Experts have called on the National Assembly to fast-track the reworking of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill and resend to President Muhamadu Buhari for his assent ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The call comes as the parliamentarians resume the 2022 legislative session from Tuesday (tomorrow).
The experts, who spoke with BusinesDay, also want the lawmakers to expedite action on other bills seeking to address the insecurity situation in the country, tackle socio-economic woes of Nigerians, and accelerate the process of the review of the 1999 Constitution for which zonal public hearings were held last year.
Auwal Rafsanjani, the executive director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and Christian Okeke, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, made the call in an interview with BusinessDay on the agenda for the parliament in 2022.
The House of Representatives, particularly, had proceeded on Christmas and New Year break on December 21, the day President Muhammadu Buhari’s letter rejecting the Electoral Act Amendment Bill was read on the floor and is to resume plenary as well as other legislative activities tomorrow.
Buhari had in the letter justified his decision to withhold assent to the bill on the “amendment of section 87 of the Electoral Act, 2010 to delete the provision for the conduct of indirect primaries in the nomination of party candidates such that party candidates can henceforth only emerge through direct primaries”.
The President argued that the conduct of direct primaries across the 8,809 wards across the length and breadth of the country will lead to a significant spike in the cost of conducting primary elections by parties and increase the cost of monitoring such elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which 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 the huge financial burden on both the political parties, lNEC and the economy in general at a time of dwindling revenues.
“The indirect consequences or the issues of high cost and monetisation 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,” Buhari insisted.
Read also: N/Assembly tasked on Electoral Act, security bills, constitutional review
Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of the House of Representatives had in his address to mark the last plenary session of the year 2021, said the House would take action on the returned bill when it resumes from Christmas and New Year break in 2022.
Setting the agenda for the National Assembly, Rafsanjani called on the legislature to ensure that President Muhammadu Buhari fast-track assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill as a matter of democratic importance and national urgency.
“This includes prompt and targeted legislative action to address the concerns raised by the President and retransmission of the bill for immediate assent. We on this note reiterate our position that the bill is critical to upholding the nation’s electoral accountability, credibility and integrity while restoring the democratic core values,” he said.
The CISLAC executive director also urged the National Assembly to prioritise legislative oversight and significant bills aimed at addressing the worsening insecurity in the country, saying; “we cannot conceal the dread impacts of rising insecurity in the country, giving the persistent killings, kidnappings and attacks on innocent citizens by the armed groups.
He observed that: “Despite the exorbitant annual budgetary allocation to defence, security and intelligence gathering, Nigerians have so far observed neither significant improvement in the nation’s security nor accountability of defence spending. Defence procurement and spending has hitherto been soaked in corruption and buried in secrecy, and this is enabled by inadequate oversight activities and lack of appropriate sanction by the National Assembly. We demand extensive legislative oversight, review and sanction of the defence procurement and budget.”
He called for the immediate legislative actions for the passage of “Explosives Bill, 2021 and Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons Bill, 2021; Armed Forces Act (Amendment) Bill 2021, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps Act (Amendment) Bill 2021, Police Act (Amendment) Bill 2021, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps Act, 2007 (Amendment) Bill 2021, and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act (Amendment) Bill 2021.”
On his part, Okeke suggested that the National Assembly should focus on the people and pull them out of their harrowing experience through legislative inputs and hold the executive to account.
According to the political scientist, most Nigerians believe that the current National Assembly has not lived up to the expectation in the areas of monitoring how the country is administered by the executive, but the parliament can make up for its alleged failures from 2022 to 2023.
“The parliament has not made the executive to square up to issues of insecurity, corruption, poverty, unemployment, inflation, recklessness and so forth. It has also not been able to enforce the application of the federal character principle in the country.
“The National Assembly has watched with less to no action as many Nigerians suffer untold hardship, go to bed daily on an empty stomach, lack access to adequate healthcare, electricity, safe drinking water and jobs. Promises made were not kept; internally-displaced persons continue to languish at various camps.
“Today, terrorism, kidnapping, banditry, ritual killings and other evil have taken over the geopolitical space. Many people believe that the ship of the country has drifted farther and quicker than ever imagined. Many citizens have lost hope in Project Nigeria,” he said.
