An Islamic scholar and political activist, Dr Usman Bugaje, has accused the Senate leadership under Senate President Godswill Akpabio of repeatedly undermining Nigeria’s democratic process, alleging a pattern of deception and poor legislative conduct.
Bugaje made the remarks on Tuesday while speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show, where he defended the ongoing move to amend the Electoral Act to provide clarity following a Supreme Court ruling.
According to him, the amendment has become necessary to ensure transparency in elections, particularly through the mandatory electronic transmission of results in real time.
Bugaje noted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had already recommended mandatory real-time transmission of results, a position he said had been adopted by the House of Representatives.
He, however, accused the Senate of resisting the move.
He further accused the Senate of previous legislative failures, citing alleged irregularities in tax legislation and budgetary processes, which he said had resulted in confusion over multiple budgets and hampered economic planning.
He described the Senate leadership as a major challenge to governance in the country and questioned its effectiveness, calling for greater scrutiny of its actions.
Bugaje said: “You see, this is precisely because of that ruling of the Supreme Court, it has become necessary for us to now go back and amend the law for clarity, accuracy and precision, so that everybody will be clear.
“The whole idea is to do a transparent election, and the best way to is to make sure that the results are available electronically, immediately, that’s real time, so that everybody can see exactly where the votes are.
“INEC has gone as far as saying that there should be mandatory transmission of results in real time. The House of Reps have done exactly that, while the Senate is always caught cheating or deceiving people.
“It is one thing that we really have to address after this amendment. This is not the first time that Senate is found napping or is caught cheating in terms of, you know, their basic function of law making. They have done that, like we just mentioned, with the tax law.
“They have done that with with padding of budgets, and as a result of the mess they have done, we have now nearly three budgets, none of which is rarely functional. You don’t know where really you are.
“So businesses cannot plan because they don’t know which budget is going to be implemented, which one is going to be funded.
“And so the Senate leadership, at least, is no is now being the biggest problem you know of this country, and we need to begin to ask of what use are these leadership.
What kind of irresponsible behavior is this?
“So we’ll have to take that up after we have gone through the amendment.
“But I think there is a groundswell of opinion across the country, even with their fellow legislators in the House, that this mandatory transmission in real time is what everybody wants, and that’s what should actually be done. And Nigerians are not ready for anything less.”
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