Peter Obi Urges Buhari To Fulfill Promises He Made To The World By Ensuring Credible Election In 2023
LAGOS DECEMBER 22ND (NEWSRANGERS)-President Muhammadu Buhari must do everything to ensure that he fulfills the promise he made to the entire world by ensuring that the 2023 elections are credible, free and fair, former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, said on Tuesday.
Obi, Vice Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the February 23, 2019, election known for his advocacy not only in democratic good behaviours but good governance, preaches against what he calls transactional democracy, where politicians seek office only for the purpose of pillaging the commonwealth of the people.
The former governor, a guest of Arise TV, breakfast programme, The Morning Show, told his hosts that the basis for achieving that feat would start with the handling of the laws guarding the conduct of elections, including the electoral bill, which he refused to sign, citing sundry issues, including the protection of smaller parties and ensuring that the democratic rights of Nigerians were not injured.
The bill, passed by the National Assembly containing two critical provisions – direct primaries and electronic transmission of votes, which many Nigerians believe is the right step towards achieving a seamless electoral process that would in turn lead to the election of good leaders the country had been yearning for, was returned after the expiration of the mandatory 30 days for the President to assent or reject.
This would be the fourth time the President would be doing so since coming into power, having twice sent back the previous copies on grounds of typographical errors, before dumping the final copy in December 2018, on the ground that it was too close to the 2019 elections and could jeopardise the credibility.
Incidentally, the 2019 election, especially the presidential edition, in which the President won his second term, is regarded in certain quarters as heavily flawed, as it was not only denounced but intensely tested up to the Supreme Court, following the challenge mounted by Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who came second, but believed that he was actually robbed of victory.
Hours after the President communicated the rejection of the bill in writing, a groundswell of reactions have trailed the development, with some commentators and analysts actually believing that the decision was decked with some hidden undertones, with a call for NASS to override the decision.
Keying into the intense echoes the issue is generating, Obi, maintained that the President must save the situation by backing his words which he pronounced at the world stage before other leaders recently, with action by ensuring that the bill did not die.
Hear him: “The President at a conference on democracy with Biden, promised the world that he is going to ensure, free, fair and credible election in 2023. The beginning of that is this bill. If his promise is serious and expected to be fulfilled, this is the beginning of it. For me, we have to do everything possible to ensure that we have free and credible election.
“The election we have in this country, we can’t call it elections. We made a choice to be a democratic country and the foundation of that is free, fair and credible elections. And the President has promised that severally. The way I see it, when it (bill) goes back to the National Assembly, with his requested amendment, which could be done quickly, because they know how to do these things – overnight they can do it and take it back to him – and let’s see whether he will assent to it. And let’s the support that he is going to give and his actions to what he has promised the world.”
Whirlwindnews
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Posted by News Rangers
on Dec 22 2021. Filed under National.
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