‘Refusal to Sign Electoral Bill will Derail INEC’s Election Timetable’

Emma Okonji and Nosa Alekhuogie

Having rejected the Electoral Reform Bill four times since 2018, the Civil Society Organisation (CSO) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the bill with immediate effect, without further delay.

The Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Mr. Auwal Rafsanjani, who made the call yesterday while speaking on the Morning Show of ARISE NEWS Channels, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers, said the continued rejection of the electoral bill by President Buhari, was a clear attempt for him to undermine democracy and also a calculated attempt by some persons close to the president, to truncate the democratic process, which Nigerians fought for in the past.

“The delay in signing the electoral bill has made President Buhari to deliberately tamper with the proposed electoral amendment bill that allows the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct election in February 2023. The President still has today (yesterday) to sign the bill into law, and anything short of that will cause a major shift in the timetable of INEC to conduct presidential election by February 2023, which will amount to threat to democracy and freedom of expression in Nigeria,” Rafsanjani said.

“One of the pillars of democracy is to have a credible, free and fair election and without the right electoral framework put in place, it will be difficult to attain true democratic process in Nigeria. President Buhari had one time lamented the electoral fraud in the Nigerian electoral system, so he has no reason not to correct such anomalies with the signing of the electoral bill into law. As President of Nigeria, God has given him the opportunity to address the country’s electoral anomalies and we expect him to sign it without further delay,” Rafsanjani further said.

According to him, the continuous refusal by President Buhari to sign the electoral amendment bill is counter-productive in his fight against corruption.

“This is so because political corruption is one of the major forms of corruption in Nigeria, which has pushed Nigeria down to the lowest ebb in the country’s political history.

“When the late President Musa Yar’Adua noticed the flaws in the Electoral Act that brought him into power, he quickly set up a credible team to review the Electoral Act at that time, with a view to addressing the inadequacies in the Electoral Act, and that is exactly what I expected President Buhari to do, but he has failed to do so,” the civil society leader said.

But one of the APC National Chairman aspirants, Muhammad Mustapha, who also spoke on the Morning Show of ARISE NEWS Channels yesterday, said President Buhari would sign the electoral bill if the bill covers the interest of the majority of Nigerians.

“President Buhari is a leader with integrity that listens to the electorates and I strongly believe that if the bill meets the interest of the majority of Nigerians, the president will not hesitate to sign it into law, because he is a man of the people. But if the bill does not cover the the interest of the majority of Nigerians, I will not be surprised if he does not sign it,” Mustapha said.

Reacting to speculations that the pockets of agitations from civil society organisations that are putting pressure on President Buhari to sign the bill, may discourage the president from assenting to the bill, Rafsanjani said such speculative statement coming from the Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media, goes to show how insensitive the Special Assistant is to the plight of Nigerians, despite the fact that he is being paid from tax payers money who are fighting for a true democratic process in the Nigerian politics.

“Some of the spokespersons to President Buhari, needs to be more sensitive and responsive to the plights of Nigerians. They cannot mock Nigerians who have spoken and have the rights to speak about how the country’s democratic structure should look like. The way and manner at which some of the spokespersons are talking, clearly shows they are misleading the president and I therefore challenge the president to do the right thing. The masses are fighting for their rights under democratic dispensation and somebody is blaming them ignorantly. If the spokespersons do not understand the full meaning of democracy, they should return to read and understand what democracy is all about,” Rafsanjani said.

He added that some of those working for the president were actually undermining the president and making him look like a bad leader who is insensitive to the feelings of the people he is leading. He urged President Buhari to wake up from his slumber and do away with sycophants who flock around him.

He, however, said the civil society, which he represents, would continue to push for the signing of the electoral bill into law, without engaging in any violent act.

“We are not politicians and we will not incite Nigerians to cause trouble because of the refusal of President Buhari to sign the bill. The civil society group will rather continue to push in a civil manner, until the bill is signed into law,” Rafsanjani said.