By James Orji
Strong indications emerged, on Monday, that President Muhamamdu Buhari has pitched his tent with the All Progressives’ Congress, APC governors on the Electoral Bill sent to him by the National Assembly.
Buhari, it was learnt, has decided to tow the path of the 19 APC governors who have been making serious effort to prevail on the president not to sign the amended Electoral Bill. If the president chose to listen to the governors on the issue, it will polarise the party and pit him against the pliant National Assembly, watchers of political events in the country said.
This suggestion has become even stronger with the comment, on Monday by Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the president on Media and Publicity, that Buhari can choose not to sign the bill.
Adesina said Buhari’s “reputation as somebody who wants to leave clean elections for Nigeria has already been made whether the electoral act is signed or not. It doesn’t distract from that reputation.”
Many insist that Adesina’s comment, barely a week after Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state said the president will reject the bill, is a strong signal that Buhari will turn down his assent.
‘Adesina speaks for the president. Whatever he says represents the official position of the presidency, that cannot be taken with a pinch of salt. The rumour has mounted for days that president Buhari, based on the governors’ pressure will not sign the bill. What Adesina just said points to Aso rock’s position on the bill, no more no less,” an analyst said on Monday.
Speaking last week, the Rivers’ helmsman said there were clear signs that the president will refuse his assent.
According to Wike “He will not sign it. I’m very sure. The signs are there. This Nigeria, sometimes I wonder why we belabour ourselves on certain things. Look at it very well. If you work with a system, you must understand that system — the pattern.
“When that issue came out between the governors and the legislators, I just laughed and I told myself ‘why are you worried about this?’ The president will not sign it — it’s dead on arrival.
“They merely created that let there be a decision. They have now passed it on to INEC. When has INEC become Buhari that will say you can do this or you cannot do this — to choose which law is good or bad?
“What they are pushing is for INEC to come up and say ‘look, the cost implication will be this’. And then Buhari will now dwell on that and say ‘based on security implications or the cost of this, I will not do this’.
“Yes, the president has always said so many things; that he wants to leave a legacy for Nigeria. One of the legacies he wants to leave is to conduct a transparent election. In 2019, why did they not sign the electoral amendment that called for this electronic transmission? The same thing is going to happen. They have told him ‘your party will be affected; your party is gone’. I know the president will not sign”, Wike said.
Since the Bill was sent to the president on November 19, there had been uncertainty on the president’s part, on whether he will object to the bill or not. This even becomes more so, as the APC governors were believed to be mounting serious pressure on him to reject the bill.
The issue became more interesting following reports that the president had consulted the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami’s, SAN and the Independent National Electoral Commission, to advise him on the matter.
Sources said INEC has replied the president that the thorny issue of direct primary will deepen democracy in the country, while Malami “has yet to send his advisory to the president because his opinion, as the chief law officer of the nation matters a lot, as the president will likely make his decision based of what Malami says ion the matter,’ a presidency source said.
The governors have been criticized by many because of the enormous influence they weigh when it comes to choosing candidates for their parties through the indirect election process where delegates are singlehandedly picked to choose candidates who will represent the party. This process, many believe allows the governors to bribe or bully delegates to vote for their candidates, which in most cases are not popular in their constituencies.
Therefore, the new bill, if eventually signed will whittle down such influence, political pundits say, because it will allow constituencies to select their candidates directly.
But the ways things are presently, the president is not likely to ditch the governors who have a strong hold on the party, and are prepared to do everything on their path to ensure that the president listen to them.
