Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress and erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has thrown his weight behind the decision of President Mohammadu Buhari, declining assent to the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill.
Recall that the said bill was transmitted to the President on November 19, 2021 and the 30 days provided by the Constitution for signing or rejection of the bill expired on Monday, 20th December 2021, and accordingly, the President has through a letter sent to members of the National Assembly, relayed his reasons for refusing assent to the bill.
In a statement made available to media houses in Port Harcourt, the party chief said as expected of every critical thinker and nationalist, President Buhari, acted in defense of the country’s political, economic and constitutional interests and to protect the very foundations of the nation’s nascent democracy.
According to President Buhari, “the conduct of direct primaries across the 8,809 wards across the length and breadth of the country will lead to a significant spike in the cost of conducting primary elections by parties as well as increase in the cost of monitoring such elections by INEC who has to deploy monitors across these wards each time a party is to conduct direct primaries for the presidential, gubernatorial and legislative posts. The addition of these costs with the already huge cost of conducting general elections will inevitably lead to huge financial burden on both the political parties, INEC and the economy in general at a time of dwindling revenues.”
Supporting the views of the President on the burdensome implication of assenting to the bill, on the economy and the lean purse of weeny political organizations, the party chief said an obligatory direct primaries will function to frustrate the chances of smaller parties to flow with the tide given the huge financial engagements which poses a threatening posture on the nation’s economy already affected by the global economic realities.
“If political parties struggle to sponsor candidates for election under the current regime that offers an assortment of methods for the selection of candidates for the general elections, adopting a system that provides a single obligatory method of primaries may force many of them into extinction and others into involuntary and valueless merger.”
As a matter of fact, the security situation in the country is already troubling and poses serious concern to Nigerians, consequently, direct method of primaries and its attendant challenges is not peace-oriented and thus is grossly amiss with the Nigerian political context and atmosphere and will only nourish a paroxysmal attack of pain, distress, disordered function of our body polity and total loss of public confidence in the political system.
“Assenting to that piece of legislation will throw the country back to the crude system practiced in the small ancient Greek city state where democracy was first practiced and where people gathered to directly select those on whom to trust public administration. Democracy has advanced and Nigeria must align and progress with the changing tides”.
He berated Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike and others who are trying hard to take advantage of the opportunity to paint their tainted selves pure by suddenly putting up a public countenance that suggests them to be more Nigerian than true Nigerians.
He recalled how Wike fought to frustrate the financial autonomy of local government and how he has continued to deny same status to the legislative and judicial arms of government in Rivers State, thus, stifling democracy and frustrating the optimum performance of these arms and the local government tier of government.
He said his state has continued to suffer irredeemably in all spheres as a result of his careless and ill-informed approach to critical issues of administration and counsel led him to concentrate on providing the services of leadership to the good people of Rivers State.
Eze advised Chief Nyesom Wike to play down on propaganda and learn from Governor Ortom of Benue State and Governor Umahi of Ebonyi State on their choice of words while addressing this particular issue.
He implored members of the National Assembly who are promoting dissenting views on President Buhari’s stance on the Electoral Act (Amendment) bill, to ruminate extensively and understand the salient points canvassed by the President as reasons for his refusal of assent, noting that the economic and security situation of the country does not support the new features inserted into the amended bill.
Counseling lawmakers to jettison activating their veto power on the bill, Eze called and tasked them to channel attention towards proposing laws that will close all economic loopholes, create jobs and tackle armed banditry, terrorism and other menacing security challenges facing the country.
