A member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Serguis Ogun has revealed what will happen if President Muhammadu doesn’t give assent to the reworked electoral act amendment bill this week.
According to him, NASS override Buhari if he fails to sign the bill. He said that the National Assembly has given attention to the wishes and demands of the President, stressing that there was no other cogent reason not to sign the bill into law. It will be recalled that the President had rejected the bill, picking holes with the direct primary mode of elections for political parties in choosing their candidates earlier provided by the parliament. Reworking the bill, however, the National Assembly added indirect and consensus options to the direct primary clause and transmitted the bill to the President. But the days are counting and the President is yet to give his assent. Going by the earlier timetable of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC on the 2023 general elections, the first election is scheduled to hold on February 18, 2023. Speaking exclusively to Vanguard, against the backdrop of the election timeline, Sunday, Hon. Ogun who represents Esan North-East/Esan South- East Constituency of Edo State in the Federal House of Representatives said the federal parliament may have no choice than to override the President should he fail to do what is expected of him in the coming weeks. He said: “I am sure he will sign the bill into law this week. If he doesn’t, the NASS will have no choice but to override him. The NASS bent over to accommodate everything he requested for in his letter to us and more, what else can we do? The future of this country is not about the president but our young people hence we will do the needful.”
