2019: ‘Why Buhari should be lauded for rejecting electoral Act amendment bill’

The immediate past SA to President Muhammadu Buhari on Justice Reform Sector and National Coordinator, Open Government Partnership (OGP), Chief Juliet Ibekaku-Nwagwu, has said that the President’s rejecting assent to the 2018 Electoral Act Amendment bill is a display of leadership wisdom.

Ibekaku-Nwagwu, who is also the APC Senatorial Candidate, Enugu West Senatorial Zone, said yesterday in Abuja that the President’s decision actually save the country from political implosion and avoiding a booby trap.

She said, “The decision also saved INEC from a booby trap that would have put the commission in a very tight situation. Amending rules that would be applied to the conduct of an election that is barely two months away is a deliberate attempt unconsciously or consciously to raise the stake very high for INEC to meet up with.”

While disagreeing with comments that President Buhari is afraid of the amendments because they essentially checked the APC rigging plans, including the use of underage and alien voters, vote-buying, alteration of results and manipulation of voter register, she said the President could not have been afraid of anyone to take the decision.

“Signing the Bill would have also required INEC reviewing higher its budget for the conduct of the election so that it can accommodate the new requirements by the stipulations of the amended act, which were primarily new electronic requirements that must be acquired before the elections. Apart from an additional cost, which may not be approved by the National Assembly, such new requirements are also not items INEC can work into a supermarket and buy overnight. “Two months is a very short time to implement all the items captured for amendment. So I don’t see Mr. President’s decision as a calculated attempt to hold the nation to ransom, inject crisis into the electoral process and ultimately scuttle the conduct of the 2019 general elections as claimed by the opposition,” she said.

According tom her, such claim is unnecessary, and is rather a calculated attempt to portray Mr. President in a bad light, especially before the international communities.