Fear Of Defeat Behind Buhari’s Refusal To Sign Electoral Act Amendment?
•APC, PDP playing games,Olawepo-Hashim alleges
As mixed reactions continue to trail President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to sign the Electoral Act amendment bill, stakeholders, including one of the frontline presidential candidates for next year’s election, Mr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, NCP presidential candidate, Dr. Yusuf Tanko, among others, have blamed President Buhari action on fear of losing the 2019 election.
Tanko said Buhari was only acting out of selfish interest by not signing the bill, stressing, “If that Bill is not assented to, there is no way the country can conduct free, fair and credible election next year.”He disclosed that other political parties would take the issue up with the National Assembly, remarking that if expected result is not achieved “we will go on protest and even appeal to the international community to impress on Buhari to sign the Bill into law. I don’t think the president is ready for a free and fair election.”
However, Olawepo-Hashim blamed both the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the ignoble fate that has befallen Nigeria’s electoral system.The Peoples Trusts presidential standard bearer asserted that the two major parties were not only toying with the destiny of Nigerians, but also playing politics with the nation’s stability through the way and manner they handle a serious bill such as the Electoral Act.He lamented that rather than presenting themselves as statesmen, APC and PDP candidates were rather obsessed with immediate partisan gains.
Speaking during an interactive session with journalists in Lagos, Olawepo-Hashim recalled that although the PDP-controlled National Assembly passed the Electoral Act, the perceived top actors are falling below standards.He stated: “The president is conducting himself like a typical Nigerian politician of the era of political decline, rather than behaving as a patriot that I have always thought he is. By his actions, he is simply saying, “let me benefit from the fraudulent process for my 2019 bid. You can push for the new law in 2023 when I will not be contesting?
“In the task of nation building, political leaders sometimes have to rise above the fray and take decisions in the national interest, even when they do not seem to benefit from them. Some of us did this before. In 2000, when some of our colleagues wanted to change our two-year tenure to four years, I led the opposition to this, even though I would have been a beneficiary of that exercise as a National Executive Committee (NEC) member.”
Source: The Guardian
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