President Muhammadu Buhari has refused assent to the electoral amendment bill, stating that the National Assembly should remove the clause that has to do with direct primaries from the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
It was gathered that on Monday, Buhari, in a letter to Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, cited “high cost of conducting direct primaries, the security challenge of monitoring the election, violation of citizens’ rights and marginalization of small political parties.”
This is the second time the president is refusing assent to the electoral amendment bill, following the first incident before the 2019 elections.
The Special Adviser on Media to Buhari, Femi Adesina, had once said that electoral reform was not important for elections to be fair under Buhari’s regime.
He said, “So, his reputation as somebody who wants to leave clean elections for Nigeria has already been made whether the electoral act is signed or not. It doesn’t distract from that reputation.”