Buhari fails to sign electoral act amendment bill into law

Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari has failed to sign the 2021 electoral act amendment bill passed by the national assembly in November.

The president had until Sunday, December 19 to signed the bill which was sent to him by the national assembly on November 19, but failed to do so.

Business Hallmark has last week, quoting an Aso Rock source, a reported that president would decline his accent to the bill 

Both the Senate President Ahmad Lawan and Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila, had at different times met with President Buhari over the bill and expressed confidence that he would assent to it.

But emerged last week that the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), had written a letter to Buhari, highlighting the problems with the inclusion of mandatory direct primaries in the Electoral Act amendment bill.

He informed the president that making direct primaries mandatory for all political parties could cause confusion.

The president, sources said, will communicate to the leadership of the parliament today, where he is expected to raise reservation with clause 87, which provides for direct primary.

There has been a cold war between federal lawmakers and governors over the inclusion of direct primaries in the bill, with the latter mounting pressure on the president to reject the provision.

The lawmakers can, however, override the president’s veto by two-thirds majority, but that’s unlikely to happen, even as some members of the national assembly had indicated that they would not fight the president over the bill.