By Igho Akeregha
With more civil society groups mobilizing to express their fury over President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, the Center for Transparency, Advocacy, CTA, has accused the President of working to protect parochial interests.

The group said it is concerned and at the same time worried that the president seems to be interested in mundane personal aggrandizement that will benefit a few cabals instead of improving Nigeria’s elections and the integrity of the electoral process across the entire electoral value chain.

A statement by Faith Nwadishi Executive Director, CTA, in Abuja on Monday reminded President Buhari and members of the National Assembly that they are accountable to Nigerians and therefore, the aspirations and wishes of Nigerians must subsume any parochial or selfish interest.

“Importantly, President Buhari and the National Assembly must not be seen as sabotaging the efforts of the Election Management Board and Nigerians by making or encouraging laws that are retrogressive, unproductive, negative and retards the growth of democracy”, Nwadichi stated

The group said it fully supports calls by other CSOs for the National Assembly, in the spirit of patriotism to veto the president and pass the bill into law as a way forward to conducting free, fair, and credible elections that will stand the test of time.

We equally, call on citizens, patriots, civil society, students, religious and traditional leaders to prevail on the National Assembly to do the wishes of the people as we look forward to the 2023 General Elections.

Tracing the turbulent history of the bill, CTA explained that the National Assembly, after many years passed the amended 2010 Electoral Act and passed the same to President Buhari for assent. Sadly, after the mandatory 30 days for assent by the president elapsed yesterday with the president not assenting the bill, the group said it is disappointed that even after a recent interview where Buhari promised to bequeath Nigerians and Nigeria with a transparent electoral process that will deepen the country’s democracy, the president failed yet again to meet the yearnings of Nigerians.

Part of the statement reads: No time would have been more appropriate than the President’s birthday. Nigerians had hoped that President Buhari would have given us the Electoral Act as amended as a birthday gift. This hope was dashed disappointingly.

The 2021 Electoral Bill which seeks to repeal the 2010 Electoral Act as amended was supposed to be a means to improve the electoral process in Nigeria. Recall that in 2018, president Buhari failed to assent to the bill as amended then with the excuse that the time was too close to the 2019 General Election.

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The delay until this time confirmed the fears that the provisions envisaged by the citizens and expectations thereof may be dashed by the actions of the president. Laws are made in the interest and benefit of the people and not for those in power.

The reasoning by the president concerning the provisions on party primaries should not be held unto to truncate the wishes of Nigerians. It may be correct that political parties have the prerogative to determine how their candidates emerge whether by direct or indirect primaries but not enough reason not to sign the bill into law by the president.

The statement added that President Buhari had enough time to return the bill to the National Assembly to restore such powers to the political parties as soon as he received the bill and asked for an expeditious amendment if he wished, but he failed to do so.