From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Political parties’ primaries for the 2023 general elections may have ended but the dust raised by the nomination exercises is yet to settle in the House of Representatives. In the aftermath of the nomination processes, moves by some members of the House to get the parliament to override President Muhammadu Buhari’s veto of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill is unsettling the Green Chamber.
Daily Sun gathered that no fewer than 115 members of the House lost their bids to either return to the parliament or contest for other offices in the 2023 general elections. However, the leadership of the House, as well as the affected lawmakers, blame the use of ad-hoc delegates for the primaries for the humiliating loss some of them suffered in the nomination of process.
Prior to the primaries, the National Assembly had made concerted efforts to amend the Electoral Act, to create room for statutory delegates to participate in the nomination process. The two chambers of the National Assembly had at emergency sessions in May, altered Section 84 (8) of the Electoral Act 2022 to expand the scope of those eligible to participate in the nomination of political parties’ candidates to include statutory delegates. Statutory delegates consist of the President, Vice President, National Assembly members, governors, deputy governors, ministers, state commissioners, party officials amongst others.
Nevertheless, President Buhari refused to assent to the amendment and thereby restricting the nomination of candidates for the 2023 polls to ad-hoc delegates, as stipulated in the extant laws.
The speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, is of the view that the use of the delegate system by political parties for primaries, was responsible for the loss suffered by members at the nomination exercises.
Gbajabiamila, who spoke while welcoming members back from their recess had noted that “as is always the case in electoral contests, some of us who sought the nomination of our parties to return to legislature have not gotten it. Others who sought nomination to contest other positions have also fallen short in that quest.”
According to him, “many of our members lost because of the process, the process which we foresaw in the House of Representatives. The delegate system which unfortunately is not what a delegate system is supposed to be.
“Honourable colleagues, many of our members lost because they were not even given a fair shot. We have good legislators, both here in the chambers and back home, who are probably not coming back because of this same process.
“When we fought for direct primaries in this house, we knew exactly what we were saying. It pains me very deeply, that the process has gone the way it has gone. We will continue to push and continue to fight for our members, for democracy, for the institution and this country.”
Expectedly, the day after, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member from Delta State, Ben Igbakpa, speaking under personal explanation, urged the House to override President Buhari’s veto on Section 84 (8) of the Electoral Act. The Delta born lawmaker, while addressing the House, said since the President has failed to assent to the bill within the 30 days window, provided by the constitution, the appropriate thing is for the parliament to override him.
He recalled that “on the 11th of May with your colleagues you brought all back from our various constituency so that we can work on the electoral act as amended; graciously that was done on the 11th of May, it was done. And by 12th, this amendment was transmitted to Mr. President.
“Mr. President did not just ignore, he traveled out of the country on a condolence visit to Dubai and that created a lot of problem for the country. There were tension and many of our political parties out of the tension created that will now be for us in the 2023-2027 electoral process. Nigerians are crying for good leadership and the leadership recruitment process starts with our primaries.
“Mr. Speaker I implore you as a great leader to please, it is time if we are sure we have done what is right to the electoral act 2022; we should rise up take our pen, collect signatures and by the grace of God override Mr. President and give Nigerians the enabling electoral law that will stand the test of time.”
The deputy minority leader, Toby Okechukwu, took it up from there. Okechukwu, in his intervention, said the ad-hoc delegates system was used as a weapon during the primaries.
Okechukwu lamented that “majority of members, where it has been weaponised, have become victims. Something is wrong in an environment, in an institution where the two leaders of the Senate would have to cross to other parties because of inherent inclement condition. Anything that occasions it, anything that warrants it, if it is our Electoral Act, if is our politics, if it is the environment where we operate, we need to retool.”
Incidentally, Igbakpa and Okechukwu are among members, who lost out in their bids to clinch the PDP tickets to return to the House in the 2023 polls.
Gbajabiamila, in his ruling agreed that the 30 days, within which the President is expected to sign the amendment had elapsed. Nevertheless, he noted that the override is not automatic.
According to him, “for us to override, I believe in the required two-thirds and it cannot be by voice votes neither can it be by way of signatures unless of course you gave enough signatures by two-thirds.”
Consequently, he directed Igbakpa to come with a consequential motion to begin the process of overriding President Buhari’s veto of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
Politics of override
However, in the last two weeks, there have been twists and turns as the move to get the House to override the President is assuming a political dimension, with presiding officers giving different interpretation to the rules.
Bouyed by the speaker’s directive, Igbakpa was back on the floor last week, armed with a motion on the need to override the President on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill. Regardless, as the Delta born lawmaker was reading his motion, the deputy speaker, Idris Wase, who presided over the session was seen conferring with the chairman, Rules and business, Abubakar Fulata and other members of the APC.
Almost at the same time, the minority leader, Ndudi Elumelu was seen going round opposition lawmakers, and consulting with them; apparently in preparation for debate on the motion.
Nevertheless, Igbakpa had barely finished reading the motion when Wase said the move for the override was procedurally wrong. According to him, it is against the rules of the House for anyone to seek to override a presidential assent through motion.
He said: “My guide is that the procedure followed is not the right procedure. For you to override on any bill, you need two third of members. Not members sitting but two third members of the National Assembly. This is why I am guiding you and guiding the House.
“In our standing rules, we have procedure for overriding. You don’t come with a motion to override a bill. What you are supposed to do, is if you are interested, write to the speaker seeking for that to happen; then we go through the normal procedure as enshrined in our standing order.”
However, a dissatisfied Igbakpa protested mildly. The lawmaker explained that he was acting on the directive of Gbajabiamila.
“On Thursday, I came under constitutional order and the Speaker directed what I am doing. It means there is a miscommunication somewhere…” he stated.
But Wase was not swayed. He said that the Speaker couldn’t have asked the lawmaker to bring a motion for the override. The deputy speaker stated: “I wish to kindly beg you to step down your motion because that is not the right procedure and liaise with Chairman of House Rules to do the needful,” and hit the gavel.
The twists continued the next legislative day, as Gbajabiamila, who was absent the previous day, subtly overruled the deputy speaker. Though the Speaker said there was no contradiction between his directive and the stance of the deputy, he said the Electoral Act Amendment Bill would be brought back through a motion.
According to him, “you still have to bring a substantive motion to bring the bill back, not just by saying let us override. The Bill has to be brought back to the House.”
Pundits say, with the speaker’s latest directive, it is expected that Igbakpa, who had said that he is undeterred in his bid to get the House to override the President’s veto will represent his motion again, when the House resumes from its Sallah break on July 19. But whether the motion and the bid for an override will scale through in the parliament will be another issue all together.
Political parties’ primaries for the 2023 general elections may have ended but the dust raised by the nomination exercises is yet to settle in the House of Representatives.