 Now, the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of Nigeria, Bubakamalami, has spelt out reasons why President Mahmada Buhari would not sign the new electoral law. He insisted that the law has not captured the interests of all Nigerians, saying it has excessive cost implication, its discriminatory as well as supportive of insecurity. He said the signing into law will only initiate a crisis that will lead to court cases. Now, to discuss this with us, is Professor Richard Wokocha, he's a professor of law at the River State University. Thank you very much, Professor, for joining us. Thank you for having me. So, let's examine the AGF's position on Mr. President's reasons for not signing this bill into law. One of the things that sticks out as a sore thumb, I beg your pardon, is the fact that he says that it gives room for insecurity and it discriminates. How exactly do you think this fits in? I think none of those reasons appear to hold water to me. The reason is simple. I don't know what they are making of the process of direct primaries. Because the idea of direct primaries is not entirely strange or new to our law. We do have a law on that. If you look at section 87, subsection 3 of the Electoral Act, you'll find it provides for what we should do should the party want to hold this Congress by direct primaries. I don't know the idea of, according to us, a meeting of the party in every world. Every world will vote against the prefer. But they must ensure that all candidates or all aspirants, all candidates or aspirants of the party seeking to be the flag bearer are given equal opportunity to be voted for. So all they simply need to do is hold world meetings in every world. We are the candidates to be presented and members of the party in every world will state their preferred candidate. The result will be transmitted to the center of the party. So I don't understand, and they are on to INEC. So I don't understand where they are talking of being too expensive and security implications. Are they saying that we don't hold world meetings of parties? It doesn't require INEC raising staff everywhere and that the party sending officials to every world of the party. No, that is not the law. There is a statement of the law right now on what needs to be done if direct primaries is to be followed. It doesn't support what they are saying. He also insisted that this particular bill that was returned to the National Assembly does not capture the interest of all. Now, of course, we also know that the Attorney General, as we speak, is a political appointee of Mr. President, even though he is a legal practitioner and he is the Attorney General of the Federation, he does obviously, at one point or the other, have political leanings. So when he talks about representing the interest of all, is he talking about the interest of the All Progressive Congress and the party of his principle? I guess it's as good as mine. Which power is he referring to? Primaries is a party affair. It's the process by which a party selects its candidates who are to represent it or bear its flags at elections. It doesn't concern me if I'm not a member of a political party. Neither does it concern you if you're not a member of a political party. It's simply the process by which party members decide who they want to represent their party. So which All is the Attorney General talking about? The Attorney General of the Federation talking about? It's the business for all. So we see that there is some form of a drag within the National Assembly as to which way this is to go. It also puts the average Nigerian in a state of limbo as to we do not necessarily understand or know where the pendulum might swing in the next couple of weeks, especially with the House of Representatives coming back into session right after the holidays. What do you presume would happen in the coming days in terms of this bill and making it to see the lights of day for 2023? I think we're going to experience intense lobbying from the executive department. Obviously, this bill was resisted as it were by the governors and by the body of governors. For obvious reasons, for if you decide that the bill should stand and should become an act and the direct primary should be adopted, there will largely lose control of the party process or candidate selection process in the respective states. So they almost collectively opposed it across party lines. It didn't matter whether they were PDP or APC. They supported that the bill should not stand. And lobbying even the general defederation to stop the president or discourage the president from signing the bill into an act. So we're going to experience intense lobbying from the executive, not that the federal government has accepted the lobbying by the governors and have accepted the same position. We're going to see them lobbying the legislators and the senators and the House of Representatives to get them to back down on doing what the law says they can. In this situation, they are supposed to meet and attempt to override the digital of Mr. President by raising two-third majority to vote that bill into an act or into a law, in which case the presidents are sent to no longer be necessary. OK. Well, Professor Richard Wococcia is a professor of law at the River State University. Thank you very much for speaking with us. We appreciate it. Great pleasure. Hello. Hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.