In the Name of Politics
President Muhamamdu Buhari’s refusal to assent to the Electoral Act amendment bill appears a decision informed more by political considerations than the stated constitutional reasons, writes Olawale Olaleye
For an inauspicious second time, President Muhammadu Buhari last week vetoed some of the proposed alterations to the Electoral Act amendment bill, this time citing likely constitutional infraction. These drafting issues, the president reportedly said could affect the interpretation and application of the principal act.
In separate communications to the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and the Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, Buhari held that some of the provisions of the bill could adversely affect the operations of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), with the elections just a few months away.
Curiously, the veto, in a sense meant a rejection of some of the other critical clauses in the amendment bill, including the use of electronic card readers for the conduct of the 2019 general election; the constitutional intervention into unintended succession crisis as was experienced in the case of Kogi State governorship election and also not reckoning outright, the issue of the timing for party primaries, which proposes a time not earlier than 120 days and not later 90 days to the elections.
Although the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang, who confirmed the development, had also maintained that a third bill on the same subject passed on July 24, 2018, was still pending before the president, close watchers of the polity have said the president’s decision could awfully impair a credible electoral process.
Unfortunately, when this is compared to some of the recent events in the nation, what it brings to mind is the failed third term agenda, alleged to have been proposed then by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Apart from the third term agenda of that year, which the entire nation had vehemently opposed, the constitution amendment of 2006 had several other critical and important provisions that were germane to the development and growth of the nation but thrown out altogether, thus discarding the baby with the bath water.
Relatedly, Buhari’s rejection of the Electoral Act amendment bill has thrown out three very important issues that could have not only helped with a credible 2019 elections and thrown up impressive process, but addressed some unintended electoral shortfalls that might crop up as Nigeria progresses in her journey of nation building.
For instance, the card reader remains one important factor in a largely credible election. Recall that the election of the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike was thrown out at both the Tribunal and Appeal Court levels, but it was upheld at the Supreme Court, because of the factor of card reader, which the apex court refused to admit as part of the process. But the rejected amendments would have addressed the issue.
However, with Buhari’s refusal to assent to the bill, what it means is that the floor might have been opened to all sorts of manipulations, including conjuring figures and numbers to make up for a certain candidate and party.
The controversial emergence of the Kogi State Governor, Yahya Bello, is still fresh in people’s minds. Bello, who came second during the party primaries, was picked to replace the late former governor of the state, Abubakar Audu, who died before he was declared winner of the 2016 elelction as governor in 2016.
The development, which created an emergency constitutional crisis, had left the filling of the vacuum at the mercy of the already biased political leadership of the party and state, which bypassed Audu’s running mate, Hon. James Faleke and settled for Bello, who was not part of the campaigns, to inherit the collective effort of Audu and Faleke.
Of course, the reason the rejected amendment bill proposed that the conduct of party primaries should be at a time not earlier than 120 days and not later than 90 days to the main election, was to contain the issue of time that might creep into the process. But this too was thrown out for sheer political considerations.
Interestingly, when these issues were allegedly raised by Senator Abubakar Kyari from Borno North during a meeting between the APC leadership and senators elected on the platform of the party penultimate Monday in Abuja, National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshimhole, was said to have told them that the decision was imperative for political reasons, because they would not take a decision that could give the opposition undue advantage.
Sadly, what the whole power game signifies is nothing altruistic but an engagement that seems to massage their ego and protect the interest of a few at the collective expense of the masses. The throwing out of the amendment bill will naturally take its toll on the 2019 elections, evidently indicating again, that nothing instructive has been learnt by this rather self-serving crop of political class.