Come May 29 2023, Nigeria would have had a new president. We should be looking forward to a fresh start or reset, if you like. Reset because a lot of things have gone wrong with the nation and we have no one but ourselves to blame for this. We have allowed sentiments to cloud our sense of reasoning and this has come at a very great cost to us.
Prior to 2015, we all knew what had gone wrong with us, we all knew that there was need to build on the little gains, if any, we have had since the turn of the 4th republic in 1999, but our visions were blurred from begetting that which we needed to place us on the right trajectory to nationhood.
On this score, the presidency of President Muhammadu Buhari has performed pathetically below expectation. The result being that every Nigerian now sees things from the prism of ethnicity, religious bias and primordial sentiments. After seven years of Buhari, the only discussion that has taken the centre stage in our scheme of things is everybody on his own and God for us all. We have been preoccupied with protecting the part at the expense of the whole. We have totally promoted ethnic interest over and above national issues.
To reset this anomaly, the year 2023 offers an opportunity to Nigerians that must not be toyed with. It is a marching order for all Nigerians to set aside this old cleavage by some forces who are bent on maintaining the status quo to ensure that they continue to benefit from this skewed arrangement that has left us in a dungeon.
The Electoral Amendment Act, which was grudgingly assented to by the president, has remained the most contentious for no other reason other than that it seeks to take us away from our crooked ways of conducting elections to a more civilized and accepted way of conducting elections.
In the life of the Ninth National Assembly, where the governing APC enjoys a commanding majority, nothing has challenged the unity of the two chambers as the Electoral Act Amendment Bill. Top on the list of contentious issues are the electronic transmission of election results, the mandatory direct primary mode of candidate selection for all the political parties, and the controversial section 84(12) of the electoral act which mandates government appointees to resign their positions three months ahead of primary elections of political parties to be delegated.
First, under a new amendment of Clause 52 (2) of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, the Senate resolved that “voting at an election and transmission of results under this Bill shall be in accordance with the procedure determined by the Commission, which may include electronic voting.”
The insincere political elite told us that electronic transmission of election results is rocket science and therefore we are not ripe enough to adopt it. But those who told us that it would disenfranchise those in areas with poor electricity supply and inadequate telecommunications coverage were silent on how students in those areas take part in computer-based examinations and how their relatives in those areas receive calls. They were silent on how the FG Conditional Cash Transfer grant programme designed to give N5,000 to one million Nigerians considered to be poor and vulnerable, is disbursed to large numbers of Nigerians across the 36 states and FCT. They also ignored the position of the umpire, INEC, which advised that it was doable.
Then the issue of the mode of conducting party primaries got the presidency angry and they wanted the national assembly to also include the indirect mode and consensus candidacy. This was granted as the National Assembly, also included the controversial section 84(12) in the electoral act which mandated government appointees to resign their positions. The presidency wants that expunged but the National Assembly is not yielding grounds yet.
The attorney general of the federation, Abubakar Malami, has since not known peace. He has spent his sleeping and waking hours scheming what next to do to enable him and his fellow political appointees to eat their cake and still have it.
In normal climes, that should not be an issue. If you are seeking an elective position, it follows that you quit your office as government appointee, but ours is anything but normal. The National assembly will do well not to delete section 84(12) of the electoral act, any government officials seeking elective positions should not be placed at an advantage above anyone. They should all meet at equal levels.
Because Malami will not sleep when personal, clannish or religious issues are at stake he rushed to court to seek reprieve. In Justice Evelyn Anyadike of the Federal High Court in Umuahia, Abia State, verdict of March 17 he thought he had the much sought-after reprieve. But, he was smart by half.
The case took 10 days to file, serve, and be heard and the verdict, and the execution afterwards was within 24 hours. It was filed by a lawyer against the attorney-general of the federation (AGF). The case was filed on March 8. But the counter-affidavit was filed on March 14 while the response to it was filed ahead of time, that is on the 11th. The response came ahead of the case.
Once the verdict was given, he quickly responded by mobilising all government agencies to proceed to expunge the section and hastily moved towards gazetting it. This is the height of wizardry especially for a government that is reputed for contempt for promptness in executing court judgment.
The AGF had said, “The office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice will accordingly give effect to the Court judgment in line with the dictates of the law and the spirit of the judgment.
“The judgment of the Court will be recognized by the Government printers in printing the Electoral Act.
“The provision of Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act 2022 is not part of our law and will be treated accordingly.
“This is in line with the dictates of chapter 7, Part 4, Section 287 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) on enforcement of decisions that make it a point of duty and obligation on all authorities and persons to have the judgment of the Federal High Court, among others, to be enforced.”
Meanwhile, the Senate on Wednesday vowed to appeal the Umuahia Court verdict empowering the Attorney General to the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami to delete Section 84(12) of the amended Electoral Act.
For members in the lower chamber, they insisted that the court pass a judgement on a matter which was not included in the Electoral Act passed by the National Assembly. They said the clause in question is directed at political appointees and not civil servants. They also questioned why the National Assembly was not joined as a respondent to the suit, stressing that the action of the judge was an ‘aberration’. While the lawmakers hinted at writing a petition to the National Judicial Council (NJC), the Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, said he would not allow the National Assembly to be ridiculed.
Just like his colleagues, he queried why the judgement was obtained in faraway Abia State, insisting that only the National Assembly has the constitutional authority to alter any part of the legislation which it passed.
While the appeal is being perfected, at least for now, the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) excluded political office holders from voting at the national convention which was held last Saturday.
The committee, however, stated that political appointees can still attend as observers.
The seeming clandestine manner and speed the relief was sought was such that many didn’t know of the case until the verdict was made. It has to be taken away from the capital, to far away Abia State, outside the vigilance of judicial watchers, in order words, Malami struck while many were still at sleep: reminiscent of how witches and wizards operate.
Malami represents all that is wrong with the Nigeria of today. He is an ethnic champion and would stop at nothing to promote his personal and primordial interests, even if it meant burning the nation. This more than anything else has remained the bane of the Buhari administration.
