Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers, has explained why he believes President Muhammadu Buhari will not assent to the electoral act amendment bill.
On November 18, the national assembly transmitted the bill to the president for assent.
The bill, which seeks to mandate political parties to adopt direct primary as mode of electing their candidates has generated mixed reactions among stakeholders, with Nigerian governors going against it.
Speaking on Thursday in an interview on AIT, Wike said: He will not sign it. I’m very sure. The signs are there. This Nigeria, sometimes I wonder why we belabour ourselves on certain things. Look at it very well. If you work with a system, you must understand that system — the pattern,”
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“When that issue came out between the governors and the legislators, I just laughed and I told myself ‘why are you worried about this?’ The president will not sign it — it’s dead on arrival.
“They merely created that let there be a decision. They have now passed it on to INEC. When has INEC become Buhari that will say you can do this or you cannot do this — to choose which law is good or bad?
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“What they are pushing is for INEC to come up and say ‘look, the cost implication will be this’. And then Buhari will now dwell on that and say ‘based on security implications or the cost of this, I will not do this’.
“Yes, the president has always said so many things; that he wants to leave a legacy for Nigeria. One of the legacies he wants to leave is to conduct a transparent election. In 2019, why did they not sign the electoral amendment that called for this electronic transmission? The same thing is going to happen. They have told him ‘your party will be affected; your party is gone’. I know the president will not sign.”
