ADVERTISEMENT
The Sun Nigeria
  • National
  • Columns
    • Broken Tongues
    • Capital Matters
    • Diabetes Corner
    • Duro Onabule
    • Femi Adesina
    • Frank Talk
    • Funke Egbemode
    • Insights
    • Kalu Leadership Series
    • Kunle Solaja
    • Offside Musings
    • PressClips
    • Public Sphere
    • Ralph Egbu
    • Shola Oshunkeye
    • Sideview
    • The Flipside – Eric Osagie
    • Tola Adeniyi
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • The Sun TV
  • Sporting Sun
  • The Sun Foundation
No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • Columns
    • Broken Tongues
    • Capital Matters
    • Diabetes Corner
    • Duro Onabule
    • Femi Adesina
    • Frank Talk
    • Funke Egbemode
    • Insights
    • Kalu Leadership Series
    • Kunle Solaja
    • Offside Musings
    • PressClips
    • Public Sphere
    • Ralph Egbu
    • Shola Oshunkeye
    • Sideview
    • The Flipside – Eric Osagie
    • Tola Adeniyi
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • The Sun TV
  • Sporting Sun
  • The Sun Foundation
No Result
View All Result
The Sun Nigeria
No Result
View All Result
ADVERTISEMENT
Home Cover

Why Buhari didn’t sign Electoral Bill – Presidency

Signing it would have created confusion — Eze, ex-senator

14th December 2018
in Cover, National
0
Why Buhari didn't sign Electoral Bill – Presidency
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Senior Special Assistant to the President, Ita Enang, said the president refused to sign the electoral bill because he needed to act in the best interest of the nation.

Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

As mixed reactions continue to trail President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to sign the Electoral Amendment Bill into law, the Presidency has explained that he took the decision because doing otherwise may cause confusion and lead to anarchy.

READ ALSO: Don’t throw country into anarchy, Presbyterian Prelate warns politicians

Speaking yesterday on a television programme, Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang, said the president did not consult the other 91 political parties before refusing to sign the electoral bill because he needed to act in the best interest of the nation. According to him, “now, let me get to the other issue that Mr. President alluded to, in not assenting to the bill. It is getting too close to election time and it will be dangerous to bring in a new electoral law at this time when the process of election had commenced from August, September, October this year.

“If you come to conclusion under a new law, it will cause confusion and may lead to anarchy. I think that what the president is to do is to take the best of discretion and from his vantage point as president of the country, to look at international best practices.”

Various political parties and public interest groups had criticised the President for refusing to sign the bill. The presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Obiageli Ezekwesili, described Buhari’s rejection of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill as an assault on the country’s democracy.

Also, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, urged President Buhari to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law.

Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate for Enugu State, Senator Ayogu Eze, has commended President Muhammadu for declining to sign the Electoral Amendment Bill, arguing that its signing would create confusion in the country’s legal system.

Eze, who represented Enugu North in the Senate twice, insisted that denying assent to the Bill was in the interest of the nation, as whatever it sought to achieve had already been addressed in other areas, either administratively or legally. Speaking to newsmen at the APC national secretariat in Abuja yesterday, the senator said he was shocked that some people had even expected the law to take effect from the 2019 general elections.

His words: “I chose to speak with you about the vexed issue of the 2018 Electoral Act amendment
in the National Assembly which Mr. President in his wisdom declined to assent to. I want to let you know that as a legislator myself and as a man that is very familiar with the terrain of law making and due process, I want to say categorically that I stand with Mr. President on his decision not to assent to that law.

“Number one, the President’s view is that, signing the law and keeping it in the locker could create a lot of confusion because after every election there will always be litigations, going by the Nigerian standard and you cannot know who will go and pull out a law that is not in operation and then begin to cite it and create confusion in our legal system.

“For the avoidance of doubt, nobody would have expected that even if the President signed that law, it would have governed the 2019 elections because by the time it was passed, electoral process was already at foot. Everything has already started; the parties had selected their candidates, candidates have been identified and confirmed by INEC.

“So you cannot change the rule of the game while the game is in progress. You cannot be playing football and suddenly you stop the football at half time and introduce a new set of rules that govern football game. That is exactly what has happened.

“I was really surprised that Nigerians were expecting that that law, which was passed after this process has started, is going to be applied to this election. That would have been an aberration. What are you going to tell the political parties, which have already selected their candidates? By the provisions of the constitution to which the Electoral Act is … there is specific number of days, which the process of preparing and selecting candidates must commence and that process has already commenced. So it would have been hypocritical on the part of anybody to expect that that particular Electoral Act would apply to this election.”

READ ALSO: Electoral Bill: Buhari saved Nigeria from political instability – Tallen
Tags: 2019 electoral act2019 general electionsanarchyatiku abubakarAyogu Ezeelectoral billnational assemblyOby EzekwesiliPolitical Partiespresident muhammadu buharisenator ita enang
David

David

Sun News Online team

Related Posts

Osun monarch apologises to UNIOSUNTH over attack on staff by community youths
National

New Naira note: Buhari, Emefiele, stop inflicting suffering on Nigerians — Oluwo of Iwo

3rd February 2023
Group threatens to bomb Catholic Church in Lagos
National

Anambra police repel another gunmen attack on police station, recover bombs, others

3rd February 2023
Fuel scarcity looms as NARTO threatens strike over high operational cost
National

Scarcity: Taskforce storms petrol stations in Delta, warns against hoarding

3rd February 2023
Next Post
2019 budget: Rowdy session as Reps fume

2019 budget: Rowdy session as Reps fume

71 Reps seek return to parliamentary govt

71 Reps seek return to parliamentary govt

Crisis looms as Fulani herders, Hausa farmers resumes hostility in Kaduna

Crisis looms as Fulani herders, Hausa farmers resumes hostility in Kaduna

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Highlights

Voting for APC, PDP is like romancing with the devil- Majasan

New Naira notes scarcity forces students, soldiers clash at UNIBEN

Fuel Scarcity: Adeleke sets up special monitoring team in Osun

Nasarawa killings: Ortom will not be muzzled into silence – Tambaya

2023: Imo PDP accuses Uzodimma of engaging in alleged vote buying scheme

Group tackles Atiku for allegedly playing politics with naira swap

Trending

Osun monarch apologises to UNIOSUNTH over attack on staff by community youths
National

New Naira note: Buhari, Emefiele, stop inflicting suffering on Nigerians — Oluwo of Iwo

3rd February 2023
0

By Christopher Oji The traditional ruler of Iwoland, Oba Abdulrosheed Adewale Akanbi,has condemned the Federal Government (...

Group threatens to bomb Catholic Church in Lagos

Anambra police repel another gunmen attack on police station, recover bombs, others

3rd February 2023
Fuel scarcity looms as NARTO threatens strike over high operational cost

Scarcity: Taskforce storms petrol stations in Delta, warns against hoarding

3rd February 2023
APC vs PDP plateau

Voting for APC, PDP is like romancing with the devil- Majasan

3rd February 2023
New Naira notes scarcity forces students, soldiers clash at UNIBEN

New Naira notes scarcity forces students, soldiers clash at UNIBEN

3rd February 2023
ADVERTISEMENT

Follow us on social media:

Latest News

  • New Naira note: Buhari, Emefiele, stop inflicting suffering on Nigerians — Oluwo of Iwo
  • Anambra police repel another gunmen attack on police station, recover bombs, others
  • Scarcity: Taskforce storms petrol stations in Delta, warns against hoarding
  • Voting for APC, PDP is like romancing with the devil- Majasan
  • New Naira notes scarcity forces students, soldiers clash at UNIBEN
  • Fuel Scarcity: Adeleke sets up special monitoring team in Osun
  • Nasarawa killings: Ortom will not be muzzled into silence – Tambaya
  • 2023: Imo PDP accuses Uzodimma of engaging in alleged vote buying scheme
  • Group tackles Atiku for allegedly playing politics with naira swap
  • We’ll deliver Tinubu, Nentawe, APC candidates in 2023 – Gagdi, Plateau Reps member
  • El-rufai an anarchist, shouldn’t be taken serious, group tells Nigerians
  • Borussia – Freiburg: preview by 1xBet
  • Police rescue 4 remaining pupils abducted from Nasarawa school 
  • I will not be deterred by antics of detractors – Bishop Anagbe
  • Senator Oduah donates tricycle, N.5 million to widow in Onitsha
  • Governor Adeleke mobilises contractor back to abandoned Osun/Kwara boundary road
  • I set my wife ablaze for failing to serve me food on time – Suspect
  • Tinubu describes Atiku Nigeria’s worst enemy
  • Police nab fake currency syndicate in Enugu with counterfeits
  • 2023 Polls: FG meets Google, Facebook over fakes news

Categories

  • Abuja Metro
  • Anambra Watch
  • Arts
  • Broken Tongues
  • Business
  • Business Week
  • Cartoons
  • Citizen Joe
  • Columns
  • Cover
  • Culture
  • Duro Onabule
  • Editorial
  • Education Review
  • Effect
  • Elections
  • Entertainment
  • Events
  • Features
  • Femi Adesina
  • Food & Drinks
  • Frank Talk
  • Funke Egbemode
  • Gallery
  • Global Square by Kenneth Okonkwo
  • Health
  • Insights
  • Kalu Leadership Series
  • Kunle Solaja
  • Kunle Solaja
  • Letters
  • Lifeline
  • Lifestyle
  • Literary Review
  • Marketing Matters
  • Muiz Banire
  • National
  • News
  • Offside Musings
  • Opinion
  • oriental news
  • Politics
  • Press Release
  • PressClips
  • Public Sphere
  • Ralph Egbu
  • Shola Oshunkeye
  • Sideview
  • South-west Magazine
  • Sponsored Post
  • Sporting Sun
  • Sports
  • Sun Girl
  • Tea Time
  • The Flipside – Eric Osagie
  • The Sun Awards Live
  • The Sun TV
  • Thoughts & Talks
  • Time Out
  • Today's cover
  • Tola Adeniyi
  • Travel
  • Travel & Tourism
  • Trending
  • TSWeekend
  • Turf Game
  • Uncategorized
  • Updates
  • Views from Abroad
  • Voices
  • World
  • World News
  • About Us
  • Paper Ad Rate
  • Online Ad Rate
  • Change of Name
  • The Team
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy

© 2019 The Sun Nigeria - Managed by Netsera.

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • Columns
    • Broken Tongues
    • Capital Matters
    • Diabetes Corner
    • Duro Onabule
    • Femi Adesina
    • Frank Talk
    • Funke Egbemode
    • Insights
    • Kalu Leadership Series
    • Kunle Solaja
    • Offside Musings
    • PressClips
    • Public Sphere
    • Ralph Egbu
    • Shola Oshunkeye
    • Sideview
    • The Flipside – Eric Osagie
    • Tola Adeniyi
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • The Sun TV
  • Sporting Sun
  • The Sun Foundation

© 2019 The Sun Nigeria - Managed by Netsera.