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Many Nigerians have expressed disappointment over President Muhammadu Buhari’s reported declined to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill over the passage of direct primaries clause.
In a leaked letter sent to the National Assembly, President Buhari cited other irregularities in the bill.
The President believes direct primaries are expensive. He further noted that conducting free and fair direct primary elections will be tasking, taking into consideration the country’s security challenges.
The Nigerian leader equally fears that with direct primaries, citizens’ rights will be violated while smaller political parties may face marginalisation.
Buhari’s most recent move followed debates over the Electoral Amendment Bill which he was supposed to sign on or before December 19th, 2021.
Earlier, presidential spokesman Garba Shehu had argued that whatever his principal decides to do concerning the Electoral Amendment Bill will not affect his public perception.
He told Channels Television on Monday that his principal owes no obligation to make his decision public.
“The constitution says the president must sign within 30 days, the constitution did not say that there should be the disclosure of that decision within 30 days to the public when the disclosure to the National Assembly has been made,” he explained on Monday.
Before then, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, unlike several critics, said Buhari did not assent to the bill due to his fears over the electronic transmission of results clause.
According to him, the president does not have a reason for not signing the bill.
“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 told Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
As the Senate resumes its plenary session on Tuesday, the lawmakers are expected to discuss Buhari’s letter and his refusal to sign the bill.
Currently, the lawmakers are in a closed-door session and the Senate President Ahmad Lawan is expected to read the President’s letter to the lawmakers.
Many Nigerians, monitored by The Street Reporters Newspaper, have taken to the social media to express their disappointment with the decision of the President to withhold assent to the bill.
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