Gyang Bere, Jos
Chairman of the Board of National Agency for the Control of AIDs (NACA) and former Deputy Governor of Plateau State, Dame Pauline Tallen said Presipdent Muhammadu Buhari has saved Nigeria from political crisis and instability for refusing to signed the Electoral Bill in law.
Tallen, in a press statement through her media consultant, Shabul Mazadu when Voice Out Vanguard (VOV) presented her award as  the Female ICON of the year in Jos, said it was too late for the President to assent the Amended Electoral Act bill ahead of the 2019 elections.
She commended President Buhari for  exercising his constitutional responsibility in an appropriate manner to save the country from confusion and political instability.
“Since President Muhammadu Buhari came on baord as Nigeria President in 2015, he has been very careful and discreet in handling the affairs of the country.
He doesn’t want to do anything that will compound the problems on ground, because he met enough of those confusions and problems on ground. He is trying to resolve these confusion and problems at all cost.
“I think it is too late for the electronic voting to be introduce because going by the past elections in Nigeria, and very soon INEC will start the recruitment of adhoc workers with just few weeks left to the elections.
“With this, when will they buy the machines, install them and test-run The machines to ensure their effectiveness. Even those people that will oper the machines; when will they be trained to put them into practice and ensure that there will be no flaws? One will just say it will be too late for that to be done”.
“Those Nigerians that are trying to make mountain out of the President’s refusal to assent to the electoral bill, should know that any confusion during the 2019 elections can plunge the country into serious crisis.”
She said that the National Assembly cannot be told to override or not to override the President as some people are clamouring for, they will be hold responsible for anything short coming.
“We cannot tell the National Assembly to override or not to override the President as some People are saying, but they should know that if they (NASS), overrides him to go ahead and introduce the electronic voting, if it fails and there is a negative consequences, it will then not be the fault of the President rather, it should be their fault.
“If they (National Assembly feel that they know more and make it to be a crash programme and once there are flaws, they will be the ones to bear the consequences.
“As far as she is concerned, Mr. President is trying to avoid anything that would distort electioneering and the electoral process as he has promised to conduct free, fair and credible elections.”