Assent to Electoral Bill as Legacy _ Rep Dekor Tell Buhari
Joshua Omoloye, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has been told that one of the best legacies President Muhammadu Buhari can leave for Nigerians after leaving office, is to assent to the new Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
Rt. Honourable Dumnamene Dekor, representing Khana/Gokana Federal Constituency, Rivers State admonished the President on Monday while speaking with some journalists at the National Assembly.
He urged the President to respect the wish of Nigerians to have a reformed electoral process that will strengthen the nation’s democracy and end all infractions that had discredited past elections.
Hon. Dekor wondered why President Buhari still withhold assent 11 days after the National Assembly transmitted the re- amended version of the Electoral Bill to him.
He warned that refusal or otherwise by the President to append signature on the important piece of legislation gives room for speculation and capable of heating the polity.
According to him, “the country has about 371 days to hold an election. The election is supposed to be proclaimed and up till this moment, technically about 11 days from now and Mr. President has not given his assent. We hope he does because by 18th of this month, it will be a bit worrisome”.
He said most concern about “people being fraudulently elected, the kind of crisis we have in the electoral system, the militarisation of elections will come to an end with a better electoral system.
“By the provisions of the Act, if election results are transmitted electronically from the polling unit, it will remove a lot of fraud, killings from our electoral system and it will also make our elections cheaper on the long run in terms of manpower because you have to recruit so many men.
“In addition, risking lives of personnel and sd- hoc staff such as corps members and all those involved in the electoral process will be reduced,”.
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He said President Buhari can do Nigerians and Nigeria a lot of good by giving his assent.
“The reason is simple, if I think I’m strong and I have my people who are willing that I should represent them, there might be a woman who is out there selling pepper, but also has the minimum qualification to run for election into the National Assembly, she can put herself forward up for election knowing that there is going to be one man one vote and that the vote of the people will count and she is not going to be
shortchanged.
“That way she will go and run election against me and because she is popular and accepted by the people, she will be elected.
“The issue of so much money in politics, thuggery and all that will be reduced to the very minimum and, of course in tune with modern trend all over the world and it will work for us.
“All this story of we don’t have network here and there and they are doing trademoni all over the place, we are doing electronic banking in this country, will that of electronic transmission of results be
different?”.
He believes the APC government will do Nigerians a favour by ushering in a better Electoral Act that will define the process of electing people into various offices.
