Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and human rights activist, Chief Mike Ozekhome, has pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill which has been transmitted to him since November 19, 2021.
The legal luminary urged the president to damn any consequences on the electoral act and make Nigerians happy by assenting the bill.
The National Assembly had on November 19 transmitted the bill to Buhari. Like every other bill, the President is expected to assent or withhold his approval within a 30-day period.
With the continued delay of the President’s approval, many had speculated that the inclusion of a mandatory direct primaries for political parties to elect their candidates for elections may not be well accepted by some individuals in the presidency.
Recall that the governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress had openly rejected the contentious clause in the bill, saying that the parties should instead be given the right to choose its mode of electing their flagbearers in every election.
Reacting as the 30-day period elapses Monday, Ozekhome urged Buhari to assent the bill, saying that heavens will not fall.
The activist said this while speaking with Arise TV, Sunday.
In his words, “Mr. President, I am on my bended knees, I am bowing for you with great respect and reverence, assent to this amended electoral act sir, and Nigerians will be happy with you. I will write, I will come again on television and praise you. Damn the consequences and heavens will not fall. If they were to fall, the heavens will fall on all of us. So don’t be afraid it is surely for all of us, it is not a Bem Johnson’s or Usain’s 100m quick race of less than 10 seconds, Sir, it is a marathon race and Nigerians are watching.”
Speaking further, the lawyer also urged the National Assembly to be ruthless by overriding the President’s veto to pass the bill into an act should Buhari fail to assent by tomorrow, Monday.
According to him, the National Assembly needs to show Nigerians that they are not a “toothless bulldog that cannot bite.”
He continued, “Nigerians are still saying that the 8th assembly is the best we have had so far in terms of facing up to tyrannical act of the executives. Since the time of Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe who was the first president of the Senate, followed by Dr. Nwaifo Orizu, they should know that most Nigerians believe that the present National Assembly is not only a toothless bulldog that cannot bite, but it cannot even bark once Mr. President manifests. They should discard this obnoxious perception of them because they have a future, individual names, collective names, prosterity and history writes everything we do.
“What will they do tomorrow if Mr. President refuses to assent the bill?. My answer is simple, override Mr. President’s veto and pass the bill into an act of parliament under sections 58 and 59 of the Constitution, deriving your powers of section four of the Constitution. Because as propounded as far back as 1748 by Baron de Montesquieu, the great French philosopher and theorist or theoretician, the executive, legislature and the judiciary are different and they must be separated one from the other with checks and balances. So that there will be no autocracy or dictatorship because power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. So, National Assembly go ahead tomorrow, override the veto of Mr. president.” Ozekhome said.
