Lawmakers Speak On Why Buhari Has To Sign Electoral Bill

Lawmakers Insist Buhari Must Sign Electoral Bill

Members of the National Assembly have been seeking to have President Muhammadu Buhari, sign the Electoral Act (amendment) Bill 2018.

Punch discovered yesterday,that senators and members had discussed the matter across political parties, where they consistently questioned Buhari’s seeming unwillingness to sign the bill.

It was learnt that the lawmakers observed that if the bill was not signed, there was no way the Independent National Electoral Commission could spend the N143bn as the bulk of the budget was earmarked for the procurement of election equipment envisaged by the bill.

Also, there are indications that much as the joint committee on electoral matters went ahead to approve the money for consideration by the Joint Committee on appropriations and ultimately, the floors of the two chambers, the lawmakers reportedly continued to express doubts over how INEC intend to use the money without the electoral bill signed.

According to a top parliamentary source , “The budget of INEC, and I am talking about the N143bn, not the initial N189.2bn, is this big because of the items they will procure for the elections.

“There are innovations in the electoral bill like the mandatory use of the card reader for all accreditation. In other words, there will no longer be manual accreditation whatsoever.

“So, INEC came with this huge budget to cover the cost of the so many equipment, card readers, computers and other gadgets the commission will procure to bring the accreditation in line with the provision of the bill.

“The concern of senators and members is why the passing of the budget is more important than the signing of the bill? Which one should come first?”

Another senior official, who spoke on the issue, told newsmen that lawmakers were skeptical about what would happen to the money if the budget was eventually passed, but the bill was not signed.

He said, “It is true that this concern has been raised. Nigerians too are not helping matters because nobody is asking the President why he is keeping the bill. Everybody is shouting, pass the budget, pass the budget.

“If there is sincerity of purpose, the first thing is for Buhari to sign the bill in order to justify this INEC budget.

“You don’t build something on nothing.

“We are worried because we hear from presidency sources that the President does not want to sign the bill. He is likely to return it to the National Assembly.

“However, our committees had to continue working just to save the National Assembly the persistent blackmail that it was delaying the budget of the 2019 general elections.”

When contacted for comments, the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr Abdulrazak Namdas, said he would rather speak on the “fact that so far, the National Assembly has kept to its promise to work on the INEC budget.”

Namdas told newsmen that if INEC proposed its budget for specific reasons, it was the expectation of the National Assembly that the money would be spent on those purposes.

“What I will say is that we are on the INEC budget.

“Mr President and INEC made specific requests, which have been adopted by our committees.

“So, we only hope that the money will indeed be judiciously used for the purposes the requests came to the National Assembly”, he added.

Naija News recalls the Joint Committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives on Electoral Matters, recently approved the sum of N143b INEC budget for the conduct of the 2019 general elections.

Enang ‘s Reaction On The Bill

When contacted on the telephone on Sunday, the Special Assistant to the President on the National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, said he would not like to comment on the bill.

He said, “I will not make any comments on the bill for now. All I can say is that it is well with the Electoral (Act Amendment) Bill.”