Democracy In Jeopardy As Buhari Sits On Electoral Bill

Though President Muhammadu Buhari has a 30-day window within which to sign the Electoral Bill, experts say his habitual delay to attend to the bill is a threat to democracy and runs counter to his avowed promise to leave a legacy of reformed electoral process.

Less than one year to the next round of Nigeria’s general election, Buhari has failed to sign the amended Electoral Act transmitted to him by the National Assembly on January 31, 2022.

Expectation was that the President would sign the bill Tuesday, February 22, 2022, which would have synchronised with the timetable already released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), stating that the elections would begin February 18, 2023.

Last Friday, about 26 civil society organisations (CSOs) declared February 22 as a “national day of protest” in a bid to get Buhari sign the bill into law and send any amendments to the National Assembly at a later date.

In a statement issued at the end of their meeting in Abuja, the CSOs said Buhari needed to sign the bill before February 22 if the date for the 2023 general election announced by the INEC would stand.

The groups noted that “the delay in granting presidential assent to the Electoral Bill, 2022 will create legal uncertainties that threaten the integrity of the off-cycle elections in Ekiti, Osun, and the 2023 general election, which is 366 days away.

“The civil society community resolves to declare Tuesday, 22nd February 2022, as the National Day of Protest to demand immediate assent to the bill.

“Civil society networks will organise peaceful public direct-action activities to further the demand to assent to the bill. We urge citizens across the nation to call on President Muhammadu Buhari to act on this matter of urgent national importance.”

Speaking in separate interviews, some of the experts frown at the inability of the National Assembly to veto the bill into law; they say it was an indictment that the federal lawmakers were weak and a rubber stamp of the executive arm.

President Buhari in December 2021 asked the National Assembly to remove the clause that had to do with direct primaries from the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.

The President, who stated this in his letter to the Senate, asked the National Assembly to remove the controversial clause on direct primaries from the bill and return the proposed law to him for assent.

Buhari consequently forwarded it to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, for legal advice.

Malami had disclosed that he might advise the President to withhold assent if he found the reworked bill to contain proposals hinged on personal interests.

More than three weeks after the reworked document was transmitted to the President, he has not signed it, fuelling apprehension that history was on play back.

Yinka Farounbi, a lawyer and former chairman of the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), expressed dismay over the delay in signing the bill into law by President Buhari despite the National Assembly reworking it.

Farounbi said the federal lawmakers should have mobilised themselves to veto the bill into law if it was very important to them.

“Well, I am surprised that Buhari has refused to sign up till now, but such is not new in a democracy, for a President refusing assent to a bill; I don’t have a problem, but such would not be a problem where the various organs of government are doing their job. If the legislature is sure of itself; if it attaches importance to the bill, the lawmakers can gather themselves and veto him and the bill would become law,” Farounbi said.

The lawyer further stressed that the federal lawmakers have been unable to assert themselves because the President had been worshipped by politicians.

“But such would not happen here because the President is being worshipped; the lawmakers don’t want to be in the bad book of the President, they are afraid of him. The problem here is the weak legislature we have, not doing their job, what is expected of them according to the constitution of the country,” he further said.

According to Bukola Akinola, a professor and dean, Faculty of Law, Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, the President must as a matter of utmost importance sign the amended Electoral Bill 2022 in view of the constitutional implications.

Leaving the Electoral Act 2010 as it is when the INEC is already engaging the use of technology may have serious legal implications, such as the use of Card Readers and Incident Forms of the previous elections, he said.

“President Buhari ought to begin to live his life as a statesman and not a president elected under the guise of a political party. Whatever the inconvenience, the president should sign the Bill into law,” he said.

The Electoral Act is critical to the success of not only elections but democracy, Kunle Okunade, a political scientist, said, stressing that if signing by President Buhari becomes a big challenge then, one can say the actions of the President is against the consolidation of the electoral process and democracy.

“At this critical stage of Nigeria, electoral process, electoral reform would help remodel the country’s electoral system. It is expected that there should be a symbiotic relationship between the executive and the legislature on the reform of the electoral process,” Okunade said.

Speaking in an interview session on Channels TV, Tuesday, Femi Adesina, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, said Buhari would sign the bill “in a matter of hours.”

Asked what he meant by “hours,” he said it could mean “24 hours; 48 hours or even 72 hours.”

Buhari rejects Electoral Bill 5 times in 7 years

The first time was in February 2018 due to provisions that reordered the sequence of elections.

A second amendment bill passed by both chambers of the National Assembly and sent to Buhari in June 2018 was not given any consideration.

In July 2018, Buhari refused to sign another version of the amendment bill for the third time, citing concerns about the increased cost of conducting elections, among other issues.

Buhari declined assent to the amendment bill for the fourth time in December 2018, after the National Assembly addressed all of his previous reasons for refusing to sign.

Buhari stated in a letter dated December 6, 2018, addressed to the Senate president, Bukola Saraki, and speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, that he would not sign the electoral bill while the country was preparing for the 2019 elections because doing so would cause confusion and uncertainty in the polity.

Buhari promised in the letter that he would sign the bill after the 2019 elections, but when presented with the opportunity in December 2021, he declined once more. Buhari refused to sign the electoral bill into law for the fifth time in December 2021.

The amended electoral bill was passed by the National Assembly on January 25, 2022, and it provided political parties with three models of primary elections: direct, indirect, and consensus.

The most recent transmission of the electoral bill to Buhari marks the sixth time he (Buhari) will be tasked with signing legislation aimed at reforming the country’s electoral system.

The amended electoral bill included strict guidelines for implementing the various primary election models. These guidelines are intended to prevent political parties from being forced to accept candidates.

The presidency issued a statement on January 31 titled ‘Transmission of the Electoral Bill 2022’ to acknowledge the transmission of the electoral bill to Buhari.

Up till the time of filing in this report, the President is yet to sign the bill.