President Muhammad Buhari has again, declined assent to Electoral amendment bill, as he ordered for the bill to be returned to the National Assembly.
The Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly matters Senator Ita Enang, who revealed this at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) did not state reasons why the President declined his assent on the Electoral Amendment bill, but said that he has communicated to the National Assembly, the decision taken on the Electoral Act.
The President had three times rejected assent to the bill, a development which has continued to generate speculations.
The first time was as a result of the re-ordering of election sequence. The president also declined to sign the bill on the account of drafting errors.
In September, the president rejected the bill for the third time due to what Enang described as “some drafting issues” that have remained unaddressed.
The National Assembly only a few days ago has urged the President to pass the bill to give Nigeria and Nigerians a credible election come 2019.
Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki had said this on the bill:
“It is the prerogative of the President to either sign electoral amendment Bill into law or refuse it assent. He is free to exercise this prerogative the way he likes in this case. What I found surprising is a situation where some people now want to adopt a wrong tactic of abusing the court process to stall the matter. That will be unacceptable and I am sure our judiciary will rely on the lessons from the past and not allow itself to be used.
“We do not want the President to allow the setting of a bad precedent in which somebody will go to court in future to stop the passage of an appropriation bill or any essential law which will be important to the development of the country.
“My position remains that the President, his aides, the entire country and the international community are aware that all the concerns raised by the President on the past three occasions he withheld assent to the bill have been addressed by the legislature. We bent backwards on each occasion to accommodate the wishes of the President. We started work on this law since 2016 to prevent a situation where it would become part of the election controversies.
“Every sincere commentator, observer and analyst knows that what we have done with that bill is to raise the level of transparency, credibility and acceptability of our electoral process. We made sure that the law if assented to and honestly applied by INEC and all those concerned will give us an election that will be better than what we had in 2015.
“The President should know that the survival of democracy, its development and the future of Nigeria are far more important than the ambition of any individual or party. I am using this opportunity to call on President Muhammadu Buhari to put a stop to this uncertainty in the political process by signing without delay the 2018 Electoral amendment Bill so as to allow INEC and the concerned parties know how to prepare for a credible process”, Saraki stated.