PDP reps on electoral bill: Buhari not interested in reform… we’ll challenge his decision

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members in the house of representatives have alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari is not interested in the reform of the electoral process, hence his refusal to sign the electoral bill. 

The bill was transmitted to the president for his assent on November 19.

The legislation provides for the electronic transmission of election results and the compulsory use of direct primary to pick candidates by all political parties.

But Buhari rejected the bill, saying the amendment may open up the electoral system to litigations based on diverse grounds and issues of law, adding that adopting direct primary “violates the spirit of democracy”.

The president said his decision to decline assent to the bill was informed by counsel from the relevant ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

In a statement issued on Wednesday and signed by Kingsley Chinda, leader of the PDP caucus, the opposition lawmakers said they will work unanimously to ensure that the national assembly overrides the president and passes the bill into law.

“As was postulated in several quarters, he has declined assent to same, using the cost of direct primaries as a decoy. The untold reason for declining is to avoid the electronic transmission of results which will improve the credibility of the electoral system,” the statement reads.

“This refusal, though contemplated, has left Nigerians confounded by a President who continues to show utter disdain for the Constitution and the reform of the institutions of the state.

“Under him, our institutions of state have regressed, to the point that the gains of previous institutions reforms, embarked by Our Great Party while in power, have been either lost to his inaction or to his deliberate ploy to leave our country worse than he met it. On this point alone, we are not convinced that he is interested in the reform of the electoral process.

“A ruling party that cannot conduct its national convention lacks the capacity to implement some of the innovative and people-empowering provisions of the bill, like the direct party primaries and electronic transmission of results from the units.

“As an opposition caucus, we will ensure that our members exercise their power under Section 58 (5) of the Constitution to veto the President whenever the National Assembly deems it fit to table the issue for discussion.”

The lawmakers also called for Buhari’s resignation, adding that the president has failed to stop attacks carried out by bandits across the country.

“Everywhere we turn, today, our dead are either being prepared for burials by families whose hearts are torn up by grief, or they are being mourned by families who can’t tell where the corpses of their loved ones are or where the killer squads will turn up next,” the opposition lawmakers said.

“Here is the stark truth of the Nigerian condition under Buhari’s ruinous rule: citizens are in a prolonged, severe and intense state of mourning that has kept them stuck in acute anguish, pain and trauma.

“The communities of Sabon Birni of Sokoto State, Kagara of Niger State, Karim Lamido of Taraba State, Katoge and Yanturaku of Katsina State, and of the north-east, north-west, south-south and south-east are witnesses to the reigns of terror.

“General Buhari is concerned only about his personal and family safety, and the safety of his lackeys. Typical of rulers in history who suffered from messianic complex, he thinks his personal survival is tantamount to the survival of the nation.

“It is this delusion that makes the governance of our country dire and costly under his rulership. There’s something more ruinous about his delusion: he promotes himself beyond his talent of statecraft.

“Time is running out. General Buhari should save our country by waking up from his long slumber or resign now.”