President Muhammadu Buhari has
declined assent to the amended electoral bill (2018).
Ita Enang, senior special
assistant to the president on national assembly (senate), said the president
has communicated his decision to the national assembly.
Although Enang avoided making a
categorical statement on the bill, he was clear about the National University
Commission Amendment Act which the president assented to.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has
taken decision on Electoral Act Amendment bill 2018. In accordance with his
power under the 1999 Constitution and has communicated that decision to the
Senate and House of Representatives in accordance with the law,” Enang told
reporters on Friday.
“President Buhari has also
assented to National Open University Amendment Act, which allows the National
Open University to operate as all other universities, having the same power and
functions and the same administrative structures eliminating possible
discrimination as some use to want to have on its products and programmes.
“It has also allowed the
establishment of some centers to be called study centers and given conditions
for the establishment of such study centers.”
Asked whether the bill was
assented or rejected, he said “the president has taken a decision in a accordance
with the powers vested in him according to the constitution. And by convention
that decision contained in the communication can only be revealed by the person
to whom that decision is addressed. But the electoral bill has left Mr.
President because he has taken a decision and has remitted it back.”
Pushed further Enang said, “Thank
You very much but this is all the law allows me to say by convention. Mr.
President has sent that communication to the national assembly.”
When asked if it is safe to say
he rejected the bill, he said “it is safe to say that the president has taken
decision as allowed by low and has communicated that decision to the senate and
the House of Representatives.
“The implication of the decision
is that the president has taken action on the bill within the time allowed by
law.”
Opposition parties had mounted
pressure on the president to sign the bill, with the Coalition of United
Political Parties (CUPP) challenging Buhari to sign the bill to prove that he
had not been cloned.
This is the third time that the
president would reject the bill. In March, Buhari withheld assent to the bill
saying the proposed law would usurp the constitutional powers of Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) to decide on election matters, including
fixing dates and the order they would go.
In September, Buhari turned down
the bill for the second time, asking the national assembly to revise some
clauses.
The national assembly had passed
the bill on July 24 and transmitted to the president on August 3.
Among the controversies on the
bill were the reordering of the sequence of the 2019 elections, placing the
presidential last, instead of the governorship and state assemblies and
exclusion of card readers.
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