By Wilfred Eya and Chukwudi Nweje
Prominent groups including the Middle Belt Forum, Coalition of Northern Youth Groups and Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) have lambasted President Buhari rejected the harmonised bill.
National Publicity Secretary, Middle Belt Leaders Forum, Dr. Dogo Isuwa described it as a political criminality for the president to decline assent to the bill.
He urged members of the National assembly to veto the president for the overall interest of the country and wondered why President Buhari should hesitate to sign such a popular bill.
He said the Direct primaries option resonates with the majority of Nigerians, hence the need for President Buhari to sign it if truly he is a democrat.
Isuwa said it would be the highest achievement by the National assembly if the direct primaries bill is passed and the members would have written their names in gold.
Spokesman of the Coalition of Arewa Youth Groups, Alhaji Abdul Aziz Suleiman, said he was not surprised because Buhari has never been a democrat.
He said the youth group would challenge the the president in court.
He said direct primaries remained the best option for the country and argued that imposition of candidates is one of the major challenges facing the nation’s electoral process.
Executive Director Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and Chairman Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, has condemned President Muhammadu Buhari over his rejection of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2021.
Rafsanjani said Buhari by his action has demonstrated that he wants to perpetuate the vicious cycle of electoral fraud in the country.
“It is very clear that President Buhari never wanted to address the issue of electoral fraud in Nigeria. For the past six years, he never did anything in that regard, so I’m not surprised that he rejected the recommendation which the Nigerian people wanted. Nigerians agitated for the direct primary to rescue the electoral process from manipulation and fraud by those who are in the habit of perpetrating electoral fraud and to allow members of political parties to select those they want. What the president has clearly done is to say that he has gotten what he wanted and that as far as he is concerned, Nigerians can continue to wallow in electoral fraud. He has clearly demonstrated, whether he says it or not, that as far as he is concerned the rights of the electorate does not count.”