By Igho Akeregha, Abuja Bureau Chief, and Seyi Odewale, Lagos
As President Muhammadu Buhari declined signing the amended Electoral Act bill into law within the 30 days window, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike yesterday said the National Assembly lacks the temerity to veto the President.

Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, had on Sunday confirmed that the position of the presidency on the matter had been communicated to the National Assembly.

However, Wike accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of arranging a scheme to deny Nigerians free, fair, and transparent election in 2023.

Wike’s comment came in the wake of an assertion by a prominent lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mike Ozekhome, that the controversial bill could still become legal even if the president refused to sign it into law.

The governor said the only way for Nigerians not to repeat what he called “the 2015 and 2019 mistakes of voting the APC led Federal Government into power” is to send the ruling APC packing in 2023.

Wike spoke at the flagging off of Chokocho-Igbodo Road in Rivers State performed by Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State yesterday in Etche local government area.

He recalled how most people did not believe him when he raised the concerns that President Buhari would not sign the Electoral Act amendment bill into law to give legal impetus to electronic transmission of election results.

“Three weeks ago, I told Nigerians that there is a conspiracy not to have a free, fair, transparent election in 2023, and that conspiracy was very clear. And I told Nigerians, Mr President will not sign the Electoral Act amendment bill.”

Wike said that having known the modus operandi, style, and strategy of the APC, it was obvious to him and all discerning minds that the clause on direct primaries was inserted into the Electoral Act amendment bill as a ploy for the president to refuse assent to the bill.

According to him, “APC members are afraid that if results are transmitted electronically, they will not survive the 2023 general elections”.

“What APC resolved in the meeting they had was that their problem is not necessarily direct primaries, but the electronic transmission of result in 2023. If they allow that APC will lose the election in 2023, and they told themselves that the only way we can survive that is to include the direct primaries in the bill so that Mr President can use that as an excuse, that he will not sign the bill.”

The governor accused APC governors and their National Assembly members of deceiving Nigerians that they were engaged in a battle of supremacy over the issue of direct primaries, “whereas they had secretly agreed to scuttle the possibility of transmitting election results electronically in 2023.”

“Unfortunately, the National Assembly does not have what it takes to veto the president’s refusal to assent to the bill,” he said.

In Wike’s opinion, the lawmakers are not interested in protecting the interest of Nigerians and ensuring that elections are free and fair with the electronic transmission of election results.

“Unfortunately, you don’t have a National Assembly that has what it takes, that will stand for the people, that will say, look, we were elected by the people, and we want to give the people the best. Nobody in the National Assembly, not even the leadership, can have what it takes to say, Mr President, in the interest of Nigerians, we are going to veto this your refusal.”

The governor further averred that, because the APC does not consider the interest of Nigerians as a priority, its leaders are immersed in crisis, “jostling for benefits that fan their egos”.

According to Wike, the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) is different “because it is waxing stronger as a true political party, and working every day in improving the socio-economic conditions of the people in PDP-controlled states.

Ozekhome’s position
However, a human rights lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), yesterday added his voice to the raging controversy on the non-signing of the electoral act bill by the president.

Ozekhome said the National Assembly could override President Buhari if he refused to sign the amended Electoral Act Bill.

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The nation’s constitution, he said, empowers the National Assembly to do so “in case the president fails to assent any bill sent to him for assent.”

Ozekhome, who had joined other prominent Nigerians to x-ray the implications of the refusal to sign the bill, raised doubts, wondering why the president “would not grab such opportunity to append his signature to a bill that will help address all the challenges being faced in the country since the inception of the present administration.”

The learned silk, who spoke on a television programme in Lagos monitored by ThisNigeria yesterday, said the president should have assented to the bill before the deadline, which had been stipulated by the constitution.

Ozekhome said he had feared that the president might not assent to the bill.

“Let me say this very clearly, I don’t think President Buhari will assent to that bill. I want to be proven wrong for once because all my predictions about this government have always come to pass,” he said.

He added: “There shouldn’t be this fear that today (Sunday) is the last day that the president must assent to the bill, because it was sent to him on the 19th of November. People think that the 19th of December makes it 30 days, No. For you to know how to calculate days in an enactment for an Act to be done, you have to go to what we call the Interpretation Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004. Under Sections 2 and 3 of the Interpretation Act, when an Act is to be done, you leave out the day when the Act is to be done and start calculating from the next day. So, in law, you start calculating from 20th November 2021, not from 19th of November.”

He, however, said members of the ninth National Assembly might disappoint the country since they have always granted the president’s requests each time he made such a request. But according to him, all hopes are not lost as the National Assembly has the power under the Constitution to override the president’s veto.

“You have to go to Sections 58, 59, and 4 of the constitution. The constitution gives the legislative powers of the nation to the National Assembly made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. That Section 4 gives power to the National Assembly to make laws for the peace, order, and good governance of Nigeria. It doesn’t say for the insecurity, disunity, or mismanagement of the country.”

Ozekhome added: “That means whatever steps the National Assembly takes must be to advance the democratic course of Nigeria towards better governance and dividend of democracy. So, under Sections 58 and 59, when the President vetoes a bill sent to him by the National Assembly, all hope is not lost. Those sections empower the National Assembly to override that veto by the President through a two-third majority vote.,” he said.

“And the law is that the bill shall become law without the assent or signature of the president. The question is, will Mr President miss this opportunity to put his signature on an amended electoral bill that will help to override all the challenges we have been seeing, particularly in the last six years? Will he miss this golden and historic opportunity to put his signature on an Act that will advance the course of democracy?”

Meanwhile, more civil society groups are mobilising to express their fury over the President’s refusal to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.

Centre for Transparency Advocacy, CTA, 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.

Executive Director, CTA, Faith Nwadishi, reminded the President and members of the National Assembly that they are accountable to Nigerians and therefore, the aspirations and wishes of the citizens must subsume any parochial or selfish interest.

Feelers from the presidency
There is a general belief that the president withdrew his assent based on the dichotomy principally because of the interests of the legislative and executive arms of government, especially National Assembly members and the state governors.

This is henpecked on the controversy over the direct primary clause in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill which fire is still billowing on the political plane.

Special Assistant, Femi Adesina had earlier in December stated that President Muhammadu Buhari may sign the bill as passed and transmitted to him on November 19 by the National Assembly.

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The presidential spokesman hinted that the memo sent by the National Assembly to the president on the act was receiving consideration preparatory to assent.