 Welcome back to the breakfast here on plus TV Africa first major conversation this morning We are going to be focusing on the president's refusal to ascend to the electoral act amendment bill And of course the moves to be taken by the National Assembly or the expected Reaction from the National Assembly after their break in a few weeks time It has of course created a lot of conversations across the country since yesterday We're speaking this morning with Barrist Evans who fairly who's going to be joining us. Good morning, Barista O'Ferley Good morning. Thanks for joining us But just before we bring you in would like to share a quick report on this story and the conversation starts off right after stay with us Diary primaries across the eight thousand eight hundred nine words Across the length and breadth of the country will lead to a significant spike in the cost of conducting primary elections by Parties as well as increase in the cost of monitoring such elections by INEC Who has to who has to deploy monitors across these words? Each time a party is to conduct direct primaries for the presidential, the monetary and legislative force The additional of this cost with the already huge cost of conducting general elections will inevitably lead to huge financial burden on Both the political parties INEC and the economy in general at a time of dwindling with revenues Alright, of course, that's from it by Jabba Amila there Sharing the letter from President Mohammed O'Ferley Barista O'Ferley Let's start, you know with the reactions from people a lot of people have said that they don't find this shocking in any way They had expected this seeing the drama that had played out in the build-up to you know yesterday's Well, you know the president's eventual Failure to ascend to it. So are you one of those who? Know isn't shocked by this Yeah, what what what what people are shocked by this is because they have been a consistency in battle in the Electra amendment the you remember that before this one thing I see a lecture President also battle the being Okay, and now people are saying that president is our willful to have the model they are testing of the reason well done for the rejection of People are also up to feel that the president is fighting to show even decisions And that is why they are not in the shop Why they are not in the film? Look at the letter The letter With so many Now I like Okay, which we in thought are not good governance So when you see the president Oh, because I'm very local well a document I feel that it's a product Thanks for the business So, when you begin to wonder why, for the reasons given, I got very surprised. They are not clear to me. So, I would have thought that, because they would have found me. So, he said to me, if they are not looking for me, I'm going to shoot them and we'll find you. So, hopefully, let's give them to walk, but nobody, I don't know, people of law. The national assembly is supposed to meet their willies. But I don't think the United Assembly is an assembly that wants to arrive to the president's position. They should have been able to do that by law. But it's the United Assembly that's termination by the ruling party. I am never surprised how they think about some of the content, especially as it has to do with direct travel and all that. So, I'm never surprised at that. It was indomitable that in the past, one would have thought that we would stay low on all those. But the fact is that they have told their father, the special, now the question has also gone on the past. I think the national assembly is going to go back on that. Okay, let's also look at some concerns that has been raised as regards the president's decision of holding us into that particular bill. Now, a collision of civil society organization is saying that this would have a serious implication on INEC in conducting the forthcoming elections of the FCT council area, the AKT elections and Oshun state, as they would have to fall back to the Electoral Act of 2010 as amended. And it would deny INEC of the opportunity of testing some of high innovations. Do you agree with the civil society organization? Absolutely, absolutely. If you look at that decision, it's one that is very good with too many irregularities. There are too many issues there that are not very good. So, that is why one would have thought that President would have find a solution that can be test-grown. Can be test-grown without a forthcoming by that election that we have. That is how to think about the future of the economy. Let's have this thing right now, let's test-run it. There are many people who are also called for an amendment. Okay, but to just talk with that, we have to begin to throw a lot of questions. Because this is why we are called for election matters. Largely, because of that, we do the same act. Most of the questions are called just because of the conditions and the way that act. So, by the time we have the health special law, to reduce the body of the judiciary, this is who's to lead the people. Let's have an act that will give the power to the parties and ministers. not to warn that it's good that we also need to look at some of the issues that we're talking about, especially what in the form of what is going to happen at the end of the day, what works to happen is that the outcomes are not very important, so I actually think so. That is the organization. There's also the angle of throwing away the baby with the bath water. There's a couple of things that would also be lost here, mostly of course the electronic transfer of votes, which is one of the biggest parts of this bill. So do you think that is heartbreaking that we might just be losing out on that particular step in our electoral process simply because of the direct primary controversy? I think we may have lost Barista O'Felley there. The conversation is mostly on the president's refusal to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill. And of course, what steps the National Assembly should be taking moving forward? How much more work needs to be done before the 2023 elections? Barista O'Felley, can you hear us now? Yeah, I can hear you. All right, so I was asking with regards the idea of throwing away the baby with the bath water. There's other angles, other very vital angles and causes in that bill that may be lost simply because of the direct primary controversy that President Mahmoud Bawari pointed out. The electronic transfer of votes and of results, rather, is one of the things that has been mentioned. Is this, should this be worrisome for Nigerians looking forward to 2023? Yeah, I think that when I saw that, when I saw that direct primary, the moment that was being debated, I couldn't say that it was a unit to render, to render this, that is all for me, knowledge, because I don't know why, why is it coming, how, for support to do about a matter of terms of a direct primary? Don't go back to the dialogue that I just mentioned. So when you, when you're down the heat from ours, I would say then that more direct primary, each way you select your political stand-in, so I think the nomination and all that is also a lot of, I don't think there are where my thoughts are, I always try to look at the results into that aspect. Yeah, we'll have to talk about it. I don't think so. So I saw it as, it might be the reason for us to not be aware of anything that the electronic attendee has worked over. And they have, I'm not, everybody has less contributions. You know, we lessen, we lessen that we have to do the electronic, because the electronic act is up to this point, at the level of, it's very certain. And we should not have this provision that we choose the bigger picture, bigger dream of having a particular electronic act that the author is the government for us. So perhaps, perhaps the electronic attendee needs to check that it needs to collect the air on that. Let's not learn. The political party should be allowed to accept that. Yeah, they should be allowed to accept. For now, we grow in such a way that democracy and the world will have to make the new legislation that is fixed. Alright, so apologies, you know, it's not, we're not getting a very clear sound from you, but are you then saying that you agree with those who say that the, you know, direct primary controversy was simply placed there because, and this is, you know, some of the statements that I've heard, it was placed there because, you know, the current administration is not very interested or excited about, you know, allowing for electronic transfer of results. And so, you know, these are some of the things that have been placed there. Oh, it simply exists there to scuttle, you know, the possibility of electronic transfer of results. It's logical. You know, there was a lot of pressure against that electronic transfer, especially from the women party. They made the opposite at the beginning. But when the public eye cry became high, they considered that. So whoever is using that possibility to consider that process, that will justify everything. That person might not be able to do anything wrong, he may be wrong, he may not be wrong. But there's a time when it needs to be tried to think that these people may have, still feel that to make sure that the other issue, together with people, does not see the light of the day. Because that does, that does. Okay. But whichever way, I think that simply will come to the right compromise, will come to the right compromise, because the idea is that the most advanced democracy is for people to work. In Nigeria, I don't know if they are able to be using that to become an act. Okay. When the war has happened. If you look at it, that would be an act. There's a lot of space on this that makes the process full of changes. Because you have to translate manually. You have to do a lot of things. It's going to be an offline. That is where we can take space. That is when you want to win at all costs. Or deploy resources to make sure they serve that purpose. And then render everything. At the end of today, the advanced party wants to report. And then at the end of today, we'll have to look up to the judiciary. Which that means you have won or lost the election. You've got to look up to the people. The people, because for as opposed to the light, we decided that the function of the judiciary is not to decide for the people who look up. It's to interpret laws. It's to interpret laws. But what we have to say by the input of this act is that because of the decision of the current act, it creates a lot of problems that the positions have to go to court to resolve. And when they get to court to resolve that, the outcome is that the court, through the decision of the law, would have indirectly proved to the leader the decision to win with the people. So that is why I say that there's a way with that. Let's have this. And then let's do the move. And that's going to our democracy. All right, Uffali, let's also look at the expectations of the National Assembly at this point in time. I mean, the report has it that they are delaying recess and they have started collecting signatures just to override. So do you think that the National Assembly should be throwing the path of overriding the president's veto or they should consider removing that clause of the direct primaries and send back the bill to the president? Well, in that way, in that way, the bill is up to them. Up to them. I would have suggested that the direct primaries should be looked at. Fortunately, the rules have sent back to the president. But knowing who the president is, he may not sign it also. He might decide to bring another issue as well, hopefully. At the end of the day, I'm assuming I'm not so aware. We will not be talked about by... I know that before... you have to send more of a delay, 90 days before election. Aha, so I make. So if the president is going to delay it for another time, I just want to say that that's what I'm telling you. Continue the process of allowing the president. Because that is the law. I'm not going to contract. They can do that. Except we are sure that if they announce the path of the president to complain about and they will work on it, I'm thinking that the president will sign it within 30 days before. And that is not guaranteed, by the way. So the next month, I'm going to do what we have to do. Okay, you also mentioned... I mean, in the course of this discourse, you mentioned that you don't see the Ninth Assembly going ahead with that process of overriding. And we know that they will require two-thought majority. So why would you say that? This is not an APC consent. Although we know that, yes, APC might be dominating in terms of the numbers now in the House. I said that because... I said that because of the four months they tried to... I will do me dash some of them when they are in office. They said that they were not elected to fight the president. But anything the president... You should remember that. You should remember that. You said they told us, you know, that anything the president... So that... There was a time when someone decided... One time they told us, the president did not vote. And then some of them went to beg the president. So you see, when you have that kind of a problem, it's only wrong to think the way I think it. Yeah, because there are people in that house that are constituted as open funds. Yes, I thought I was right about that. I did the two of them. They voted yes and they were open for the president to act on. There are some of them that may not work to be possible when they are writing to the president, but... You understand? So that is a really nice accent. So at least I understand you. But what I feel like the answer is that we want the right president to be on the issue of questions. Even they are inconsistent. Even the way they have behaved in their past was the people that relate to the president. So that is why I said that. And I think there is a reason why people don't see the reason what I have been saying. All right. Well, since we're talking about the National Assembly now, I want us to go back to the Eighth Assembly, and get you to also respond to those who have said that the Bukalasaraki-led National Assembly also had an opportunity then to veto Gengsperry's Obama Dubuari's refusal to sign the Electoral Act. Do you think that they had an opportunity then, and they probably should have made that move back then? Well, the reason is that it isn't a president at that time. The reason is that it wasn't a president at that time. The reason is that it wasn't a president at that time. So we're going to have to be able to have an opportunity. But then, we want to be in the style of law. All right, then. So let's put the things that we want to do. That would have been an addition. Okay. I have a question. What do you talk about to a cross-border person? Okay. Does there were any concerns of law that the president had finally said he thought it's practically impossible to address that and let them ask? So that is why the reason I've done this is because I have to talk to you. And then, we started not to go ahead and answer that question. It must be to be used less. So I thought it was better to do it. It's more than to use less. Well, this one is possible by which one it's basically possible at all. Direct formaries or indirect formaries are not simply within the level of flexibility of the legislation of that method. You know what I mean? This one is quite different. But I will tell you that the better approach was the better approach. The better approach was the better assembly and the better direction. And the better direction was the right direction. There is, of course, just a little above a year to the next general elections. These conversations are important. And, of course, the sign of this bill is also pretty important to encourage more and more Nigerians to vote. Because if you, of course, have listened to conversations across the country, you must have, you know, heard a lot of people saying that they really have very little interest in voting again in 2023. And so, you know, these things, you know, would determine whether we will be able to increase the number of people who are registered and will participate in the electoral process or not. There's also, of course, those who have criticized the current administration because, you know, President Mahmoud Aboury came in as a reformed democrat. And, Mr. Afeli, does that still stand, seeing the way things have played out with this bill? Well, it depends on how good that is. On advancing legislation that will push the country forward. I mean, what you see is seen as an example of that and all that. That was a theory. But, in fact, it's not anything that shows that the president is passionate about democracy rather he has acted in ways that suggest that democracy cannot talk of. That means what I have been said so far is that it's an inspiration. It's an answer to what you can say. The policy, the economy, the country as a whole. So that is the value of our country. Again, the electoral, at least you know what to do before you look back, please. And last but not least, to carry on with this, I don't think I have much in opposition. But I wanted much more than anything else. I was also not very confident about our future. So, there should be a lot of education, political education on top of political education. So, I think that if I don't see a critical opportunity and then look forward to a better future, a better future, a better future. That is the better future I want to see. And I would like to ask that you review the platform. Okay, so let's also look at, you know, part of the major win for the electoral bill. I mean, if it eventually sees the light of day, which is the transmission of results electronically. Now, do you think that that would actually, you know, go a long way? Paraventure, we have that in our elections come 2023. Will we eliminate all of the irregularities that we experience in our elections? Of course, we will. We will because then, you know, we won the elections. All of the electors will be at the polling unit. Once it is concluded, it's transmitted electronically. Okay, so that, under that, there will be, there will be a record. There will be a record of the number of registered voters, the number that voted and who voted, who, when and how. We will have all of that. We will have all of that transmitted. So that anyone who is contesting the outcome, the court. The court will just rely on the transmission report. And what is it going to be? If people are still in the transmission of electoral matter and electoral petitions with our courts. So that will make it clear that, you know, the court is capable of providing the support of the person who actually won. Not in cases where the court will have to run 200 localities. So that's like even most people in the last election are now done. We need to have a lot of issues because we are not sure what was transmitted and all of that. My practices are one part of the life and the rest of it. And it's not just, it's not just the electoral transmission. There are other initiatives that I would promote in the system a lot. And then there is a bit to tell our people that they can reach for selling and buying votes. Because on a national day there's a huge market. Someone came to sell, came to buy. And that itself should be able to sell too. I want to know. And this one is for education. All right, Burst. Evan Tovairli, thank you very much for your thoughts on this very, very major story across the country this morning. We look forward to speaking with you again. Thank you. All right, stay with us here on the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. We'll take a short break when we come back. We're moving into talking about, of course, more matters from the National Assembly. This time it is about the 2022 budget, more than 17 trillion nair, which was eventually passed yesterday. That comes up after this break. Stay with us.