Federal lawmakers
are said to be mobilising their ranks for a crucial blow against the
latest controversial clause in the Electoral Act, which proposes an
automatic membership of parties’ National Executive Committees for
National Assembly members.
The proposal,
launched simultaneously with minor differences at the Senate and the
House of Representatives two weeks ago, awaits only the public hearing,
which is likely to take place this week. The amended bill was hastily
pushed through its second reading last Thursday.
If it eventually
sails a third reading, and receives the assent of the president, the
360 members of the House and the 109 Senators will automatically become
members of their parties’ NEC- the highest decision making organ – in
an unprecedented membership expansion that has sparked criticism.
At a fiery media
briefing yesterday, Patrick Obahiagbon, an Edo State member of the
House, tackled his colleagues for attempting to “poison” the new
amendment process with a “parliamentary ego-trip”. He said several
members, who could not block the bill’s second reading, are working
together to stop it at the final reading stage.
“Can the National
Assembly escape the harsh judgment of history that we desecrated our
privileged status as parliamentarians by embarking on a vacuous
trajectory of power mongering?” he asked rhetorically.
Mr. Obahiagbon’s
condemnation occurs days after his party, the Action Congress of
Nigeria, threatened to initiate legal action against the Assembly,
should the amendments go through. The party – through its publicity
secretary, Lai Mohammed, as well as others who have criticised the
legislators’ move, views the proposal as a self-perpetuating design for
the members to remain in office.
As the highest
decision making body of any party, the NEC leverages on the choice of
delegates to primary elections and has tremendous powers in choosing
who earns the party tickets to general elections.
If the amendment
succeeds, the ACN warned that the lawmakers stand to be the chief
beneficiaries of the contentious clause, which is regarded as a
backdoor reintroduction of the ill ‘Right of First Refusal’ provision.
That bill had sought to give lawmakers an advantage by proposing they
should have the first right to their seats, and those seats should only
be declared vacant if they are not interested in running again.
The House has
denied such intents. After the second reading last week, spokesperson,
Eseme Eyiboh, said the aim of the member-sponsored clause, is strictly
to disrupt the monopoly of the NEC of parties, and contribute to the
growth of democracy.
“The aim is to
expand the composition of NEC so that nobody will have monopoly over
any issue, not only in the election, but other programmes of the party
including its manifestoes,” he said.
He said membership
of the NEC does not exempt lawmakers from elections, citing the example
of All Nigeria Peoples Party, whereby all its members in the House
belong to the party’s NEC.
“This amendment is not for the next election, it is for the next generation,” he added.
The lead sponsors
at both chambers too, Cyril Maduabum and Ike Ekweremadu, for the House
and the Senate respectively, have also denied the plan.
However, Mr. Obahiagbon dismissed the arguments yesterday as being merely beautiful, but counter-productive.
“Is this not an
atavistic throwback to the past when military dictators wrote the
manifestoes for the political parties in the garrison days?” he
questioned.
He also warned
that Nigerians remain watchful to ensure that the questionable ‘Right
of First Refusal’, which both arms have consistently denied advancing,
is not introduced at the last minute, since in the Assembly, “it is not
over until it is over.”
At the Senate, the
bill was sponsored by deputy Senate President, Mr. Ekweremadu, and
co-sponsored by all the other 43 members of the adhoc constitution
amendment committee. Key amongst them were Ndoma Egba, Ayogu Eze, Lee
Maeba, Grace Bent, Nkechi Nworgu, Ikechukwu Obiora, Abubakar Sodangi.
At the House, it is sponsored by Mr. Maduabum (Enugu State) and Igo Aguma(Rivers State).
A source, who
choose to remain anonymous, told NEXT that two meetings aimed at
fighting the new amendment have taken place. At the first meeting, 35
members were reportedly in attendance; 72 hours later, at a second
meeting, there were supposedly 40 members present.
The numbers are important because if the amendment does not make it through in one legislative chamber, it is technically out.
According to our
source , the membership of those oppossed to the new amendment is drawn
across parties, but contains all ACN members. The PDP membership of
this group is reportedly led by Andrew Uchendu-Ikwerre/Emohua(Rivers
State) and another member, Asita Honourable, from Rivers State too.
