NASS summons Jega, AGF
By Ben Agande, Sam Eyoboka & Okey Ndiribe
ABUJA – FOLLOWING Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC’s request for a postponement of the elections from January to April 2011, the National Assembly, yesterday, summoned the INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke to a meeting next Monday, even as more Nigerians had declared their support for the postponement.
INEC chairman and the Attorney-General are expected to appear before a joint meeting of the Senate and House of Representatives Committee on constitution review.
Vanguard gathered that the meeting was at the instance of the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who is also the chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitution Review.
A statement by the Special Adviser on Media, to the Deputy Senate President, Mr. Paul Odenyi, said the meeting will deliberate on the request by INEC for the postponement of the commencement of next year’s general elections. He added that the meeting will be attended by the 44-member constitution review committee at the Senate Hearing Room 1, White House, National Assembly Complex.
Tinubu hails Jega
Meanwhile, former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has hailed INEC Chairman, Prof. Jega, for his courage to tell Nigerians that it was not possible to conduct next year’s general elections in January.
Tinubu who spoke in Lagos during his wife’s birthday celebration said what Jega has told the entire nation was the truth adding that he should be encouraged to fashion a realistic time-line instead of rigidly sticking to the earlier one for the purpose of conducting a free and fair election.
He said: “You don’t embark on an impossible task. Even the prophets of God Almighty never embarked on any impossible task. He has been given an assignment with a time-line and milestones, if he thinks it is not achievable, let him tell us the truth.
“Those who made the law at the National Assembly should realise that they were voted for by we the people. I have said it earlier on that this time-table which looked like a mathematical formula would go wrong. The logic of the election would be wrong.
They want to stampede us into the murky waters of the old register. They gave INEC a calendar. By doing that they took away the independence of the electoral body.”
While urging Nigerians not to feel unconcerned about the forth-coming elections, but to ensure that they registered and voted in the forth-coming poll, Tinubu said: “You don’t have to offer bribe to anybody to register for the 2011 election.
Ensure that you vote and that your vote counts so that you can elect leaders that can respond to your needs”.
However, Senator Ganiyu Solomon, who was also present at the event expressed a different view on the request by INEC for an extension in the electoral time-table.
He said Prof. Jega would need to explain to Nigerians and the National Assembly why he has suddenly realised that he needs more time to conduct a credible poll.
Solomon said: “One had expected that Prof. Jega did his home work well before presenting the earlier time-table. He ought to have taken all logistical factors into consideration before presenting the earlier time table.”
Oritsejafor urges prompt grant of INEC’s request
National President of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, urged all relevant authorities in the country to grant INEC’s request for an extension of its election time table, if that was what the electoral umpire required to conduct free, fair and credible poll next year.
Oritsejafor, who spoke at the first inaugural service of a state PFN executive council at the National Stadium in Lagos, said the government should grant INEC’s request with despatch to enable the electoral body do its job credibly.
Noting that certain anti-democratic forces were already positioning themselves to foist themselves on the nation without any viable plan on how to solve the power crisis in the country, or how to give water to the people, and fix our dilapidated roads, Oritsejafor stressed that the nation must as a matter of urgency, actively participate in the coming electoral process to ensure that such forces of oppression and wickedness against the masses were denied access to positions of power next year.
Request gets lawyers’ backing
Theguest by Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for more time to enable it compile a credible voters’ register and conduct a free and fair 2011 general elections received the overwhelming support of Nigerians, Tuesday, as they agreed that the commission should be given more time to do a thorough job.
They, however, argued that the commission should now seek amendment of the constitution and the Electoral Act to accommodate the exigencies of the moment.
This came just as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Odein Ajumogobia, said, the decision by INEC, to seek time extension for the 2011 elections would not lead to constitutional crisis.
Chief Bayo Ojo
INEC is in the driving seat, so it knows where the shoe pinches. If they think they need more time, I think they should be given more time. So, if the extension will guarantee free and fair elections, I think they should be given more time.
There is no point rushing and not getting it right. If the election is held in April, I think it is still okay. If there is going to be any infraction of the law arising from the postponement, I think the National Assembly will do what is necessary.
Prof. Itse Sagay
If INEC had gone ahead with the election it would have been disastrous. The draw back of this is that those who are sworn in will have to use state resources to fight opponents after being sworn in. But the constitution says the offices of those elected must terminate on May 29. I don’t foresee any constitutional crisis because what will happen is that there is still 30 days before swearing in which the constitution allows.
I see no legal or constitutional crises arising because INEC is just trying to adjust the election date within the ambit of the law. Since INEC has given the go ahead to parties to start conducting their primaries, what they have to do is to re-adjust the time table for the primaries.
Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN
They cannot ask that the election be postponed without amending the constitution. The National Assembly has passed the new constitution and they said it’s done. Sincerely speaking, INEC is not prepared for this election.
The President has signed the Electoral Act into law and the constitution too has been amended and both Electoral Act and the Constitution said election must take place in January. Both laws have not been suspended, so, what INEC should do is to seek amendment to accommodate the exigencies of the moment.
Even by the Uwais report, elections ought to take place in January. There is confusion now, so, what INEC should do is to ask what do we do within the extent of the law. And if INEC wants elections postponed, it stands to reason that INEC should ask the parties to suspend the primaries.
Bamidele Aturu, human rights lawyer
INEC is caught in the middle of a legal tangle that is not its own making. Regrettably the initiators and instigators of the crisis are the politicians in the National Assembly who travelled outside the shores of our jurisdiction to shop for inapplicable precedents for the illegality of passing Constitutional amendments without presidential assent.
As I have a case in court on this issue I do not intend to say more on the matter other than warn that in the event of the judiciary nullifying the so_called automatic amendments to the Constitution, then we might be in for a situation in which the 2011 General Elections would be an exercise in futility.
The truth is that all is not well. My grouse, therefore, is on account of INEC’s timetable’s reliance on the so-called constitutional amendment in designing the timetable for the elections and not for its not complying strictly with the provisions of the Electoral Act.
I had expected the Attorney General to take the matter straight to the Supreme Court for an early resolution, but that seems not to be a priority of the law officer at the moment.
Lai Mohammed, ACN publicity secretary
National Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed in his reaction to the plan to shift the general elections from January to April next year by INEC, said it was in line with what the party had been clamouring for.
He said: “That is what we advised INEC to do in the first place, we just hope that the National Assembly will take time out to ensure the necessary amendment is carried out in the light of this development.”
Uche Igbome, PDP chieftain, Delta State
Whatever is needed to give INEC the necessary support should be encouraged. The shift in date is important to give the parties to prepare their members for the elections As you know this is rainy season and for those of us in the south south it is a difficult period to access people because of the terrain There is no way you can reach people for registration during this period so we welcome the shift.
