Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has endorsed the bill seeking to provide for independent candidacy in presidential, governorship, National and State Assemblies, as well as local government elections.
HURIWA, in an issued statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said now that the Bill has been transmitted to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent, the President should speed up processes and sign the Bill to law before he leaves office on May 29, 2023.
The group said the Bill, if it becomes a law, would be a big game-changer in Nigerias electoral processes as citizens would be able to vote the candidates they believe in without necessarily being constrained to belonging to one party or the other.
HURIWA also stated that it believed that the Bill, if assented to, would curb the over-bloated importance given to dominant political parties like the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as well as their alleged corrupt leaders who turn the whole thing into an enterprise, collecting hundreds of millions from candidates to pick up nomination forms.
It is only reasonable that the President immediately assents to the Bill before he leaves on May 29, 2023. At least, Nigerians can have something positive that he contributed to the electoral system, aside the terribly flawed Electoral Act, the statement submitted.
The National Assembly has resolved to send the Constitution alteration Bill Number 58 after the Senate approved recommendations of a report.
