A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has made a passionate appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari, not to throw away the baby and the bath water concerning the insertion of the controversial mode of primaries to be adopted by the political parties to elect candidates for elections.
Speaking on the raging controversy over the mode of primaries inserted into the yet to be endorsed Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Okechukwu, urged President Buhari to endorse the Electronic Transmission, the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BIVAS), contained in the bill.
The Director-General Voice of Nigeria (VON) equally re-echoed that BIVAS, which is Vaccine to Vote Rigging; is the most patriotic item in the Bill and an offspring of electronic transmission adding that it will ultimately fulfill the legacy pledge to bequeath credible, free and fair elections to Nigerians.
“I am sincerely afraid that the controversy, hyperbole and cacophony of voices over direct primary may wittingly or unwittingly scuttle the entire Electoral Bill, thus throwing away the baby – BIVAS and the bathe water – Direct Primary. Mr President please avoid this boobytrap against electronic transmission,” Okechukwu quipped.
Okechukwu summarised that from the debates the two leading dominant political parties, APC and PDP, are for the first time in the last eight years opposed to one issue – direct primary.
He also noted that with electronic transmission – BIVAS Vaccine – henceforth Presidents, Governors, Legislators, appointed officers and political parties are by this legislation willingly compelled to confer loyalty to the electorate not godfathers
They are supported by incontrovertible facts that free and fair election bequeathed by BIVAS as in Anambra State gubernatorial election highlighted above will force political parties to self-censorship.
Okechukwu in sum appeals to Mr President to assent to the Electronic Transmission item in the Bill, so as not to throw away the BIVAS-Baby and Direct Primary hyperbole.