The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), has reacted to President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, saying signing the bill would be tantamount to signing one's dead wish.
Buhari has in a letter to the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, said prevailing situation in the country such as high cost of conducting direct primaries, the security challenge of monitoring the election, violation of citizens rights, and marginalisation of small political parties, are reasons behind his decision to not sign the bill.
However in a statement by its spokesman, Ikenga Ugochinyere, CUPP says Buhari's fear is more than just the issues he used as reason to not sign the bill, but the bill in its entirety.
Ugochinyere said Buhari knows if signed into law, the bill will more than likely work against the party he used to ride his way to power. He also said the decision of the National Assembly to go on recess at such a crucial time, is only playing into the hands of the President as delays can be dangerous considering the next election is around the corner.
"If the issue of direct and indirect primary is why the president failed to sign the electoral law, let parliament expunge that area and retransmit the remaining one to him. Let us see the reason he would use in not signing it again," he said.
"If the parliament was responsive, there is no need of going on recess at a time like this. All that is required to do is just one or two sittings and the amendment would be made and transmitted back to the president for assent.
"I can tell you that what the president is running away from is not the argument of direct or indirect primary but the president is scared that if he conducts an election with the electronic voting system, his party would lose an election," he stated.
The inclusion of the clause on direct primaries for political parties in the bill, has been the bone of contention for quite some time now, and Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, thinks the move was deliberate so that the president wouldn’t assent to it.
Speaking in a statement through his special assistant on media, Kelvin Ebiri, Wike said it is obvious to him and “all discerning minds” that the clause on direct primaries was inserted into the electoral bill as an excuse for the president to refuse assent to it.
“Three weeks ago, I told Nigerians that there is a conspiracy not to have a free, fair, transparent election in 2023 and that conspiracy was very clear. And I told Nigerians, Mr President will not sign the electoral act amendment bill,” Wike was quoted as saying.
“What APC resolved in the meeting they had was that their problem is not necessarily direct primaries, but the electronic transmission of result in 2023.
“If they allow that, obviously APC will lose the election in 2023 and they told themselves that the only way we can survive that is to include the direct primaries in the bill so that Mr President can use that as an excuse, that he will not sign the bill.
“Unfortunately, you don’t have a national assembly that has what it takes, that will stand for the people, that will say ‘look, we were elected by the people and we want to give the people the best’.
“Nobody in the national assembly, not even the leadership, can have what it takes to say ‘Mr President, for the interest of Nigerians, we are going to veto this your refusal’.”
Wike said the way forward is for Nigerians “not to repeat the mistakes of 2015 and 2019” and “send the APC government packing” in 2023.