Falana: Why Buhari Is Reluctant To Assent To Electoral Bill

Some governors in the All Progressives Congress (APC), according to Femi Falana, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), are influencing President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision not to sign the electoral bill.

Falana, speaking at TheCable Colloquium on Wednesday, claimed the president is hesitant to sign the law due to pressure from some governors concerned about key revisions to the election act.

He claimed that the governors, who are all members of the ruling party, are concerned about computerized voting, which he claims will make election rigging more difficult.

“The president is reluctant to give assent to the bill because the powerful governors in his party, the ruling party, are saying it is going to be much more expensive for them to run direct primaries,” he said.

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“Therefore, throw away the baby and the bath water. But where they’re actually going is that those governors have not recovered from the shock of having electronic vote. They know manipulation will be reduced to the minimum.

“That’s why they are asking the president to throw away that bill. They aren’t saying ‘take it back to the national assembly so that the area of direct primaries can be removed’.

“The bill can be rejected only on one ground. The 2018 bill was rejected by the president on the ground that it’s too close to the 2019 election. Now, the president may also say signing this bill now may be too close to the election and might cause confusion.”