Tobi Adebayo
A former Kogi State Senator, Dino Melaye has said that he will lead a protest against President Muhammadu Buhari should he refuse to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
Melaye said this during an interview with Channels Television on Tuesday.
The controversial politician said that the protest will be a “never-seen-before” kind, adding that he was not afraid of anybody.
“If Buhari refuses to sign the electoral bill, he will know that Nigeria is not the Banana Republic. I will lead Nigerians to the streets for protest. A kind of protest you have not seen before and I am not afraid of anybody. This country belongs to all of us.
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“Everything needed to revive this country is dependent on our electoral processes, once we don’t get that right, everything will continue to go wrong.
“I am for direct primary because democracy is supposed to be a government of the people by the people and for the people. Asking delegates to determine the faith of millions of people, is not democracy,” Melaye said.
ThisNigeria reported that President Buhari, in a letter to the Senate, formally declined assent to the 2021 Electoral Act Amendment Bill passed by the National Assembly.
“The party is to conduct direct primary elections for the presidential, governorship, and legislative posts.
”The addition of these costs is already a huge cost of conducting the general election and will inevitably leave a huge financial burden on both the political parties, INEC and the economy in general at a time of dwindling revenues.
“Conducting and monitoring direct primaries in the 8,809 wards will pose huge security challenges as the security agencies will also be overstretched as direct primary will open participation to all and a sundry, as such large turnout without effective security coordination will also engender intimidation and disruption, thereby raising credibility issues for outcomes of such elections.
”The proposed amendment will also give rise to pretorial of litigations, this is based on the issues of law, including the existing constitutions of various registered political parties by INEC.
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“These real possibilities will, without doubt, truncate the electoral programme of the nation as another electoral exercise imminent toward a change of government in 2023.
“In the premise of the above, I hereby signify to the National Assembly that I am constrained to withdrawal assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2021 in line with provisions of section 58 (1) and (4) of the 1999 constitution as amended.
“It is my considered position that the political parties should be allowed to freely exercise the right of choice in deciding which of direct or indirect primaries to adopt in the conduct of their primary elections.
“Please accept the assurances of my highest consideration,” the letter read in part.
