Opinion: Buhari’s withheld assent; The position of the law

By: Alex Ter Alex.
Former Attorney-general And Commissioner Of Justice, Benue State.

PMB’s reasons for declining assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill 2018 are dubious, disingenuous and patiently non-nationalistic. Not any one of the reasons advanced by the President, read alone or severally, warrants the decline of assent for the following reasons.

1. There can be no confusion as to which Electoral Act (EA) applies at any particular time. Once an amendment is passed it becomes the extant law and the previous law becomes extinct so what confusion is he talking about. If he assents to the Electoral Amendment Bill 2018, that very moment EA 2010 goes to the dust bin and into extinction.

2. The issue of arrangement of sections is a legislative business and not an executive function. The President is not a draftsman so should not designate himself as a legislative editor for the NASS. If there is any supposed confusion in the arrangement of sections such as to materially affect the administration of the EA that can only become manifest in the course of implementation not assent. Moreover even after assent where this confusion emanates the courts can void the incongruous sections because that is the powers granted to them under the constitution that is why the courts are there to interpret the law in the first place. The President can not exercise his executive powers and also appropriate the powers of the judiciary, which amounts to a descent to authoritarianism and full blown dictator ship in a democracy.

3. There is nothing like ‘Registration Area Collation Officer’ in the scheme of our electoral practice. A registration area is a polling unit. Collation of election results starts at the Ward with the Ward Collation Officer so the president is only being disingenuous or at best authoring confusion by suggesting that Ward Collation Officer be changed to Registration Area Collation Officer. Let him define who is Registration Area Collation Officer and what results such an Officer will be collating at the polling unit.

Truth is beyond partisan interest, the President has no valid reasons not to assent to the bill. By not assenting to the Bill the President has revealed his deliberate intentions to frustrate the coming into effect of the Act, which would have strengthened the electoral system and minimized malpractices. For him to suggest that the NASS should have stated that the Act will come into effect after the 2019 general election leaves nothing to guess work than the fear that without rigging he stands no chance to even come a distant second in this election.
PMB is afraid of free, fair and transparent elections.His continuous refusal to assent to the EAB, particularly this last refusal is fraudulent cowardice and a cheap decoy to provide room for the use of state machinery to rig the 2019 general elections by the APC.