15th December, 2010
Despite the widespread condemnation of moves by members of the National Assembly to amend Section 87 of the Electoral Act which seeks to make them automatic members of the national executive committees of the various political parties, the lawmakers have remained adamant and have vowed to go ahead with the amendment.
By this, it is understood that the lawmakers plan to use their numerical number as a voting block in the national executive committees of the political parties to influence policies and direction of the parties. The amendment also seeks to remove governors and their appointed officers as members of NEC, except the speaker of the State Houses of Assembly and his deputy.
The proposed amendment, if allowed to scale through, will also confer on the lawmakers an undue advantage over other members of NEC, including governors.
Many Nigerians, including political parties have described the plan by the Federal lawmakers to smuggle themselves into the decision making organ of the parties as not only parochial but selfish.
Apart from the parties which have condemned the proposed amendment, the Northern Governors’ Forum has also described it as ‘toxic’ and warned that members would resist any attempt to cage governors in the name of electoral reform.
Rising from their meeting in Abuja, the governors warned the federal lawmakers not to do anything that would make the country ungovernable through their selfish actions.
Speaking in the same vein, the Nigerian Governors Forum rose from a meeting on Monday and condemned the lawmakers for their intransigence.
The forum, which is an enlarged forum of the governors, vowed to take all necessary measures to save the country’s democracy from the imminent danger of the action of the National Assembly.
The governors also called on the people to be vigilant and ensure that the lawmakers were not allowed to derail the country’s democracy.
We have at one time called on the federal lawmakers, just like other Ngerians have done, to remove the contentious amendment from the Electoral Act in the interest of the polity but it is like the lawmakers are determined to have their way.
In our earlier editorial, we insisted that the lawmakers, who are charged with making laws for the good order of the country by the constitution cannot at the same time impose on themselves the task of executing the law. Their intention is a clear renunciation of the doctrine of separation of powers included in the constitution. The Abuja lawmakers cannot approbrate and reprobate at the same time, like the lawyers would argue.
The lawmakers must remember that the law making function is an important one that should be carried out diligently with all sense of responsibility. They should face this task squarely and abandon the self-serving moves to upstage the governors in the control of the parties. It is time Nigerians rise up and let these bunch of legislators know they they (the people) elected them to represent them and that they also have the power to remove them, if they are found working against their interest, like in the present case.
The Abuja legislators must be made to understand that they are there at the behest of the people and to do their bidding. The elected cannot be bigger than the electors. It is time the recalcitrant Abuja legislators are put in their proper place by the people.
For the umpteenth time, amendment of Section 87 of the Electoral Act will serve no good purpose and should be abandoned. The Abuja lawmakers must be made to see reason with the people and they can only do this by abandoning this unpopular cause. We are therefore, calling on labour and members of the civil society coalition to rise to the present challenge and prevent the federal legislators from riding roughshod over the people.
Going by the determined attempt by the leadership of the National Assembly to force the unpopular amendment down the throat of the people, we think Nigerians should rise up for a civil action to make them change their mind. Maybe massive demonstrations and show of force at the National Assembly complex and the Apo Legislative Quarters will do the trick.
We must not shy away from these measures to knock sense into the heads of the legislators.
Thank God, the Senate has decided to abandon the controversial amendment. With this, it is our hope that members of the House of Representatives will also drop the move.
This editorial was written before the Senate decided to abandon the controversial amendment yesterday.
