By Olusegun Olanrewaju
Fresh from a presidential veto, Nigeria’s Electoral Act Amendment Bill is back in the National Assembly with a new template of controversy.
The House of Representatives last week began debating on the provisions of the bill earlier rejected by President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.
However, no sooner had the bill been re-submitted to the federal legislature than new allegations surfaced on alleged discrepancies in content and versions of the document presented for debates at both chambers of the National Assembly.
There were reports the version before the Lower Chamber, the House of Representatives, only contains provisions relating to the contentious issue of a direct mode of primary election. On the other hand, the one before the senate is said to be inclusive of a clause appendage of ‘consensus’ candidate.
Meanwhile, like the hawk baiting for a chick for lunch, governors have opened the wider dragnet of the conflict, declaring their support for, and commending the senate on the consensus option, asking the House of Reps to do the same.
It is not the first time different versions of bills have surfaced in the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly. Tales already abound about ‘budget padding’ and other suspect legislations. Nigerians are now worried about how this has come to be.
At the end of their meeting held on Wednesday in Abuja, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) asked the Reps to ‘re-amend clause 84 of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill by giving room for direct, indirect, and consensus options for nominating candidates for the various political parties in the country.
They also urged the House to do the same by adding the consensus clause, apart from other issues about the nation’s security challenges, health, and food security, among others.
The ‘U-Turn’
The Senate had earlier, on Tuesday, rescinded its decision on making direct primaries the only method of electing candidates by political parties.
The decision was taken a few days after President Muhammadu Buhari had initially said he was ready to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill after the National Assembly makes the necessary adjustments.
The direct primary clause was the main reason Buhari gave for vetoing the bill. In an exclusive interview with Channels Television, the president had justified his refusal, saying he was willing to sign the bill only the legislators would effect changes which, however, must include the addition of consensus candidates and indirect primary options to the mode of selecting a candidate for an election.
Senate Leader, Senator Yahaya Abubakar (Kebbi North) during plenary on Wednesday clamoured for the motion for re-committal of the bill to the Committee on the Whole, saying the request was against the backdrop of the “need to address the observation by Mr. President C-in-C and make a necessary amendment under Order 87(c) of the Senate Standing Orders, 2022 (as amended); and relying on order 1(b) and 52(6) of the Senate Standing Orders, 2022 (as amended).”
Accordingly, the chamber rescinded its decision on the affected Clause of the Bill as passed, and recommitted the same to the Committee of the Whole for consideration and passage.
In the meantime, the House of Representatives had also rescinded its earlier decision on compulsory direct primaries.
However, unlike their counterparts in the Senate, the Reps adopted direct and indirect primaries but expunged the option of consensus candidature.
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Amendments before veto
The Upper Chamber had said it “re-amended” the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021, passed by the National Assembly on November 18, 2021. Accordingly, the chamber in Clause 84(2) of the report approved direct, indirect primaries or consensus as to the procedure for the nomination of candidates by political parties for the various elective political offices, especially as recommended in Clause 84(3) that “a political party that adopts the direct primaries procedure shall ensure that all aspirants are given equal opportunity of being voted for by members of the party and shall adopt the procedure outlined below: (a) In the case of Presidential Primaries, all registered members of the party are to vote for aspirants of their choice at a designated centre at each ward of the federation.”
Another provision is that “similar procedure as in (a) above, shall be adopted for gubernatorial, senatorial, federal and state constituencies.
This states that “Special Conventions should be held to ratify the candidate with the highest number of votes at designated centres at the National, State, Senatorial, Federal and State Constituencies.”
Clause 84(4), it was further stated, provides that “a political party that adopts the system of indirect primaries for the choice of its candidate shall adopt the procedure outlined below; (a) In the case of nominations to the position of Presidential candidate, a political party shall, (i) hold a special presidential convention at a designated centre in the Federal Capital Territory or any other place within the Federation that is agreed to by the National Executive Committee of the party.
In sub-paragraph two (ii), there was a provision for, “the aspirant with the highest number of votes at the end of voting, shall be declared the winner of the presidential primaries of the political party, and the aspirant’s name shall be forwarded to the commission (INEC) as the candidate of the party.”
The amendment, it was gathered, followed a motion for its re-committal to the Committee of the Whole, sponsored by the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi (Kebbi North).
Abdullahi had, in his presentation, recalled that President Buhari had signified withholding his assent on the Electoral Act No. 6 2010 (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2021 which was passed by the National Assembly and forwarded to the President on Thursday, 18th November 2021.
He noted that the rationale for withholding assent bordered on his observation in Clause 84.Buhari, in the letter dated December 13, 2021, and addressed to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, had explained that his decision to withhold assent to the electoral bill was informed by advice from relevant Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs)of the Government after a ‘thorough review’.
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According to the president, signing the bill into law would have serious adverse legal, financial, economic, and security consequences on the country, particularly given Nigeria’s peculiarities.
He added that it would also impact negatively the rights of citizens to participate in government as constitutionally ensured.
Abdullahi, however, explained that the motion for re-committal of the bill to the Committee of the Whole was against the backdrop of the “need to address the observation by Mr. President C-in-C and make a necessary amendment under Order 87(c) of the Senate Standing Orders, 2022 (as amended); and relying on order 1(b) and 52(6) of the Senate Standing Orders, 2022 ( as amended).”
Accordingly, the chamber rescinded its decision on the affected Clause of the Bill as passed and recommit same to the Committee of the Whole for consideration and passage.
The new onslaught
Buhari failed to sign the bill at the end of last year, and after their Christmas/New Year break.
Meanwhile, lawmakers resumed, only to find that several bills were waiting for their attention on the table, including the federal budget and appropriation bill, and until January 18, 2022, which received assent on December 31, 2021. But, of the three considered ‘top legislations’ they needed to prioritise, one of them, the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2021, had earlier been vetoed by the president in November 2021, 2021.
These bills have to be given prime attention because of their impact on politics, the economy, and governance. Take, for instance, the Electoral Amendment Bill; many of us are having a feeling of deja vu because of the similarities to the process that led to the rejection of the 2018 Electoral Act Amendment Bill. The president initially raised issues about three clauses in the 2018 bill.
When that was fixed, he twice raised concerns over drafting errors and cross-referencing gaps and, on the fourth occasion, the president claimed the amendment was done too close to the 2019 general elections, against the advisory of the ECOWAS protocol on democracy for member countries not to tinker with the legal framework for elections six months before the polls.
In 2021, while attempting to pass its version of the bill, the Senate had asked the electoral umpire, INEC, to get approval from the National Communication Commission and National Assembly before it could deploy electronic transmission of results devices, one of the controversial aspects of the electoral act.
Following a public outcry, the Senate recommitted the bill, passing the same version as the House of Representatives, “which had given INEC leeway to deploy the electronic transmission of results device as soon as practicable.”
Meanwhile, some powerful interest groups in the National Assembly had reportedly been teleguided to “to alter section 87 of the Electoral Act 2010, as amended”, which had given political parties the choice of using direct or indirect primaries in the nomination of their candidates.
It was on this proviso that the president hinged his veto on the electoral bill on – the aspect of only direct primaries as candidate nomination process.
That triggered a new wave of public protest, with some alleging that the president was only trying to be safe, or is afraid of electoral reform, preferring the status quo to remain. while others, like the Inter-Party Advisory Council, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, and other power brokers blamed the National Assembly for not consulting widely before altering section 87 of the Act thereby foisting on the political parties a Hobson’s choice. They claim the choice of direct primary is self-serving for federal lawmakers.
The new Reps ‘formula’
On resumption this year, the House of Representatives resolved to pass an electoral bill without a compulsory direct primary clause. It now remains to be seen whether it will join the senate to toe the same line by recommending the aspect of consensus candidacy.
Direct or indirect elections?
There have been back and forth arguments as to which the president should endorse; direct or indirect elections? A former INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, had urged the National Assembly to jettison direct primaries ‘for the moment to ensure that the bill was signed into law before future elections.
Jega said he was making the call given the ‘fact’ that political parties might not have the capacity to effectively implement direct primaries.
He said, “To me, the priority now is to give INEC the law to prepare for the 2023 election and the only way to do that is to drop the provision for direct primaries and give it to the president to sign.”
Many Nigerians have also expressed concern about direct primaries which have found favour only in state governors and party officials.
However, Senate spokesman, Ajibola Basiru, would not pitch camp with those who are alleging a conspiracy among the Presidency, National Assembly, and others to ‘impose’ provisions on the vote. “When we go back, we will look at the options,” he said.
He also denied accusations that the National Assembly did a shoddy job on the bill, following reports of ‘cross-referencing errors’ allegedly contained in the copies transmitted to the president.
Nasarawa State governor, Abdullahi Sule, defended his colleagues, on the allegation of opposing direct primaries merely because it would not allow them to manipulate intra-party elections the same way they did with indirect primaries.
Sule said the governors were only asking that the bill should provide options, including direct primaries, indirect primaries, and consensus.
Desirability of consensus: A lawyer’s view
A lawyer takes a holistic view of the matters contained in the electoral law passage, especially the controversial aspect of the clause on consensus which now stands between the two chambers of the National Assembly.
Mr E.O. Obatayo told ThisNigeria on Friday in his Ikorodu, Lagos-based chamber: “the National Assembly has the powers to invoke its powers to serve as a watchdog on policies or documents sent to it; to review it, scrutinise whether it is genuine, just or not.
“We can’t claim to be practicing democracy and still succumb to consensus. I belong to the school of thought that the consensus issue should not even have been introduced in the first place, if, indeed, we are practicing democracy.
”The constitution says power belongs to the people. We have the power to choose those to represent us at the helm of affairs. By consensus, you are imposing candidates on us. Consensus is nonsense to me. One person can never be greater than all of us. Allow everybody to express their constitutional rights.”
As to whether the Buhari administration is ‘leaguing’ with the National Assembly to contrive the electoral act legislation, Obatayo said, “I may say that the present administration is an offshoot of the past ones; there is no difference from the PDP era. In a true democracy, people must be allowed to choose those to represent them.
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“However, no, there is no fear at hand now. It is just unfortunate that the combination of leaders at the corridors of power is somehow. But who are we to blame? The masses. Not until we start realising it’s time to fight for freedom or right, nobody can do that for us.”
