Diplomatic Community Meets, Writes N’Assembly over Draft Electoral Law

• Urges caution, need to deepen democracy • Lawmaker alleges 20 illegal insertions to rig 2023 election

A recent alleged attempt to tamper with the country's draft electoral law might have attracted the attention of the diplomatic community, which met last week with the leadership of the National Assembly and followed up with a private letter appealing to the lawmakers to do all within their powers to deepen democracy through the current effort at amending the Electoral Act.

This development followed an uproar generated by reports that there was an attempt by a section of the National Assembly leadership to smuggle certain clauses into the draft electoral law banning

electronic transfer of election results, even though the same section agreed to an electronic voting system.

A meeting between the National Assembly leadership and a group of five foreign envoys, including the European Union, led by the United Kingdom held last week. The foreign missions expressed concerns over the electoral law review and urged the lawmakers to do their best to ensure that the gains of the over two decades of democratic experience were not wasted.

To further register their concern and the readiness to assist in the democratic process, the diplomatic community, allegedly, followed up with a letter, where some of the concerns expressed at the meeting were put in black and white.

According to National Assembly sources privy to the meeting as well as the letter, the countries, included the United Kingdom, France, United States, and the European Union. They noted that they did not intend to interfere with Nigeria’s electoral system, but were genuinely concerned about the possibility of losing the gains of the past.

While urging the National Assembly leadership to bequeath to the country a legacy of strong and sound electoral system, they contended that it was not in the interest of the country and their foreign allies to lag behind in the collective effort to entrench a solid culture of democracy.

Specifically, the EU was said to have noted at the meeting that the support they give to Nigeria over the years was to ensure the entrenchment of a lasting democratic culture. It cited such support to include logistics and trainings.

The EU explained that the idea was to deepen the country's democratic process and not shut it down, adding that the amendment process is expected to advance the electoral system.

Meanwhile, there have been different theories on those likely to be behind the attempt to tamper with the electoral law, just as the move has already begun to divide the political class, including the lawmakers. Many federal legislators have denied knowledge of the illegal insertion of anti-people clauses.

But fingers are being pointed at the leadership of the National Assembly. Many of National Assembly members are believed to be readying to seek election in other capacities in 2023.

Supporters of a popular politician in the South-west are also believed to be divided over the matter, making the issue one of the most sensitive political concerns at the moment.

Sources hinted that while some politicians believed that the electronic transfer of results could undercut their chances in the election, there were those who held the view that it was the only way to put their traducers in check since the road to 2023 appears to be rough lready.

Another party source, who was opposed to the controversial insertions, said the excuses being pushed against electronic transfer of results did not hold water. This, he said, was because if network was the issue, INEC had since assured that where the network failed and voting had been done, the results would automatically download once network came on.

Contending that electronic transfer of results would be the best thing to happen to the country's electoral system, the source maintained that Nigeria would be better off dealing with the failure of the initiative than sticking with the analogue mode of transferring election results, which is generally believed to be prone to manipulation.

Lawmaker Alleges 20 Illegal Insertions to Rig 2023 Election

A member of the House of Representatives from Benue State, Hon. Mark Terseer Gbillah, alleged that the Senate made 20 illegal insertions into the 2021 Electoral Bill under consideration in the National Assembly. Gbillah said the insertions were part of a larger scheme to rig the 2023 general election.

The lawmaker who was chairman of the House committee involved in the harmonisation of the bill, and who was deputy chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), also condemned the three per cent allocation to oil producing communities by the Senate in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), describing it as "unfortunate and ridiculous". He rejected the 30 per cent clause in the PIB for "frontier exploration", which he said was an invitation to corruption and remained unacceptable.

Speaking on Arise TV, Gbillah insisted that the Senate inserted 20 clauses that were not originally part of the Electoral Bill in the Senate version after harmonisation by the two chambers.

Gbillah stated, "Let me go to the issue of Electoral Act. Chairman of the committee in the house mentioned and told our colleagues that she was not aware of any changes for the initial harmonised act of both chambers.

"Obviously, there is an insertion. I can confirm that about 20 clauses have been inserted and it is alleged that it was inserted from the senate version. I want to say that we are at a point in the country, where you should not be playing politics with this issue in this country.

"I wonder why people think that they are going to stay in power in perpetuity. Tomorrow, it will be somebody else; we need to leave a legacy for our country. We need to leave a legacy for our nation. The world is moving forward and we are still deliberating on electronic transmission, when it is something that is a forgone issue in other nations.

"We in the opposition are insisting that the issue of electronic transmission is sacrosanct and we suspect that those insertions were intentional, premeditated so that this Electoral Act will be contentious and won't be passed so that in the upcoming elections, the ability to rig and manipulate the result of the election will be possible.

"This is unfortunate. This is something we are going to resist. We call on Nigerians to rise up, for this is the time, when they should take responsibility for the people they have elected to represent them. The servants cannot dictate to the owners.

“Nigerians, you need to rise up and make your voices heard and some of us are there to support your position and to pursue what is best for this country."

On the three per cent allocation to the oil producing communities and 30 per cent provision for frontier exploration in the PIB, to which Niger Delta governors and stakeholders have objected, Gbillah said, "The issue of PIB percentages, these are all issues we believe need to be looked at. We are not immediately affected by the production now but the Benue trough is one of the initial siting of oil. We believe in equity and we believe in justice, the people of the Niger Delta have been saddled with this issue for several decades.

"The environment has been destroyed. Three per cent is inadequate and the senate even made it much worse, which in my opinion is unfortunate and ridiculous. The 30 per cent for frontier exploration is unacceptable. It is not money that can be accounted for."