After several back-and-forths, there are indications that barring any last-minute change, President Muhammadu Buhari will tomorrow, Friday, give his long-awaited assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2021.
Authoritative Presidency sources confirmed that the President would be performing his duty of assenting to the Bill around noon on Friday.
According to the sources, arrangements had been finalised for the President to sign the re-amended Bill into law, finally putting all anxieties and speculations to rest. A source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, All these anxieties will disappear by Friday afternoon.
Public anxiety had mounted in the last few weeks over President Buharis delay in assenting to the Bill, as some members of the public, as well as some critical stakeholders, have already concluded that he was withholding assent again, indefinitely.
Recall that the National Assembly transmitted the Electoral Act (amendment) Bill 2021 to the President for a second time on January 31, having reportedly revised the Bill, which he withheld his assent to for some reason.
However, the President has yet to assent to the re-amended bill more than 20 days after it was transmitted to him, though he constitutionally has a 30-day window within which he is mandated to either assent or state reasons for not doing so.
Recall also, that the President had since November 2021 withheld his assent, citing the cost of conducting direct primary elections, security challenges and possible manipulation of electoral processes by political players as part of the reasons for his decision.
He, however, gave some conditions to give his assent, prompting the lawmakers to re-work the Bill, which initially led to the emergence of two versions from the green and red chambers of the Assembly.
The President had earlier yesterday met with top members of the National Assembly, led by Senate President, Ahmad Lawan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, over the Electoral amendment Bill.
There was, however, no official statement on the outcome of the meeting, as the President proceeded to swear in new Commissioners of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), before presiding over the meeting of the Federal Executive Council, (FEC).
At the meeting yesterday, Chairman of the INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, was sighted as the President inaugurated the new set of INEC Commissioners, recently approved by the National Assembly
The new INEC Commissioners sworn-in by the President shortly before the commencement of the Federal Executive Council meeting at the Council Chambers include: Mohammed Haruna, May Agbamuche-Mbu, Ukaegbu Kenneth Nnamdi, A.B. Alkali, a retired Major General, Rhoda Gumus and Sam Olumekun.
The Presidency had on Monday revealed that the President has until the 1st of March, 2022 to assent to the Bill while urging Nigerians to patiently await the outcome of the current consultations.
The delays in assenting to the Bill have attracted reactions from concerned stakeholders, who urged the President to sign the Bill as, according to him, it will give directions to the INEC in the conduct of elections, especially the 2023 general elections.
Issues addressed in the new Bill include the controversy over direct and indirect primary election methods.
The direct primary allows all approved registered members of a party to vote for who they want to be the candidate of their party in the main elections. On the other hand, the indirect primary election allows only delegates selected by the party to decide who will be the partys candidate.
A third clause was, however, added to the new amendment which is the consensus, which allows the party to select those they want without necessarily subjecting it to the election process.
