Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari does not have any excuse for not signing the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
The national assembly had, on November 18, 2021 transmitted the bill to the president for assent.
Both chambers of the national assembly had empowered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to determine the best mode to transmit election results — either electronically or manually.
The lawmakers also approved that all political parties must use the direct primary mode in picking candidates.
But Wike, on Sunday, December 19, 2021 during an interview on Channels Television’s Programme, Sunday Politics, argued that contrary to claims that the President is holding back due to the quagmire over direct and indirect primaries as embedded in the bill, the main issue remains the electronic transmission of results.
“The ruling party in their conspiracy is trying to deceive Nigerians that the mere inclusion of the direct primaries in the electoral act amendment bill is the problem why the President does not want to sign or why he has refused to sign.
“The major issue is the transmission, the electronic transmission of results,” Wike asserted.
The governor added that because there are opportunities for clauses in a bill to be further amended, the President has no excuse why he could not have signed the bill and called for sections to be revisited.
“The issue is this, Mr President signed the Petroleum Industry Bill and sent it back for an amendment of the bill.
“If Mr President means well for this country and as he has promised Nigerians that he wants to conduct free and fair elections, then nothing stops Mr President from accenting to this amendment and then seek an amendment as regards the direct/indirect mode of conducting the primaries of various political parties,” Wike explained.
He added, “So if anybody tells you that abinitio, APC had wanted to support the electronic transmission of results of the 2023 election, that person must be a joker because I do know that in 2018/2019, why the President did not sign was because of card-reader. Mr President was told, if you sign that, it would lead to your failure of the election.”
