FOR the first time since the Senate was inaugurated in June 2019, no fewer than 76 senators, yesterday, indicated their readiness to go against the veto of President Muhammadu Buhari to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
As tension enveloped the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly, the 76 senators drawn across party lines, Vanguard gathered, wrote down their names as those interested in overriding President Buhari’s veto.
The senators took the decision after, Senate President Ahmad Lawan read President Buhari’s letter withholding assent to the 2021 Electoral Act Amendment bill that was passed by the National Assembly.
President Buhari in the letter dated December 13, 2021, and addressed to both the President of the Senate, Senator Lawan and the Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, said he withheld assent because of imposition of direct primaries for picking candidates on political parties violates the spirit of democracy.
With direct primaries, which he said was undemocratic, there would be a plethora of litigation from party members and stakeholders, the process would fuel corruption and encourage over monetisation, cause a huge financial burden on political parties, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the economy and security agencies.
Buhari, who explained that his decision to withhold assent to the electoral bill was informed by advice from relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government after a thorough review added that signing the bill into law would have serious adverse legal, financial, economic and security consequences on the country, particularly in view of Nigeria’s peculiarities.
The letter was read during the start of the plenary by Senate President Lawan after the senators came out from a closed-door session that was held from 10.42 a.m. to 11.42 a.m.
On a day that President Buhari’s letter generated mixed views in the polity, the move generated tension in the Senate.
Vanguard gathered that three ranking Senators from South-South, North-Central and North-East respectively went round the Chamber with lists to collate those who are against overriding President Buhari’s veto.
Vanguard gathered that 76 Senators across the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the All Progressives Congress, APC and the Young Progressives Congress, YPP, have already written down their names. The number is three more than 73, which is two-thirds of the 109 members of the Senate required to override the president’s veto.
According to a source, the President of the Senate who was worried over the development at the Chamber insisted that everybody must be available, but the Senators disagreed with him as they said no to his position, as some senators complained that Lawan did not handle the situation properly.
