Heading toward the upcoming 2023 presidential election, and following President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to give his assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, the National Assembly (NASS) appears to be hell bent on going ahead with the action of passing it into law. This is even as Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Ahmed Lawan, the Senate President, have given January, 2022 as the date for the commencement of their plan....CONTINUE READING
Though it is very possible for a bill to go ahead and become a law after the president declines to give his assent, provided two-thirds majority of both the Senate and the House of Representatives give their approval, the legality of interfering with party politics seems to be under contention.
Former Jigawa state governor and PDP chieftain, Alhaji Sule Lamido, for one, is of the opinion that trying to impose a mode of selection of candidates on political parties by the National Assembly, is unconstitutional.
As we all know, part of the provision of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill is the introduction of direct primaries as the sole means of choosing party candidates to contest in elections. This has been the major source of debate among Nigerians, as people have argued both for and against its implementation for various reasons bordering mostly on transparency and cost.
Alhaji Sule Lamido’s allegation, though, seeks to void the National Assembly’s power to impose direct primaries on political parties. He has gone as far as calling on fellow PDP members to challenge the action, which he termed an APC move, owing to the fact that both the Speaker and President of the Houses are members of the opposition party.
In his argument, Alhaji Sule Lamido insisted that the 1999 Constitution bestows political parties with the power to conduct their affairs as they deem fit, under the surveillance of INEC, whose role it is to ensure that party constitutional provisions are adhered to. According to him, the move by the National Assembly to introduce direct primaries is a contravention of this provision of the law.
However, in reality and contrary to Alhaji Sule Lamido’s words, the National Assembly is indeed empowered by the 1999 Constitution to dictate the means by which political parties are to select their electoral candidates. Section 228, paragraph (a) expressly states that the Assembly may, by law, provide rules and guidelines for the internal democracy of political parties.
This section of the Constitution goes on to state that such rules and guidelines extend to the enactment of laws for the conduct of party conventions, congresses and, most importantly, primaries. Going by this, it stands to reason that the National Assembly’s insistence on introducing direct primaries is perfectly in line with the law.
As such, Alhaji Sule Lamido is not very accurate in his assertion. Additionally, his attempt to convince other members of PDP to oppose the move by the National Assembly could end up failing, as nothing the lawmakers have done, as far as party politics is concerned, can be rightly termed unconstitutional.