By Sandra Umeh
The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) has lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for signing the Electoral Amendment Bill, 2021 into Law.
Chairman of the NBA Section on Public Interest and Development Law (NBA-SPIDEL), Dr Onyekachi UbanI, gave the commendation on Friday in Lagos.
Ubani described the assent as a step in the right direction.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that President Buhari on Friday, signed the much awaited bill into law at the State House in Abuja.
NAN recalls that President Buhari had withheld his assent to the bill in November, citing the cost of conducting direct primary elections, security challenges, and possible manipulation of electoral processes by political players as part of the reasons for his decision.
The President had later given some conditions to give his assent, which prompted the lawmakers to rework the bill, leading to the emergence of two versions in the Senate and House of Representatives.
Both chambers later passed the harmonised version on Jan. 25, which produced the final agreed version of the amendment to clause 84, which included the direct, indirect, and consensus primary modes.
Ubani, however said that assent to the bill came at the right tine, with the 2023 general elections underway.
“It is a commendable step in the right direction, better late than never.”
On his part, a former Publicity Secretary of the NBA, Benin Branch, Mr Douglas Ogbankwa, described the law, as being a “new vista” in our electoral process.
“This is including but not limited to multiple choices in choosing a candidate for a political party ranging from direct primaries, indirect primaries and consensus.
“Another novel , but fool proof method of ascertainable collation of results , subject to the Nigerian factor, is the electronic transmission of results to an online, real time platform, that is monitored by all parties to an election,” he said.
Ogbankwa said there were other ground breaking innovations in the Electoral Act 2022 , that had given the populace a glimmer of hope of a more transparent template in election organisation.
“The Act provides a better vistas, to an improvement of our electoral process, that will give our country a leeway to a foolproof electoral course , which will make all and sundry in Nigeria, have a sense a belonging,” he said.
According to Ogbankwa, the new law surely serves as a good template going forward. (NAN)
