By Gabriel Atumeyi
365Daily – A rights activist, Ariyo Aristotle, has said credible elections in the country is capable of reducing and ultimately eliminating agitations for secession by various geo – ethnic groups in the country.
Aristotle stated this on Tuesday, July 6, during a protest rally organised by a coalition of Civil Society Organisations against alleged alterations of the Electoral Amendment Bill by members of the National Assembly.
According to him, the current agitations around the country is driven by lack of trust and confidence in the electoral system and the only way to restore trust and confidence in the system, as well as good governance, is through credible elections.
Aristotle further said electronically transmitted results would go a long way in ensuring this, adding that the National Assembly have an obligation to Nigerians to do the amendment of the Act right.
Aristotle said: “The National Assembly is conducting itself in a way that threatens the national security of Nigeria. At a time when we are hearing agitations in the southern parts. At a time when bandits and terrorists are trying to tear our nation apart, this National Assembly should be giving Nigerians hope. This National Assembly should be endearing itself to Nigerians.
“At a time when people are losing hope in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, this National Assembly ought to be doing things that would make people have love and trust in Nigeria. But why then are they going against the wishes of the people?
“Nigeria cannot afford to have bad elections in 2023 as it will feed into agitations and Nigeria will boil over and nobody can predict the fate of the country after 2023.
“INEC is ready. INEC used the electronic transmission of results in the Edo gubernatorial election, also in Ondo and even the Nassarawa by – election. So if INEC is ready, why don’t we support them, is it not part of the same government?
“If they are supported by the Buhari government, won’t they take credit for it? Former President Goodluck Jonathan is still taking credit for the electoral innovations under his administration,” Aristotle stated.
He further called for a cap on campaign financing, saying under the altered version of the amendment document, undue influence of money in elections have the potential to erode the credibility of the process and undermine the emergence of credible candidates.
365Daily had earlier reported that the two most contentious issues raised by the CSOs are electronic transmission of results and the limit on campaign financing.
On electronic transmission of results in Section 50 (2), the CSOs said stakeholders at the National Assembly public hearing on the amendment bill agreed that the procedure for voting and transmission of results is to be determined by INEC, but in the final copy, it states that the procedure for voting and results transmission is to be determined by INEC, “provided that the transmission of results shall not be electronic.”
Secondly, on the issue of campaign financing in Section 88, stakeholders agreed that that limits on campaign expenses would be pegged at: President is N1 billion; Governorship N200 million; Senate N40 million; House of Representatives N30 million and State House of Assembly, N10 million.
However, in the final copy presented for passage, the limit on campaign expenses increased as follows: President N 15 billion, Governor N5 billion, Senate N 1.5 billion, House of Representatives 500 million and State House of Assembly, N50 million.