Deji Elumoye

The recent general election held in the country elicited a lot of reactions from both local and international observers, who posited that the exercise was flawed with the skirmishes that were reported in many parts of the country and canvassed necessary electoral reforms in future polls. These contentious elections therefore formed the basis of discussions among the federal legislators last week as they resumed full legislative work after the general election held on February 23 and March 9 with the lawmakers expressing concern about the way the elections were conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

At the Senate, the lawmakers agreed that the alleged flaws in the polls would be discussed at plenary on Tuesday. The upper legislative chamber had at its last sitting on Wednesday resolved to debate all allegations of irregularities and unconstitutional conducts exhibited by different stakeholders in the just concluded general election in the country.

The debate was to enable the upper chamber of the National Assembly find out the causes of the irregularities and come up with solutions including the possible signing of the last electoral amendment bill that was declined assent by the President.

The resolution was sequel to a motion moved by Senator Dino Melaye (PDP Kogi West), who rose through Order 42 of the senate’s standing rules to move the motion that the Senate must rise against all forms of irregularities and abuses of the law as exhibited in the general election.

According to him, all legislative interventions that are required must be put to work to avert a repeat of the irregularities in future, stressing that the issue was not political, but one which would help curb electoral malpractices in future elections.

“What I am raising this morning has nothing to do with political parties. I want to bring before this Senate, the elections both on the 9th of March and 23rd of February in this country and I believe that the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall not close our eyes to the happenings of those elections.

“I want that election to be debated on this floor. I want to bring a motion to be addressed by this Senate in the next legislative day so that the militarisation of the process, the abuses of this election, will not go undiscussed in this parliament for posterity sake,” he further said.

Melaye added that the motion became imperative “so that solutions can be given and the president can also be properly advised and the electoral Act Amendment Bill be signed into law as we begin to prepare for future elections. This is my prayer. Let it be discussed as a Senate. We will debate and give accounts of what happened in our various senatorial districts with a view to correcting electoral malpractices”, he added.

Some Senators, who objected to the motion, however, tried but failed to stop the Senate from agreeing to debate the issue this week.

Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, was able to prevail on his colleagues to allow the debate to take place even as he assured that partisanship would not be allowed during the debate.

At the House of Representatives, the inconclusive elections in six states of the federation dominated discourse among members. The violence that characterised the general election and the issues of inconclusive elections in six states were extensively debated at the House. It was an issue discussed individually and collectively.

Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, in his opening remarks expressed sadness over the killing of his colleague, Hon Temitayo Olatoye, during the governorship poll in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, saying: “It is unfortunate we lost a member.”

According to him, “For Sugar, we say it is unfortunate, because no one should die the way he died after exercising his civic responsibility as a citizen of this country,” stressing that “assassination during elections or fighting over who should represent the people shouldn’t be what we should embark upon. Rather, election should be peaceful and when we are aspiring to lead, we should do so in the best way and manner possible.”

On his part, the Majority Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, addressed the issue of the recent presidential, National Assembly, governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections, which he noted “were keenly contested, hard-fought but largely free and fair.”

He however did not shy away from the violence that marred the elections in many