Electoral act: NYCN faults n’assembly on exclusion of political appointees, threatens mass action

The National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) has faulted the national assembly over its refusal to amend a clause in the new electoral act in line with the request of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Following his approval of the electoral bill in February, Buhari asked the national assembly to expunge section 84(12) because it disenfranchises serving political appointees.

The section in contention reads: “No political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at the convention or congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election.”

Speaking with reporters in Abuja, on Friday, Solomon Adodo, NYCN president, said the measure would lead to the total disenfranchisement of over 70 per cent of potential candidates who are mainly youths.

Adodo said it is unfortunate that over 75 per cent of those affected under the extant electoral act are youths who are appointees of local government chairmen, governors, the president and legislators.

“This law, if allowed to stand, will be an abuse of the not too young to run act as most youth will automatically be disqualified. The said clause is nothing but an attempt to insulate the legislators from a healthy democratic competition as a vast number of credible aspirants would already have been swept away by the said law,” Adodo said.

“The law could also be interpreted with respect to party primaries which automatically disqualifies all appointees seeing that their resignation should have taken effect six months to the April/June primaries.

“Whereas section 42 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended seek to protect every citizen from any form of discrimination, section 84(12) boldly discriminates against political appointees by barring them from contesting or voting in party primaries. This same law on the flip-side offers an undue advantage to the legislators by permitting them to remain in their seats while contesting.

“Whereas the 1999 constitution as amended provides that a public servant must resign 30 days before the conduct of an election in which he is to participate. Section 318 of the constitution defines who a public servant is and that excludes appointees. Howbeit, our legislators deliberately carved section 84(12) to target political appointees and eliminate them from the space making the legislators the main active political players on the field.

“Above all, the said section 84 (12) will be a prime precursor of a constitutional crisis in which the members of the national assembly will be the beneficiaries while our democracy will be in shambles. This is not only an attempt by the national assembly to renege on its promise but also an affront on the president and a betrayal of public trust.”

NYCN called on the national assembly to immediately expedite actions to expunge section 84(12) within the next 48 hours, saying refusal to do so will lead to a mass protest from March 15.