Wike: Buhari won’t assent to electoral bill… the signs are there

Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, says President Muhammadu Buhari will not sign the electoral act amendment bill into law.

The national assembly had, on November 18, transmitted the bill to the president for assent.

Both chambers of the national assembly had empowered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to determine the best mode to transmit election results — either electronically or manually.

The lawmakers also approved that all political parties must use the direct primary mode in picking candidates.

The provision on direct primary has met with criticism from stakeholders such as the Peoples Democratic Party and some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Meanwhile, the house of representatives has invited INEC over the cost implication of direct primaries for political parties.

Speaking on Thursday in an interview on AIT, Wike said there are signs that the president will not approve the bill.

“He will not sign it. I’m very sure. The signs are there. This Nigeria, sometimes I wonder why we belabour ourselves on certain things. Look at it very well. If you work with a system, you must understand that system — the pattern,” he said.

“When that issue came out between the governors and the legislators, I just laughed and I told myself ‘why are you worried about this?’ The president will not sign it — it’s dead on arrival.

“They merely created that let there be a decision. They have now passed it on to INEC. When has INEC become Buhari that will say you can do this or you cannot do this — to choose which law is good or bad?

“What they are pushing is for INEC to come up and say ‘look, the cost implication will be this’. And then Buhari will now dwell on that and say ‘based on security implications or the cost of this, I will not do this’.

“Yes, the president has always said so many things; that he wants to leave a legacy for Nigeria. One of the legacies he wants to leave is to conduct a transparent election. In 2019, why did they not sign the electoral amendment that called for this electronic transmission? The same thing is going to happen. They have told him ‘your party will be affected; your party is gone’. I know the president will not sign.”

Also speaking on the 2023 presidential election, Wike said Nigerians are “tired” of the APC and are waiting for the opposition party to redeem the country.

“Let nobody come and tell you that in arriving at a presidential candidate that it will be easy. No way, it can never be. You know, there are two types of turbulences. There is turbulence that will not crash, which is a normal turbulence. There are turbulences that there is likely to be a crash,” Wike said.

“Our own turbulence in PDP is the normal turbulence, which I believe we will get through it, but APC turbulence is a turbulence that is likely to lead to a crash.

“PDP has redeemed its position towards what Nigerians are expecting, because Nigerians are tired of what is going on in the country. So, they need an alternative, and the only alternative as it is today is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“And so, if you want to run for presidency under PDP, I will not support somebody who’ll just want to bear the name of former presidential candidate; I will not agree to that. I must see that you are prepared for it, and to confront this evil called APC.”