By Emma Ogbuehi Spokesman of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, has explained why the Green Chamber of the National Aasembly decided to re-amend the Electoral Law (Amendment) Bill rather than overriding President Muhammadu Buhari’s veto.
Kalu said the House of Representatives travelled that route because it was not engaged in an ego war with Buhari over his refusal to sign the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill passed by the National Assembly.
Kalu also said that the parliament decided not to override the President’s veto of the bill in the interest of democracy and democratic reforms in the country.
He said even though the House of Representatives has the powers conferred on it by section 58(5) of the constitution to override the President’s veto, it would require two-third majority of elected members to achieve that.
Speaking with newsmen, Kalu said it was the general belief of members that the House should not hold onto it’s position to the detriment of the benefits of the bill.
He said the parliament was not engaged in an ego war with the President, but working to ensure the advancement of democracy in the country.
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“It is very obvious that it is the desire of Nigerians to move this Electoral Bill from where it is now to where it ought to be to a reasonable extent.
“It is based on that that the clauses of this Electoral Act amendment bill passed through the approval of this House and the Senate. But only one clause suffered when it was transmitted to the Executive.
“Within the provision of chapter 5 of the constitution, specifically section 58 subsection 4, the President has the right to withdraw his assent on a bill transmitted from the National Assembly. So, it is within his right to do that.
“However, it is not mentioned in the constitution that he should give reasons. But being a democrat, he was able to give reasons why he withdrew his assent. This bothers on security, intra-party litigation among others.
“We promised Nigerians that we are going to look at the letter from the President and know whether the reasons are cogent enough for us to adopt one of the options open to us.
“We have told Nigerians that what the President did with Section 58(4) is capable of activating 58 (5) which empowered the National Assembly to override Mr. President with two third majority of both chamber.
“The second option is to look at the provisions of our House rules which allow us to rescind our position upon a motion moved when this kind of bill is sent back to us, look at the particular clause sent back to us and refine that clause to the exclusion of all other clauses.
“In this case, we are glad that the President, in recognition of the House rules and the constitution was very specific on clause 84(2).
“All that he asked was that the initial status of the bill with regard to the clause that give option of direct or indirect primary be reinstated. He has reassured that if that is done, he will sign the bill.
“On Tuesday, the House of Representatives had an Executive session and had another one on Wednesday with regard to this sensitive bill and agreed that what Mr. President has sent to us is just one out of the many benefits and we cannot hold onto our position to th detriment of other positions that are favourable towards advancing our democracy from where it is to where it ought to be.
“It is on the basis of that, that the bill was reintroduced to the House and the question was put and adopted.
“But because of specific mention of a particular clause, the House rules, in order 12 rule 20 said that when a bill is returned to the House by the President because he refused assent, we have the option of rescinding our earlier decision and working on only the specific clause, we worked on what the President proposed and accepted that it will be good for our democracy at the moment to allow the Electoral bill be passed into law by adjusting our former position and allowing direct and indirect primaries to go through.
“Yes, we had options as allowed by the constitution. Mr. President acted on section 58(4) while 58(5) empowers us to override the President. But you can only override the President when you have two third majority.
“If you don’t secure that and the Executive session says we don’t want to drag this anymore because time is of the essence, that is what the House will do in the interest of advancing the course of democracy.
“It is not an ego war or that anybody is trying to prove anything. That is what is beneficial to all at the moment. We may not get it right at a go, but we are heading towards advancing the course of our democracy.”
On the position of the Senate including the option of consensus, he said, “in the communication from the President, he requested that House to give the option of direct and indirect primaries and the House, in the spirit of nation building has accepted to move ahead.
“I am not the spokesperson of the Senate even though we practice bicameral legislature. If they introduced anything to the bill, may be the Senate rules have accomodation for that. But there is no accomodation in the House rules for that.
“Our House rules made it clear that you only handle only the specific clause that was referred back to us and in this case, the President knew what he wanted and went straight for it in his letter.
“What we have done is to act in consonance with what he wanted, save democracy and make sure we advance towards where we should be because the benefits in this Electoral Act outweigh what is contained in the former act.”
While insisting that the House of Representatives acted in the national interest, Kalu said “the House is not pandering to any individual. We acted to save our democracy. The President was specific on what he wanted and the constitution allows us to override him with two-third majority. We cannot sacrifice good on the alter of perfect.
“Nigerians want a perfect electoral reform and what we have done, is that out of the entire law, only one clause had issues. So, adjusting that one and moving on is saving our democracy from where we used to be to where we hope to be.
“What we did was not as a result of the whims and caprices of the President. Remember that there have been alot of engagement during the holiday and our stakeholders said that instead of sticking to this direct primary alone and leaving out the benefits in the law, let it go in line with the reforms we are looking for.
“Even at the town hall meeting organised by CSOs, there was an overwhelming conclusion by Nigerians that we should not deny Nigerians the assent to this bill.
“So, it is not about trying to show that you can override the President. Of course it has been done before. But in the spirit of nation building which we said is a joint task, we decided to pass the bill”.
