Come 18th February 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), God’s willing, will be conducting the 2023 general election. This was expressly stated by the Chairman of the body, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, in the course of a public hearing on the Electoral Offences Commission Bill in Abuja in April this year. To him, there was the dire need to know the legal framework to govern the conduct of the polls hoping to make public the full details of the time table for the 2023 elections after the gubernatorial election in Anambra State coming up in November 2021. It is instructive to succinctly state that legal framework will dictate and determine the techniques, technicalities and tools to be explored and/or exploited in order to make every vote count.

Why should the amendment be an urgent issue?

It is saddening that after two decades of uninterrupted civil rule in Nigeria, the many aspects of our electoral process yearning for reviews and reforms are left unattended to. Equally, worrisome is the fact that the National Assembly (NASS) members seemingly do not envisage this step as vital in refining the political process to ensure the individual votes count thus encouraging, empowering and emboldening potential voters to come out on election day. In addition, 2023 election, should also ensure and enhance the voting process such that many Nigerians are not disenfranchised through the clumsy and cumbersome process of acquiring the Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC). The proper amendment of the outmoded Electoral Act 2010 can guarantee a positive outcome.

INEC’S Appeal

The head of the electoral umpire, INEC, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, is to say the least exasperated by the seeming lackadaisical and laidback attitude of the country’s lawmakers, of both the green and red chambers, in putting their acts together to assiduously fine-tune the amendment of the archaic and antiquated Electoral Act of 2010! For instance, the Justice Uwais’ Committee recommended punishment for electoral offenders, the public hearing regarding this nagging and recurring issue was just coming up 13 years after! What a ‘serious’ country desiring inclusive governance with eagerness to deliver dividends of democracy by putting the right people in positions of power! Any wonder, our system is bedeviled with many dealers in leaders’ garbs? One is not then surprised that prevalent cases of vote buying, vote selling, ballot box snatching and falsification of election results are nauseating and naughty issues in our electoral process. Simply and squarely stated, it is not yet uhuru if we really desire a free and fair election! It is high time, our esteemed NASS sat up!! INEC, the umpire and regulator, is still keeping hope alive that the National Assembly will live up to her billing in ensuring the amendment of the Electoral Act 2010

NASS: Will You Keep Your Promise?

The report of the amendment to the Electoral Act 2010 after more than two months of being laid before the House of Representatives, as reported in the Punch newspaper publication of 16th May 2021, is yet to be considered by the eminent members of the hallowed green chamber. Is it paramount for a priority listing? We are almost midway into 2021 and elections are coming up early 2023! Will the country still conduct the 2023 elections relying on the outmoded Electoral Act 2010 in this digital age? It is gratifying to note that there is a ray of hope as the Senate President, Dr Ahmed Lawan, promised to assiduously work on the bill after the Sallah break with the belief that the House of Representatives will follow suit, thereafter ensuring the onward transmission to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for his assent. Then, it becomes an Act. The Chairman of the Committee on Electoral Matters in the green chamber, Aishatu Dukku, had been literally begging the leaders of the House of Representatives to formally receive the report of the Committee dealing with repealing Electoral Act 2010 and to Enact the Electoral Act 2021 that will regulate the Conduct of Elections in Federal, States and Area Councils in the Federal Capital Territory, and for Related Matters. One hopes that the leaders of the green chamber will consider it a vital task on the agenda anytime soon.

However, it is a long process! Anyone conversant with the art and science of law-making will attest that it is still a long way to the preferred destination. There are still hurdles to cross. In its characteristic manner, a bill will pass through not less than 5 stages or steps namely: First Reading; Second Reading; Committee Stage; Third Reading and Passage; and Harmonization. The end-point is the assent by the President of the Federal Republic. It is gladdening that the Senate promised that these stages could be scaled within the first half of the year thus paving the way for the enactment of Electoral Act 2021. This columnist, as a researcher, will like the leaders of the National Assembly know that the feelings of the followers in the polity align with the thinking that NASS is averse to electoral reforms preferring the status quo ante. The onus lies on the duo of the Senate President, Dr Ahmed Lawan, and the Speaker, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, to use their good offices to prove the pessimists or skeptics wrong. The ball is in their courts!

NASS: Is Electoral Matter A Priority?

It will be good to conclude on this note in the Followership Challenge of this week. In this digital age, should Nigeria still be fixated with the Electoral Act 2010 that is not allowing for legality of card reader not to talk of electronic voting when we have leaders of both the Senate (Red Chamber) and House of Representatives (Green Chamber) highly informed and widely traveled? It is laughable to read in the newspapers that certain women lawmakers are vigorously and vehemently, with zeal and zest, pursuing a bill that will allow for an increase of 111 members of both the red and green chambers – all women! Do they think of the financial burden? Are they so insensitive of the season we are in currently in Nigeria? It is high time our elected representatives went back to the followers that elected them to gauge their yearnings, leanings and feelings. Are they so far from the rest of us?

• Dr. Ekundayo, J. M. O., can be reached via 08155262360 (SMS only) and drjmoekundayo@hotmail.com