Electoral Act Amendment: Buhari fond of giving excuses rejecting assent to bills – Fayose

Former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to swiftly sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.

He made the call on Wednesday on a monitored Channels Television programme about a month after President Buhari declined assent to the bill over the direct primaries clause.

“Now that the National Assembly has done the right thing, he (Buhari) should waste no time at assenting to the bill and let the process have enough time to adjust,” the former governor said.

Following the rejection of the bill by the President and calls by some individuals and groups to do the needful, members of the National Assembly took a decisive step on Wednesday.

While the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives bowed to pressure to include the indirect option as another mode of conducting primaries, lawmakers in the upper chamber went on to add consensus as a third option.

In his reaction, Fayose believes President Buhari is fond of giving excuses for refusing to sign bills passed by lawmakers.

He recalled how the President first rejected the bill in the build-up to the 2019 general elections and advised him to leave a good legacy behind when he leaves the office.

“It is becoming common of President Muhammadu Buhari to dodge assent. Remember before the 2019 elections, he was supposed to sign this thing to law; he did not, he gave excuses,” Fayose said.

“I am not saying what the National Assembly did is right or wrong, but President Buhari should leave office and leave with a name that people will remember that he turned around the electoral process.”

If President Buhari refuses to sign the document again after the National Assembly re-amends the document, Fayose stated that Nigerians would suspect that there was more to his action.

Away from the electoral bill, Fayose also spoke about the 2023 general elections and the preparations of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the contest.

He is confident that Nigerians will dump the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for its failure to meet up with their expectations since its victory in 2015.