Abuja: The reintroduced Electoral Act Amendment Bill had a smooth ride through the crucial Second Reading in the Senate yesterday, as senators across party lines gave it overwhelming support. This has now set the stage for the passage of the controversial bill which seeks to promote the personal interest of the lawmakers into law. After an exhaustive debate, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for further legislative fine-tuning and public hearing. The committee was given two weeks to report back to the plenary.

The bill seeks to amend the Electoral Act 2010 to, among others, provide adequate time for INEC to issue notices, receive nomination of candidates from political parties and ensure the proper conduct of members by political parties.

However, the main bone of contention in the bill is its plan to co-opt chairmen and vice chairmen of standing committees of both chambers of the National Assembly into the National Executive Commit-tees (NEC) of their respective political parties. Incidentally, each of the senators is either a chairman or deputy chairman of each of the standing committees of the Senate.

The bill also seeks to bar political parties from substituting candidates whose names have been submitted to INEC for elections except in the case of death or voluntary withdrawal by the candidate.

Leading the debate on the bill jointly sponsored by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and 43 others, Senate Leader Teslim Folarin (PDP, Oyo) said it seeks to amend Section 87 of the Principal Act to deepen internal democracy in the various political parties by ensuring that their NECs are expanded to include chairmen and deputy chairmen of standing committees in the Senate, as well as chairmen and deputy chairmen of standing committees in the House of Representatives.

Folarin said: "The rationale here is to ensure robust discussion on party issues by a larger number of party members and to avoid a situation where a very few party members sit to decide the faith and affairs of a political party."

He said another fundamental issue the bill seeks to achieve is the removal of electoral officers and presiding officers as respondents in an election petition and making the electoral commission itself the only respondent. "The commission is expected to defend its officer and not the officer defending himself/herself in the course of his/her responsibility to the commission. Paragraph 51(1) of the first schedule which this bill seeks to amend provides for the joining of an officer as a respondent in an election petition where the action of the officer is complained of," he said.

According to the Senate Leader, the bill also seeks to amend Section 31 of the Principal Act by replacing it with a new section, which demands that "every political party shall not later than 90 days before the day appointed for a general election submit the list of candidates they propose to sponsor at an election," adding that "the merit of this is to give INEC enough time to prepare ballot papers reflecting the party and the candidate and this would avoid post election litigation that was witnessed in the last election where parties and candidates seek nullification of election on the grounds of their picture not appearing in the ballot paper and their party not properly listed in the conduct of election".

Supporting the bill, Senator Ayogu Eze (PDP, Enugu ) said it was timely and well-couched, and that it seeks to widen the political space and deepen democracy. Eze said contrary to imputations in the public that the bill contained rights of first refusal, "we can now see that there is nothing like that".

He then urged his colleagues to "pass the bill expeditiously as it is a bill that could ensure the best practices in democracy".

Senator Ibrahim Ida (PDP, Katsina), in his contribution, said all issues raised in the bill were "very topical and would deepen democracy".

He said the issue of the composition of parties' NEC was "very germane for the institution of internal democracy in the political parties".

Also contributing to the debate, Senator Ahmed Lawan (ANPP, Borno) said as far as the opposition parties were concerned, the bill would not have been necessary "but because of the cancerous development in the monstrous PDP".

He explained that since 1999 when he was first elected into the National Assembly, he had always been a member of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) NEC, adding that the same goes for other lawmakers of the opposition parties. "It is only the PDP that does not extend the same privilege to its National Assembly members", he said, adding that "today, we are trying to cure democracy by curing the PDP".

He said he was therefore supporting the bill "to help the PDP because the party's NEC needs the experience of senators".

Other senators who contributed to the debate included Grace Bent (PDP, Adamawa), Abubakar Sodangi (PDP, Nasarawa), Lee Maeba (PDP, Rivers), Barigha Amange (PDP, Delta), Anthony Manzo (PDP, Taraba), Bajomo (PDP, Ogun), Umaru Argungu (CPC, Kebbi) and Victor Ndoma-Egba (PDP, Cross River).

The bill scaled through without any opposing voice.

Also yesterday, the Senate yesterday adopted the report of its Committee on Establishment and Public Service on the inauguration of the President and Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, venue, procession and other activities relating to inauguration bill 2010. The highpoint of the report was the provision that at the inauguration of the president and the vice-president, the swearing-in ceremony shall be organized and executed by the National Assembly.

Specifically, the report provided that the inauguration shall take place at the National Assembly Arcade, that the Clerk to the National Assembly shall head the secretariats and shall draw officers from the three arms of government to serve in the secretariat.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has given reasons why its members are pursuing a fresh amendment to the Electoral Act 2010 to make them members of NEC of their parties. It said the proposed amendment had become imperative in order to "enlarge and expand" the NEC of political parties and ensure the much-desired internal democracy. Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh, who disclosed this at a news conference in Abuja said the planned amendment would on the long run boost participatory democracy and lead to a more stable polity.
The bill sponsored by Hon. Cyril Maduabum and Hon. Igochukwu Aguma proposes to amend Section 87(4) of the Electoral Act 2010.

The Principal Act is to be amended by inserting immediately after subsection (4)(11) the following new subsections:

(12)(a) Every political party in Nigeria shall establish in its constitution a National Executive Committee (NEC) which shall be the highest decision making body of a political party. (b) The membership of the NEC of a political party shall be as follows:

(i)The President and the former President who are members of the party;

(ii) The Vice-President and the former Vice-President who are members of the party;

(iii) The governors who are members of the party;

(iv) Members of the National Assembly who are members of the party;

(v) Former members of the National Assembly who are members of the party;

(vi) Chairman and Secretary of Board of Trustees, where applicable,

(vii) Former National Chairmen;

(viii) Former Chairman, Board of Trustees;

(ix) State Chairmen of the party;

(x) Zonal Chairmen of the party, where applicable;

(xi) National officers of the party.

The bill also states that "The quorum for meeting of the NEC of a political party shall be one half (1/2) of the total membership."

It further provides that "all NEC decisions on electoral matters require two-third (2/3) of its quorum".

Eyiboh noted that contrary to the insinuation that the proposed amendment was self serving and intended to elongate the tenure of members, it would rather restore the political culture of mass participation, which he said is the essence of a genuine and virile democracy.

He said the amendment had nothing to do with the right of first refusal as had been speculated in some quarters. According to him, right of first refusal is not in the contemplation of members as the electoral process at the party level would be open to all contenders. "There is no plan whatsoever to introduce something that is devilish or something that will undermine the people of Nigeria in the Electoral Act. We have never introduced anything to undermine Nigerians before, we cannot afford to do that now because we have a covenant with the Nigerian people for fair representation.

"We felt that the political parties should build up internal democracy where no one man will dominate the party machinery. The amendment is intended to enlarge and expand the highest decision making organ of political parties so that nobody will have overall control of the machinery of political parties. It is intended to ensure a broad based participatory decision making NEC. It is not for lawmakers to perpetuate themselves or elongate their tenures in the parliament. The intendment of the amendment is far from such speculations," he said.

Eyiboh argued that though the constitution did not place a limit to the tenure of lawmakers, the fear of perpetuating themselves does not arise because they would face elections every four years and those who scale through the primaries and get the mandate of their constituencies would return to the parliament.

* From Kunle Akogun and Onwuka Nzeshi in Abuja