Electoral Act Amendment Bill Work in Progress
The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio said at the weekend that the amendment being carried out to the Electoral Act 2022 is yet work in progress and appealed to people not draw hasty conclusions as to the electoral reform process.
Akpabio spoke in Abuja at the launching of a book titled: “The Burden of Legislators in Nigeria,” written by Senator Effiong Bob who represented Akwa Ibom North East Senatorial District between 2003 and 2011.
The Senate President observed rather negative commentaries in the media particularly on the Senate on the contents of the Electoral Reform Bill which he said had not been concluded until the Votes and Proceedings were passed by the Senate and the Conference Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives decided on the Bill.
Akpabio said it was inappropriate by the commentators to judge the Senate by something that is “inchoate.”
Akpabio said: “Electoral Act amendment Bill is incomplete. We have not completed it, but they are already on television. You see all sort of panels. Because they don’t understand lawmaking. They don’t even know that even the one in the Senate is not completed until we look at the votes and proceedings.
“So when we bring out the votes and proceedings, any senator has a right to rise up and say, on clause three, this was what we agreed upon. And if those who are recording through the verbatim recorder disagree or agree, we amend it before we approve the votes and proceedings. That is the only time you can now talk about what the Senate has done or what the Senate has not done.
“But already people are on television abusing the Senate, talking about the Senate, even when what we did has not yet been approved by the same Senate. It’s incomplete.
“If this chamber passes this and the other one passes that, then you now join these two together and take one. It’s only when we have finished that, that you will now say the National Assembly has passed any amendment to the electoral Act.”
The Senate President said despite the commentaries, the Senate would not be intimidated but do what is right for the country.
“We will not be intimidated. We will do what is right for this country. Our expression, our lawmaking will reflect the feelings of the generality of Nigerians, not that of one NGO or somebody who gets money from the European Union to carry Senators to Lagos and then go and then ask them for account and then hand over a paper and say go and pass.
“That is not lawmaking. Retreats are not lawmaking. Retreats are part of consultations. So why do you think that that paper you agreed in Lagos during retreat is what must be agreed on the floor?
“All institutions have the right to express themselves, that is what democracy says. It is in this spirit that I commend this book, not as a propaganda machinery, but as a book that will ensure the illumination of what happens in the legislature,” he said.
On the issue of Electronic Transmission of election results, Akpabio said “there is no fog of insinuation and no mist of misunderstanding.”
Akpabio urged people to wait until when the Senate approved the Votes and Proceedings adding that “you will see that the Senate has not removed anything.
“If you want to use bicycle to carry your votes from one polling unit to the ward center, do so. If you want to use your phone to transmit, do so. If you want to use your iPad to do anything, do so. If you have network in your area, go ahead with transmission but all we said during discussion was that we should remove the words ‘real time’ because if you say real time and there is network failure, what I may call grid failure and then the network is not working, when you go to court somebody will say it ought to have been real time. That was all we said when we left the burden to those who conduct elections, INEC.
“INEC would determine the mode of transfer or transmission of votes. If you make it mandatory, that we must do it real time, electronically, go and look at what happened in America between George Bush and Al Gore. By the time the votes came in, in Palm Beach vote scandal, Al Gore had actually won the election. But what happened? Even the best of countries are yet to get it right.”
Akpabio said to transmit in real time meant that, “in over nine states, where networks are not working because of insecurity, there will be no election results.
“And nationally means that if the national grid should collapse and no network is working, no election results will be valid.
“You don’t make law for an individual. You make law to outlast you. You make law for posterity. You make law for generations unborn. And therefore, one must be focused.”
Akpabio said some people probably had seen failure in front and trying to look for anything to cling to, to start trying to rubbish the process but according to him “the law is settled by the Supreme Court of Nigeria in the case of Atiku Abubakar versus the rest of them, in 2023, in which the Supreme Court settled this issue.
“That’s not why we are here. But it’s in part of the interpretation of the law and the burden of the legislature. So even where there is already a settled issue in court, the Supreme Court ruled that Nigeria doesn’t have the backbone infrastructure.
“And that what we call IREV, It’s only an opportunity to showcase what happens in polling units that election monitors could not go to. It cannot reflect the actual result. The result is in form EC8A. Which must be carried from one polling unit to the ward center, from there to the local government collation center, to the senatorial collation center, to the state collation center, and finally, national collation center.
“See the processes? So why am I being crucified even before we start? The burden of the legislator. So the door is still open.
“The Senate does not conduct elections. We don’t deploy technology. We only make laws. INEC must apply the law. The timing, scope, and modalities rest with INEC acting within the framework of the law enacted by Parliament and interpreted by the Supreme Court. As the Supreme Court had interpreted about this electronic transmission, you should go and read these things.
“We insist now and always that the electoral reforms must be anchored in law, guided by capacity, secured against abuse and applied uniformly across the nation.
“Technology must serve democracy. It must not endanger democracy, particularly untested technology. No matter how enthusiastic you are, you jump beyond the capacity of your consciousness.
“You stay in a place that even has no wire. You have never had light. You are lining up to vote. And you want to come and put in the law, real time. And you don’t even have light. You are not even giving the people light in your community. We must make progress. Progress must not bring about injustice.”
