The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the 2021 Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law.
Buhari, who received the bill on November 19, has until December 19 to sign it into law or communicate his comments on the bill to the National Assembly.
NLC made the call on Monday in a statement by the NLC President, Mr Ayuba Wabba, titled: “Time to Strengthen Democracy in Nigeria.”
According to Wabba, there was a need to expand the powers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He explained that the expansion of INEC’s powers would allow it to develop guidelines fit to guide the deployment of technology during elections.
While commending the leadership of the House of Assembly, the NLC boss said a lot was to be put in place to overcome the challenges of the country’s electioneering system.
Wabba explained that the menace of godfatherism must be addressed, including vote-buying and monetisation of the electoral process.
“This is also the view of the NLC. The leadership of the congress commends the House of Representatives and the Senate, particularly the leadership.
“Also those who stood rock solid behind the proposal for direct primaries for all political parties and rallied their colleagues in the House and the Senate to pass the bill into law.”
“This is the proof of committed leadership and true statesmanship. Congress must, however, caution that the passage of the 2021 amendment to the Electoral Act is only a journey and not a destination.
” A lot more certainly needs to be done in order to fully sanitise Nigeria’s challenged electioneering system, especially building on 2007 to 2011 electoral reforms which the NLC actively participated in.
“First is to tackle the menace of godfatherism, ‘godmotherism’ and money politics which were the major concerns that necessitated the new law on direct primaries for all political parties.
“Due diligence and oversight must be applied to ensure that unscrupulous politicians who have been cultured to vote-buying, monetisation of Nigeria’s electoral process are not allowed to extend their habitual criminal subversion of our democracy during political party primary elections,” he said.
