The 2022 Electoral Act will be amended to make for inclusion of statutory delegates in political parties primaries in 2026, ahead of 2027 general elections, Senate President, Godswill Akpabio says.
By Kingsley Okoye
The 2022 Electoral Act will be amended to make for inclusion of statutory delegates in political parties primaries in 2026, ahead of 2027 general elections, Senate President, Godswill Akpabio says.
Akpabio made the disclosure in Abuja on Monday at a meeting with the National leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association ( NBA).
According to Akpabio, omission of statutory delegates from primaries of political parties in the 2022 electoral act was a costly mistake that must be corrected before the next general elections .
He said :” There were defects in the last electoral act that was amended,so, we want to cure some of the defects that we found in our electoral system and I can tell you one.
“Without any particular intention of the parliament, in the 2023 elections and the 2022 primaries, we inadvertently created what I may call, super delegates.
” This is because all statutory delegates, starting from the President, Vice President, Governors, Deputy Governors, Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, members of Parliament, National, Sub-National, Chairman of Councils, and all, were omitted as delegates.
“These are areas that we think we can look at in order to make our democracy more participatory. because democracy is all about numbers.
” We ended up at a national level, bringing out the President, we had about 2,380, because 3,000 people in each of the local government areas were omitted.
“From the amendment, it meant that all others, unless you contested to be an ad hoc delegate, you are not welcome at the primaries to select flag bearers of the legislative houses, governorship and flag bearers of the presidential conventions in all political parties nationwide.
” We shall also look at the powers that we gave to INEC because at the time, it looked as if INEC was the last arbiter as to who decides who is a candidate and not the political parties.
” So we now have to look up to INEC to decide whether to take the name or not, and I believe strongly that the political parties should have the power to select its candidates that will best serve its manifesto with integrity to represent its people and has a track record of performance to deliver dividends of democracy to the people.
“So these are areas that we are looking at in the electoral act. ”
He, however, admonished leadership of NBA to weed out quacks from the legal profession who according to him , are among very senior members of the bar who were never called to the bar.
Earlier in his remarks,the National President of NBA, Mr Afam Osigwe urged the national assembly to work toward reforms in the justice delivery sector of the country (NAN)