KEY POINTS
- The National Assembly intends to modify the 2022 Electoral Act to allow statutory delegates during party primary elections.
- Senate President Godswill Akpabio declared that the failure to include statutory delegates in the elections was a mistake which needs fixing ahead of the next voting cycle.
- Democracy requires participation from the people to become more inclusive while political parties must gain freedom to nominate their candidates according to Akpabio.
The National Assembly works on an amendment to the 2022 Electoral Act through which statutory delegates would gain participation rights in party primaries.
NASS mulls amendments, Akpabio’s appeal for change
At a meeting with the national leaders of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) held in Abuja yesterday Senator Godswill Akpabio emerged as President of the Senate. Next year the party primaries will allow statutory delegates to participate according to his assurances, therefore NASS mulls amendments in the 2022 electoral act.
The costly omission of statutory delegates
Senator Godswill Akpabio declared that excluding statutory delegates from the 2022 Electoral Act primaries would cause serious problems which need immediate resolution before future general elections take place.
Addressing the issue of super-delegates
The NBA leadership received a call to resolve issues with legal professionals as he said “There were defects in the last Electoral Act that was amended. The goal is to fix several problems discovered within the electoral process. I can tell you one.”
Despite its importance political parties faced challenges which require resolution ahead of upcoming general elections.
According to Akpabio the Parliament made these “super-delegates” in both the 2023 electoral process and 2022 nomination phase by accident. The entire group of statutory delegates including president, vice president, governors, deputy governors, Senate president, Deputy Senate President, speaker, deputy speaker, members of parliament (national and sub-national) along with chairmen of councils became excluded from delegate status due to parliamentary action.
The way we increase democracy participation through numbers is something we should examine according to him.
Inadequate representation in the primaries
According to Akpabio the national convention led to picking the President as its end result. The amendment excluded 3,000 participants from each of the local government areas totaling 2,380 persons in our democratic process.
All persons except those contesting for ad hoc delegate status received prohibited entry into political party decision-making primaries that named flag bearers for legislative offices, governorship positions and presidential candidates across the entire country.
Reconsidering INEC’s role, as NASS mulls amendments
He added that we will examine the authority INEC received because at that time it appeared INEC functioned as the ultimate decision-maker regarding candidate selection versus political parties.
At present we need to follow INEC to determine whether we should accept a new name or not. Political parties deserve power to pick candidates who deliver their manifestos through ethical representation while showing evidence of democratic service to people.
“The Electoral Act contains specific areas which we currently investigate.”
NBA president’s call for reform
The National President of NBA Afam Osigwe SAN requested that during ongoing constitutional amendments the National Assembly should focus on justice sector reforms for the nation.
The quack magician from Igbosere Magistrate Court Lagos struggled to pass in the early 1990s according to the president who had spotted him previously at the University of Calabar where he alleged to study history before falsely claiming law respectability.
