- Alhaji Abdullahi Samaari (A patron of the Kwara State chapter of the Buhari/Osinbajo 2019 Re-Election Organisation)
I think it is. It is for the greater good of Nigerians. The sequence of elections has since been announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission which is constitutionally empowered to do so. So, if there is going to be a change, I think it should be the same body that should do it. The sequence of elections as announced by the INEC should remain. The National Assembly should allow the electoral body to do its work. The heat the matter is generating is causing political disquiet but I believe it will be sorted out.
The alteration suggested by the National Assembly in that amendment bill will increase the number of days for holding elections from two to three and this comes at a cost in terms of money to be spent and the disruption of economic activities of citizens because of the restriction of movements on election days.
This can be avoided if we stick to the current timetable and schedule of elections released by the INEC. I wish to advise the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress to be wary of members within who are nursing external interests. I will suggest that this category of people whose loyalty is questionable should not be empowered either through formal employment or membership of boards of government agencies.
- Tanko Yakasai (Elder statesman/Presidential liaison officer during the Second Republic)
The President has the power to veto any bill but in doing so, he must consider a lot of issues. Ordinarily, the President shouldn’t have vetoed the bill for two reasons: One, it would have been better to allow the sequence of elections as passed by the National Assembly stand because it would be better for a President to get a separate mandate from that of members of the National Assembly. This will make it easier for the electorate to know who to hold responsible in the event the government fails to deliver.
If the election sequence is arranged in such a way that the outcome of the presidential election determines the outcome of that of members of the National Assembly, it would not be a clear-cut mandate. Two, when the presidential system was introduced in Nigeria in 1979, the National Assembly election preceded that of the President. The Presidential election was the last one.
Be that as it may, in my opinion, in Nigeria or any other country where the election of public office holders is to be conducted, it will be better for the country that each candidate should get his/her mandate separately because the promise each made to the electorate is different. The party may sponsor a candidate and have its own manifesto, but the member’s promise to his constituents is different from that of the President. Like they say, all politics is local. I read the legal opinion written to the Senate President by the Legal Adviser to the National Assembly. From my understanding, he said, there was no legal basis for the President to veto the bill. Another point is that there have been concerns that this Federal Government has been so loaded with former officials of the defunct Petroleum Trust Fund which the President superintended over as chairman under the Abacha administration.
There are fears that the resistance to the reordering of the schedule of elections as passed by the National Assembly, may have been orchestrated by these persons who fear that it would disrupt a plot to give the incumbent an undue advantage over others.
- Yunusa Tanko (National Chairman, National Conscience Party)
The President’s veto can be likened to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. As it were, it is not only the sequence of elections that is contained in that bill. There is the issue of electronic voting, there is the issue of independent candidates, there is the issue concerning electoral offences and there is the issue of defection. These are very serious issues that could affect our polity, the issue of the sequence of election is one out of so many and I find it very difficult to understand why the President and the National Assembly are at loggerheads over this particular matter especially when it comes to the issue of the sequence of elections.
For us, it would have been better to have the State and National Assemblies elections before the governorship and the presidential. The reason is this, the National and State Assemblies have over 900 seats to be contested.
In the National Assembly you have 360 seats in the House of Representatives and 109 in the Senate and then calculate how many seats are being contested in the state assemblies. With the situation on the ground and the lack of quality representation that has bedevilled this particular National Assembly, it is a serious matter.
Even though the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, is a lawyer and you have a seasoned politician in the person of Bukola Saraki, as President of the Senate. I find it difficult to understand that these two men belong to the same All Progressives Congress with the President and both chambers are dominated by their party members but they lack cohesion.
- Ezenwa Nwagwu (Partners for Electoral Reforms)
The whole thing is about personal interests. All the fight about whose election should come first is not about deepening democracy or about improving the lives of Nigerians. It is simply about getting into public office and very little about getting there to improve society.
The conversation should be about how to make the people’s votes count, it should be about reducing the number of void votes which can be achieved through proper voter education, it should be about empowering the citizen to ask critical questions and hold those they elect into office to account, this should be what should drive the conversation not whose election should come first.
- Osazee Edigin (Spokesman, Edo Civil Society Organisations)
Politicians in Nigeria have their unique strategies for achieving any aim. The recent amendment by the National Assembly vis-à-vis the reordering of the 2019 elections is one of such strategies seemingly laced with controversies to satisfy certain personal interests.
While it seems to solve the issue of a bandwagon effect in Nigerian politics, the underlying motive cannot be subtracted from the fact that certain interests propelled the amendment. One good thing to take home from the amendment is the burden of lawmakers who have no good grass roots rapport with their constituencies. Winning an election without the bandwagon effect will now be institutionalised and the society will be the better for it. Mr. President would have wished his election came first so as to garner support from members of his political party at the National Assembly who will in turn benefit from such a gesture.
But with the current amendment, the lawmakers will be encumbered with the challenge of winning their own election rather than bothering themselves about the presidential election which they propose should come last.
The decision of the President to withhold assent is to ensure that the status quo remains and he stands to benefit more if this happens. While it is appropriate as a political strategy to win an election, I think it will be inappropriate for the growth of our democracy especially at the grass roots level. I say so because by withholding his assent, the president seeks to encourage the bandwagon effect, which may give opportunity to lawmakers who have not impressed their constituents to benefit from the same.
This is inappropriate because it is not geared towards the deepening and consolidation of our democracy but towards achieving personal gains. The National Assembly retains the constitutional power to override the president’s veto or let the status quo be.
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