bill to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.
However, President Buhari after 30 days of critically studying provisions of the proposed legislation, picked holes in section 87 which made Direct Primaries, mandatory for all political parties for election or selection of candidates for any office in the general election.
The President in letters of refusal of assent separately addressed to the President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan and Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, gave four broad reasons for refusing to sign the bill into law.
According to him, the section which recommends only direct mode of primaries for all political parties in the election or nomination of candidates for general elections, has legal, financial, economic and security consequences that cannot be accommodated at this moment in the country based on glaring peculiarities on ground.
The President in the letter dated 13th December, 2021 said: “The conduct of direct primaries across the 8,809 war the length and breadth of the country will lead to a significant spike in the cost of conducting primary elections by parties as well as increase in the cost of monitoring such elections by INEC who has to deploy monitors across these wards each time a party is to conduct direct primaries for the presidential, gubernatorial and legislative posts.
“The addition of these costs with the already huge cost of conducting general elections will inevitably lead to huge financial burden on both the political parties, INEC and the economy in general at a time of dwindling revenues.
“The indirect consequences of the issues of high cost and monetization are that it will raise financial crimes and constitute further strain on the economy. It will also stifle smaller parties without the enormous resources required to mobilise all party members for the primaries. This is not healthy for the sustenance of multi-party democracy in Nigeria.
“In addition to increased costs identified above, conducting and monitoring primary elections across 8,809 wards will pose huge security challenges as the security agencies will also be overstretched, direct primaries will be open to participation from all and sundry and such large turn-out without effective security coordination will also engender intimidation and disruptions, thereby raising credibility issues for the outcomes of such elections.
“The amendment as proposed is a violation of the underlying spirit of democracy which is characterized by freedom of choices.
“Political party membership is a voluntary exercise of the constitutional right to freedom of association. Several millions of Nigerians are not card-carrying members of any political party.
“Thus, the emphasis should be on enabling qualified Nigerians to vote for the candidate of their choice during general elections as a means of participation in governance and furtherance of the concept of universal adult suffrage or universal franchise.
“The proposed amendment may also give rise to plethora of litigations based on diverse grounds and issues of Law including but not limited to the fact that the proposed amendment cannot work in retrospect given that the existing constitution of the Parties already registered with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) permits direct, indirect and the consensus primaries. This real possibility, will, without doubt, truncate the electoral programme of the nation as another electoral exercise is imminent towards a change of government in 2023.
“Nigeria is at the moment still grappling with the issues of monetization of the political process and vote buying at both party and general elections. The direct implication of institutionalising only direct primaries is the aggravation of over-monetization of the process as there will be much more people a contestant needs to reach out to thereby further fuelling corruption and abuse of office by incumbent contestants who may resort to public resources to satisfy the increased demands and logistics of winning party primaries.
“Direct primaries are also subject or susceptible to manipulation or malpractices as most parties cannot boast of reliable and verified Membership Register or valid means of identification which therefore means non-members can be recruited to vote by wealthy contestants to influence the outcome. Rival parties can also conspire and mobilize people to vote against a good or popular candidate in a party during its primaries just to pave way for their own candidates. Whereas where voting is done by accredited delegates during indirect primaries, the above irregularities are not possible.
“Asides its serious adverse legal, financial, economic and security consequences, the limitation or restriction of the nomination procedures available to political parties and their members constitutes an affront to the right to freedom of association. It is thus undemocratic to restrict the procedure or means of nomination of candidates by political parties, as it also amounts to undue interference in the affairs of political parties.
“Indirect primaries or collegiate elections are part of internationally accepted electoral practices. More so, direct primaries are not free from manipulations and do not particularly guarantee the emergence of the will of the people especially in circumstances like ours where it is near impossible to sustain a workable implementation framework or structure thereof.
“In the premise of the above, I hereby signify to the National Assembly that I am constrained to withhold assent to the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2021 in line with the provisions of Section 58(1) & (4) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
“It is my considered position that the political parties should be allowed to freely exercise right of choice in deciding which of direct or indirect primaries to adopt in the conduct of their primary elections as their respective realities may permit”.
Apparently jolted by the letter, the Senate in particular before embarking on Christmas and new year break, held series of closed meetings on appropriate reaction to be taken on President’s letter of refusal of assent but ended up to wait till today (January 18, 2022), after much consultations must have been taken with constituents and critical stakeholders.
Going by realities on ground, unlike in December last year when preponderance of opinions on the issue from the various civil society groups and public commentators, called for override of Mr President’s veto, the popular opinion know is for both Chambers to quickly rework the bill by widen scope of options in section 87(2) as far as party primaries are concerned.
The most recent of such advice was the one made by the immediate past Chairman of INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega two days ago in Abuja at the Town Hall meeting organised by YIAGA Africa.
“With the way the provisions of the bill stands, the National Assembly should do the needful rather than contemplating overriding the President by removing the contentious provisions”, he said.
Aside Electoral Bill, another important legislation that will be given attention to by both chambers of the National Assembly is report from their different ad-hoc committees on Constitution Review.
Both the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives in their separate remarks before adjourning in December, said the reports were overdue for consideration.
But as earlier analysed, the one Nigerians are eager to know next line of action. is the rejected 2010 Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2021.
In resuscitating it, whichever way, both chambers of the National Assembly want to go on the bill, time will definitely tell.
