Governors pressuring Buhari not to sign electoral bill —Shehu Sani

Senator Shehu Sani on Tuesday alluded to sabotage by governors against the signing of the Election Act Amendment Bill, which has been passed multiple times by the National Assembly.

The former lawmaker made the allusion while speaking on The Morning Show of Arise Television.

Sani, who represented Kaduna South in the 8th senate, argued that President Muhammadu Buhari may be pleased with the provisions in the amendment, but was being pressured not to sign.

While the former lawmaker did not explicitly mention any Governor, he insinuated that the pressure mounted on the President may have informed his hesitancy in assenting to the bill.

He said, “The pressure on PMB has always been attributed to the Governors; if they are interested, they should draft and sign it but most of them don’t want a fair electoral process which is why PMB must ensure that this is his enduring legacy.

“These Governors are undermining the President and they will leave him in the lurch in the future.”

Read also: Shehu Sani mocks Tinubu over message to youths

He argued that the provisions introduced in the amended act are key and important to the sustenance of democracy. “Direct primaries, electronic transmission and resignation of political appointees who aim to run for office. PMB has no reason not to sign,” he stressed.

“There is no reason not to sign since it had been amended; this means some persons have been pressuring the President not to sign this Bill due to their selfish aims. There is a timeline and if it is not met, it will affect the conduct of the elections and the people should apply popular protest in order to get PMB to sign the Bill.”

When asked to react to a claim by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, that the President would assent to the bill “in a matter of hours”, Sani dismissed the claim, saying the government cannot be trusted.

He therefore called on Civil Society Organizations and all Nigerians to protest against the continued delay in signing of the bill.

“We have reached a point in this country whereby nobody believes any thing the Government says and there is a need to protest in order to mount pressure on the President to sign it,” he said.

A coalition of CSOs are currently gathered at Unity Fountain in Abuja to protest the delay in the signing of the Electoral bill

By: Oluwatobi Odeyinka…

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