Buhari must sign Electoral Act to leave legacy – Salvador

Moshood Salvador, the leader of Conscience Forum, a group within the All Progressives Congress (APC) Lagos State chapter, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the 2021 amended Electoral Act into law to solve the myriad of problems bedevilling the electoral system in Nigeria.

Salvador said the President would leave a lasting legacy for generations unborn if he signed the Electoral Act into law while advising the National Assembly to remove the controversial direct primaries clause since the President was opposed to it.

The former member of the House of Representatives stated this yesterday at the forum’s meeting in Lagos, saying electorate reforms were vital to guarantee good governance in Nigeria.

According to him, “Nigerians are clamouring for their votes to count, but we can see unforeseen hands trying to discourage the President from signing the amended Electoral Act. The people that don’t want that to happen don’t talk about the good clause. Let us explain, we need to advise the President to follow the tenet of Democracy, we can get the best from the people.

“And electronic transmission is the answer to rigging, the old system is not working; it is the main reason that makes elected officers careless about the electorates because their votes don’t count. But I can tell you with that law all the electoral fraud would be removed.

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“When this happens, loss of lives, properties and fraud would be reduced, because human involvement would be removed for technology. The amendment doesn’t need to impose direct primaries on parties, it is to the electronic transmission of results that would teach them”.

Speaking further, the APC chieftain urged President Buhari to fulfill his election promises to people living with disabilities, saying that persons living with disabilities are suffering as a result of exclusion by the government.

He advised the President to use the remaining 18 months of his administration to address the needs of the physically challenged in Nigeria.

“Our physically challenged people are very many here and the President also promised them and I would advise my president to advise all governors to promise to use this remaining 18 months of office to give support to all these physically challenged people.

“You will see people constructing houses without considering people using wheelchairs to get into the house. These are things we want the government to look into and make sure they consider all these good things for our people”.

Salvador added that the President must initial programs to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians, suggesting that jobs should be created for the youths.

“We must remind him what we are observing in the street, poor people are suffering, inflation is up and the banks are making things difficult for Nigerians”, Salvador added.