A Coalition of Civil Society Organisations urged President Muhammadu Buhari to yield to popular demand of Nigerians and signed the amended electoral bill into an act.
The group of civil society organizations (CSOs) pushing for electoral reforms and the enactment of the Electoral Act 2021 stated this at a rally in Abuja, reminding Buhari that he should assent to the bill as his birthday gift to Nigerians even as he celebrates his birthday on December 17.
They said President Buhari should be courageous to sign the bill even as history beckons on him to do so, stating that it would be one of the greatest mistake, if he yield to unpopular and selfish interest of those agitating against it.
In his address at the unity fountain in Abuja, the group’s leader, Ariyo-Dare Atoye, told political parties to address their internal reforms, adopt digitization of membership, operate a standard register and make a success of the direct primaries with acceptable guidelines.
They said: “As you celebrate your birthday in a couple of days on 17 December 2021, history beckons on you to present the signed Electoral Bill 2021 as a perfect gift to Nigerians.
They formally presented a letter to Mr. President reminding him of his words in the past, stressing that opportunity has presented itself again for Buhari to show sincerity and commitment to his words and reject all manner of excuses being made by few persons who want to continue with the business-as-usual politics.
Part of the letter read: “We the undersigned representatives of Coalition of Civil Society Organizations organized in the Civil Society Partners on Electoral Reform (CiSPER), Alliance of Civil Society Organisations for the Expansion of Electoral and Democratic Space (ACESS Nigeria) and other concerned Nigerians pushing for electoral reforms and the enactment of the Electoral Act 2021, write on behalf of millions of Nigerians who are urging you to rise above the partisan, unpopular and narrow political interests of a few politicians, to immediately assent the Electoral Bill into law.
The letter recalled that Buhari promised Nigerians that the Federal government would make available to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) whatever they need including signing the bill so that Nigerians will not suspect that they don’t want to go after expiration of his tenure.
The letter continued: ”You equally summed this up vowing that: “There will be no excuse for failure. We will meet all of INEC’s demands.
“The noted that there is need to re-evaluated and assess the impacts and challenges of direct primaries after it has been tested.”
