*Says politics must not be used to destabilise Nigeria
The presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria
(ACPN), Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, has faulted President Muhammadu
Buhari’s refusal to sign the amended Electoral Act.
She said that the refusal would lead to a regression in the progress so
far made in Nigeria’s democratic journey since 1999.
At a World Press Conference in Abuja on Monday, the presidential
candidate wondered why President Buhari wanted to destabilise the
country with the 2019 elections.
According to her, the excuses of the President for not completing the
process that will give Nigeria one of the soundest electoral laws in the
world amount to an assault on “our democracy and this must be rejected
roundly by all Nigerians.”
Ezekwesili said, “The 2019 elections are looked upon as the moment
Nigeria must entrench electoral integrity and level playing field for
all contestants. Regrettably, President Muhammadu Buhari has by his
self-serving opposition to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2018 shown
that he wishes to subvert the will of the Nigerian people for the
conduct of a credible election in 2019.
“Simply put, President Buhari has decided to singlehandedly imperil the
2019 elections by choosing to regress the progress so far made in
Nigeria’s democratic journey since 1999.
“As a candidate in the 2019 election for the office of the President of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I demand that President Buhari
immediately reconsiders his latest fourth rejection of the electoral
bill. The President is dangerously setting the country and people up for
political destabilisation in 2019.”
Describing the President’s action as undemocratic and unpopular, she
made known her intention to mobilise Nigerians against the President’s
action if this course is maintained.
She said, “I advise the President to rethink his opposition to the
Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2018. The President should immediately
request the National Assembly to retransmit the amendment Bill for his
swift ascent into an Act.
“I call upon the National Assembly to act as the assembly of the good
people of Nigeria and within the next three days, mobilise their
majority membership to override President Muhammadu Buhari’s
self-serving and dangerous opposition to the 2018 Electoral Act
Amendment Bill.
“I call upon all well-meaning political parties to collaborate and
urgently act together to ensure that the Electoral Act Amendment Bill
2018 definitely becomes an Act on which the 2019 election shall be
conducted.
“The Civil Society groups and the Nigerian public must mobilise against
the unpopular stance of the President against Electoral Act Amendment
Bill 2018, which seeks to undermine our democracy. Democracy belongs to
the people of our country and not to one contestant in an election even
if he is an incumbent. The excesses of an incumbent who wishes to engage
in political corruption can be very much curbed by determined Nigerian
people.
“We shall organise the people to resist what has become a clear and
troubling plan of President Buhari to rig the 2019 elections. In the
court of public opinion, most Nigerians want the compulsory use of smart
card readers for accreditation of voters for the 2019 election as
proposed in the 2018 Bill.”
She expressed concern over the bad governance experienced in Nigeria for
the past 19 years.
She complained that Nigeria’s democratic journey has yet to produce the
change Nigerians expect.
She said, ‘There is however a limit to celebrating the mere existence of
democracy in our country. This is because, every objective assessment of
our democratic journey since 1999 has mostly always returned the
sobering verdict that we are still very much in the nascent, fragile,
tenuous and fledgling zone of democracy as our choice of political
system of governance.
“So far, good governance has on the aggregate eluded Nigeria. The last
19 years have not given Nigerians an aggregate top quality of political
actors. Nigerians are demanding for a new leadership direction for the
country to end the entrapment in governance failures of the last
decades. Nigerians believe that our democracy and governance can be
vastly improved through genuine elections.”