By Johnbosco Agbakwuru & Steve Oko

The pressure to get President Muhammadu Buhari to sign into law the Electoral Act Amendment Bill heightened, yesterday, as founder of Stanbic Chartered Bank, Atedo Peterside; Methodist Bishop, Sunday Onuoha, and Chief Executive Officer of Albino Foundation, Jake Epelle, asked the president to bequeath the legacy of sound electoral system.

This came as strong indications emerged, yesterday, that the president will sign the bill into law tomorrow.

It would be recalled that Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, had said in a telephone interview, Tuesday, that the president would sign the bill into law on Thursday or Friday.

Adesina had said: “He (Buhari) will sign it (the bill) any moment from now. It could be today (Tuesday), it could be tomorrow, it could be anytime, but within the 30 days.

“It could be signed today; it could be signed tomorrow. In a matter of hours, not days. Hours could be 24 hours, it could be 48 hours; not days, not weeks.”

Sources in the Presidency said the President had been briefed on the amendments and “should sign latest Friday if nothing else comes up.”

On January 31, 2022, the National Assembly transmitted the reworked amendment bill to the President for assent.

Buhari, consequently, forwarded it to the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, for legal advice.

By law, the president is expected to respond to the National Assembly’s proposal not more than 30 days after receiving it.

The President had in the last five years, rejected electoral amendment bills five times.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had said last month that the new law was needed to enable the commission release the timetable and schedule of activities for the 2023 general elections.

Do something tangible, assent to Electoral Bill, Atedo Peterside urges Buhari

Reacting to the development, founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank, Atedo Peterside, urged the president to do something tangible and assent to the bill without further delay.

In a tweet via his official handle, Peterside said the president should sign the bill into law, so that his government could be credited with the projected electoral reform in the country.

Peterside, who is the President of Anap Foundation, said in the seven years of President Buhari’s administration, there had been no progress regarding electoral reforms.

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He wrote:  “(Muhammadu Buhari] should please just sign this Electoral Bill so we can give him the credit for having done something tangible in the area of electoral reform.  It has been almost seven years of zero progress in this area under his watch.”

Sign Electoral Bill now, Bishop Onuoha tells Buhari

Also reacting yesterday, the co-chairman of Interfaith Dialogue Forum for Peace, Bishop Sunday Onuoha, urged the President to resist pressure from anti-democratic forces and sign the amended new Electoral Bill into law to open the democratic space in Nigeria.

The cleric, who made the appeal while delivering a keynote address at the National Security Sensitisation Campaign against political thuggery, kidnapping, drug addiction, radicalism and violent extremism in Umuahia, said Buhari had no moral excuse to decline assent to the bill when it had been amended to suit his observation.

“It is time to fulfill that promise to reduce tension and insecurity associated with elections in Nigeria.

….Albino Foundation, too

Reacting in a similar manner, Mr Jake Epelle, the Chief Executive Officer of Albino Foundation, appealed to Buhari to sign the bill into law.

Epelle, who made the appeal at a workshop organised by the foundation in Sokoto yesterday, said signing the bill into law would pave way for free and fair election in 2023 general elections in the country.

He said the bill would also encourage persons with disabilities to participate in politics at all levels in the country.

In his remark, INEC representative in Sokoto, Usman Muhammad, called on political parties to provide modalities that would encourage the participation of people living with disabilities in politics in the country.

Muhammad said in line with the commission’s vision and mission, INEC had designed measures that would ease the participation of people with disabilities in politics as well as casting of their votes.

Vanguard News Nigeria