States’ Speakers, others reject amendments
HEEDING a piece of advice by its Committee on Rules and Business, the House of Representatives has suspended the passage of the controversial amendments to the 2010 Electoral Act.
Only yesterday, state governors rose from a meeting, threatening to take appropriate legal action against the National Assembly should the two chambers pass the contentious Bill into law.
Moreover, Speakers of Houses of Assembly yesterday rejected moves by the National Assembly members to make themselves automatic members of the National Executive Councils (NEC) of their respective political parties, saying the move is aimed at enthroning dictatorship within the parties.
Meanwhile, hundreds of placard-carrying youths under the aegis of New Nigerian Projects and Coalition of Civil Society Groups have protested the action of the lawmakers. The youths yesterday barricaded the entry gate of the National Assembly to protest the passage of what they described as obnoxious, aspects of the Electoral Act 2010 amendment Bill by the federal parliament.It was a very shocking twist to an issue that had generated much rancour in and outside the National Assembly.
Deputy Speaker of the House, Usman Bayero Nafada, who presided over the session, read out the section of the House Order Paper regarding the scheduled Third Reading of the Bill.
But before the House Clerk, Mohammed Sani Omonori, could be called upon to activate the bill’s third reading, the chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, Ita Enang, swiftly drew the attention of the presiding officer and his colleagues to the fact that certain aspects of the Bill required thorough consideration by members before it could be passed.
He declared that his committee was yet to circulate the clean copy of the Bill to members and should be allowed to do so.
Enang specifically prayed the House to stand down the Third Reading and passage of the Bill till another legislative day when members must have studied section 87, which seeks automatic admission of members into the NEC of political parties.
At this point, Nafada sought to know whether Enang meant to say that the Bill be stood down till the next legislative day or another legislative day. Enang did not waste time in declaring that he meant another legislative day.
Ruling on the matter, Nafada said: “Based on the reasons enumerated by Enang, the Third Reading of this Bill is hereby stood down till another legislative day.”
In parliamentary parlance, next legislative day means the day next to the current legislative day while another legislative day means any other legislative day after the current legislative day.
In this case, the third reading of the bill could be taken any other day that the House is in session.
To show the extent of their disapproval of the move to pass the controversial Electoral Act, the speakers, under the aegis of the Conference of Speakers of the State Legislatures in Nigeria (CSSLN) threatened to boycott parties’ primaries for the conduct of the 2011 polls.
Their position was arrived at during an emergency meeting of the body in Abuja, where the Chairman of CSSLN and Speaker of Taraba State House of Assembly, Haruna Istifanus Gbana, read out the statement to newsmen. He described the passage of the sections of the amendment of the Electoral Act on the controversial parties’ NEC membership by the House of Representatives as self-serving.
According to him: “Conference condemned in strong terms the decision of the House of Representatives to go ahead to pass the amendment of the Electoral Act 2010 making National Assembly members automatic NEC members of their parties. It is totally undemocratic, self-serving and repugnant to the wishes of the generality of Nigerians.”
While rejecting the exclusion of members of the states Houses of Assembly as delegates to their parties’ primaries for selection of presidential candidates of their parties, the conference also rejected the exclusion of party executive members from selection of candidates during party primaries at all levels.
The speakers advised the National Assembly to “try as much as possible to be seen to show more patriotism and take the interest of the nation first in coming up with legislations for the good governance of our dear nation and the consolidation of our nascent democracy.”
In a statement issued at the end of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) meeting on Monday night and signed by its chairman, Bukola Saraki, the forum urged the National Assembly to restrict itself to the election dates as requested by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The governors called on the Senate not to join the House of Representatives in passing the controversial version of Electoral Act, saying: “We hereby call on the Senate to show maturity and not to toe this unconscionable line.
“The NGF has noted with great concern that in spite of the outcry of majority of Nigerians against the amendment of the Electoral Act 2010, members of the House of Representatives still went ahead to pass it. We condemn this legislative rascality by the House of Representatives as undemocratic and self-serving and a danger to the entire democracy,” they said.
The NGF urged the President not to give his assent to the amended version of the Electoral Act in the event that the two chambers of the National Assembly passed it.
The protesting youths barricaded the entry gate to the National Assembly, forcing the lawmakers to access the complex through the back gate adjoining the Presidential Villa while staff members had to walk the distance from the entry gate to the complex.
Visitors were thoroughly screened and those without appointment were turned back.
The group whose motive was to present a protest letter to the leadership of the parliament over the Bill were, however, barred by operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) wielding assault rifles, men of the Sgt-at-Arms, and backed by a detachment of armed policemen deployed from the FCT Police Command.
But it took the combined efforts of the Director of SSS attached to the National Assembly, Abdulrahman Mohammed; Sgt-at-Arms Col. Emeka Okere (rtd) as well as the National Assembly Divisional Police Officer (DPO), M. D. Shehu, for the security agencies to effectively ward off the rampaging youths who besieged the gate located in the Three Arms Zone in Abuja.
Wielding fresh leaves plucked from trees in the area, the group chanted solidarity songs as they called for reversal of the amendment Act allegedly tinkered with by the National Assembly headed by the Senate President, David Mark.
In a speech read on behalf of the group, Danjuma Bello Sarki expressed dismay over the attitude of the lawmakers whom he said, tinkered with the good intentions of the 2010 Electoral Bill which seeks to satisfy the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians for credible, free and fair elections which is the bedrock of democracy.
In his reaction, the leader of the South-South caucus in the House of Representatives, Andrew Uchendu, warned that the 2010 Electoral Act which seeks to make members of National Assembly automatic members of their parties’ NEC will undermine Nigeria’s democracy.
Uchendu told The Guardian in Port Harcourt that the bill in its present form undermines the legitimacy and the supremacy of the political party system in the country.
The lawmaker who presents Ikwerre/Emohua federal constituency explained that during the second reading of the bill, he expressed his reservation about it but overwhelming majority of members supported it before it was committed into the committee stage.
His words: “Mr. President must reflect very deeply and consult widely before he gives assent to the bill to become law because that will undermine democracy that we all are struggling to build.”
Uchendu noted that his colleagues who are in support of the bill have often argued that they want to ensure that everybody participates in the affairs of the parties.
“They have argued that they want to broaden their own participation in the party. And my argument is that we already have representation at the NEC. If the bill is not changed, because of the size of our party, there is no way the NEC of the PDP can hold at the international conference centre in Abuja or the Transcorp. That will be ridiculous and absurd,” he said.
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