AdminEnsuing political horse-trading among All Progressives Congress (APC) governors and members of the National Assembly as well as the aligning media reports in the last two days have confirmed PBA’s ground-breaking December 1 exclusive which revealed how and why President Muhammadu Buhari declined assent to the 2021 Electoral Amendment Bill in its present form. The exclusive report had authoritatively revealed that the president had caved in to pressure from political interests and would not sign the Bill until the provision for a ‘costly’ intra-party election (direct primaries) was expunged. The House of Representatives has invited the Independent National Electoral Commission to appear before it next week.
TWO days after Prime Business Africa (PBA) reported exclusively that, following quiet advice from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) Abubakar Malami, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari had declined to sign the Electoral Amendment Bill as passed and submitted by the National Assembly on November 19, 2021, subsequent reports on Friday confirmed pressure on Nigerian lawmakers over the document.
The multimedia organisation had reported that governors of the APC had held a close-door meeting with the President and expressed concerns over the new electoral Bill’s provision for direct primaries, which, according to them, could further destabilise the ruling party and force the economy to incur costs running into the range of N500 billion (actually above N480 billion) in the run-up to the February 2023 general elections.
READ ALSO: Electoral Act: Buhari Declines Assent Over ‘N500B’ Direct Primary Costs
On the back of the PBA’s Wednesday report, House of Representatives, in its motion on Thursday, invited INEC’s Chairman Mahmood Yakubu to explain to circumstances, especially issues of costs in connection with the direct primary proposition and the Electoral Amendment Bill, the present form of which the President has declined assent.
Yakubu is expected to appear before the National Assembly next week.
Prime Business Africa, in the exclusive, disclosed that INEC had quietly advised the President that Direct Primaries, a major component of the new electoral Bill would cost the country well ahead N480 billion ahead of the 2023 general elections; a cost which the president thought was too huge for the economy in its current state and with the subsisting run-away inflation. INEC’s concern, as reliably learnt by PBA, was anchored on the fact that it would have to supervise important stages of all primary elections for all political parties to ratify them.
The exclusive report on the Electoral Act also revealed that, in response to President Buhari’s query, AGF Malami had also advised the President in a similar direction.
The President’s decision not to sign the bill in its current form into an Act of Parliament as exclusively reported by Prime Business Africa has therefore triggered a lot of horse trading and pressure, with some sections of the media, in what appears an attempt to soften the impact of the president’s decision re-telling the narrative in different shades.
PBA’s original report on Wednesday morning had exclusively pointed out that President Buhari, after listening to the governors of the APC, had already consulted with INEC and AGF Malami and made up his mind not to sign it. Buhari, according to impeccable sources, made his intention known on the matter and has not signed the document as of Friday December 3, 2021, a clear two weeks from the date the Electoral Amendment Bill was placed on his table. Some commentators, in a counter narrative, argued that President Buhari legally has until December 19, 2021 (one month from the date of submission) to assent to the Bill. This is despite the fact that the president’s reservation is now in the public domain as depicted in the ongoing push on lawmakers by APC governors and the subsequent invitation the lawmakers extended to INEC.
In confirmation of Prime Business Africa’s exclusive report on the matter, a section of the media, on Friday, reported that Nigerian lawmakers are now divided into caucuses to discuss Mr President’s ‘delay’ or ‘refusal’ to sign the document and that the same APC governors are now mounting similar pressure on the legislature to back President Buhari’s disposition.
An independent follow-up report on Friday morning confirmed that Buhari had sought counsel from INEC on the matter but denied that the electoral body had responded to him. The report also agreed that governors are insisting on indirect primaries, in confirmation of PBA’s report that disclosed that the APC governors had told Buhari that their counterparts in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were in support of expunging the direct primary proposition in the Bill.
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