 As some political parties and civil society organizations continue to mount pressure on President Mohammad Abu Hari to sign into law the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, the presidency has warned stakeholders to desist from playing cheap politics, saying the right thing will be done within the lawful time. The presidency, in a statement signed by the special adviser to president on media and publicity, Femi Adishina, said the president, Mohammad Abu Hari, has 30 days as prescribed by the constitution to act on the bill, adding that the executive still has time to do due diligence on it till March 1. Now, reacting to the agitations, the presidency said a proposed legislation has to do with the electoral fortunes of the country, that the country needs to be thoroughly scrutinized and be made as near-perfect as possible. Well, joining us to discuss this is Jidio Logan, he's a legal practitioner. Thank you very much, Baris Al-Logan, for joining us. Lignane, thank you very much. The place has to be here. Yes. So a lot of people are saying the agitation of civil societies who are threatening to go on a protest and all those who are agitating for Mr. President to append his signature to these reworked electoral act amendment bill is much to do about nothing. Do you agree with that? You know, it's not a matter of trying to force the president to assent to the bill. When you follow the antecedents to this, the president himself has promised to leave a fantastic legacy when he is living off this, particularly in the electoral sector of our national life. And there are several issues involved there. And I recall that in 2018, towards the 2019 election, President Mohammad Buhari rejected a proposed amendment to the electoral act, you know, four times, you know, and he gave excuses then, the arranging from irregularities, drafting issues, sequence of elections, the freezing of waste in parts of the process. And then eventually the 2019 election held without the amendment of the electoral act 2010. And here we are again. The amendment here was forwarded to the president earlier. And on the last day, because he is expected to ascend to it within 30 days, you know, he sent it back to the National Assembly complaining in particular about the recommendation of President Buhari as the only option to prompt flag bearers or parties, you know, and he said that may promote corruption or, you know, gender insecurity and stuff like that. And the National Assembly went ahead again to amend this time around introducing new act losses, for example, that if you are a political appointee and you want to contest you must first resign your appointment before you go. Then talking about consensus candidates, so right now we have proposed options in the reprimaries, the reprimaries or by consensus. And then again, there was an increase in how much the presidential candidate can spend. And it's around the president has not ascended to the bill. But I know that under sections 58 and section 59 of the Nigerian Constitution, 1919, as amended, the National Assembly can veto the president by proceeding through a two-third majority in the National Assembly to pass the bill into law if the president refuses to again to ascend to it. And INEC is now warning that this may affect the preparation for the 2023 election, because some of us do not quite agree with that. Even though the bill has not been passed into law, primaries of APC took place in Oshun State, you know, Oshun Direct, so we have the extant law that we can still engage to plan for the 2023 election. And President Buhari should do everything possible to escape the, you know, the perception of the public that is likely, you know, he may be interested in, in, in, in, in, in Scotland, the first common elections, possibly, you know, different kinds of. But, but then, but then I did have the INEC representative here yesterday, Mr. Festus Okoye, who was saying that, that, that INEC does will not have to wait in any way because that bill has not been signed into law, but that INEC is going to go ahead with its plan for the 2023 elections as, as they're using the amended, the electoral act as amended into, I think, 2010. He's saying that it doesn't matter, they will have to proceed as planned. But if this particular bill is signed into law, then, of course, they will proceed with this one. But it does not in any way stop them from conducting the elections with the, the electoral act that is available to them. He also proceeded to say that INEC is not going to postpone the elections. He only said that they might, there might be a tweak in the date, but it's going to still happen within the time frame as specified by the electoral act. You know, by now, as a nation, I think we should have gone beyond this stage. If you ask someone now, who the chancellor of Germany is, the person is likely to mention Mackev, or she has left office as the new chancellor. Did the whole world know what's around us when the election took place? The answer is no, because you have an advanced democracy over there. That is the point we are making. Why should it be difficult? I mean, the president has sent it to the petroleum industry, industry and bill, passing it into law. Hasn't that law even been suspended now because of subsidy debates? You know, so why don't you go ahead, pass this into law? It's called that goal first. Then if there are great areas that you need to attend to, why do we have the national assembly? We have this electoral act of 2010 now being amended. Is there any rule that says it cannot be amended again? Rather than creating all the suspicions that we have, but having said all these, section four of the Nigerian constitution, which is amended says, at the national assembly, we make laws for the peace, order and good governance of Nigeria. So if the national assembly is persuaded that the amendments they have proposed are in the best interest of Nigeria, I think we have 109 senators, 360 house of national assembly, and a house of rest members representing the people actively. Then you go ahead and veto him. Otherwise, then you may be telling us that you have gathered to propose these amendments in futility. Maybe you didn't do your homework very well, but before they proceeded on research, they promised to go and consult in their constituencies and they came back to say they have consulted before representing this bill to the president. And the president is not the final boss or passing the bill into law. So the constitution envisaged the situation we have now and has given power to the national assembly through two-third majority of the national assembly to veto the president himself. If they believe that he is being malicious or he is not doing it in the best interest of the people because his sorts of amendments and those amendments have been made. But the national assembly has been put to this test twice, hoping that they would veto Mr. President and it doesn't look like they have what it takes to do that. So why should we be depending on the national assembly? Why can't we just hope that our president, the one we voted into office, would be able to do right by the electoral process that brought him into power? That is an indictment on the national assembly. I intentionally mentioned the population now. We have just one president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, President Mohammad Buhari, and we have 109 senators, 360 House of Representatives members at the national assembly. So are we now saying that they cannot represent us effectively or are they saying that they did not do effective consultations before coming up with this proposed amendment? And that is what we are saying. So if they come to the conclusion that the president is not acting in the interests of the people, then you go ahead and veto. But whether they have the will power to veto is another discussion entirely because the Senate president himself has promised the president that he's likely to dance along the tunes of the drama from the president and Nigerians, in fact, has nicknamed this assembly as robust and national assembly. And they should not dance to the gallery, particularly when you realize that our electoral processes are very crucial in giving back to good governance, driven democracy, because it's not just this issue of direct primary or indirect or consensus. We have the issue of transmission of results by electronic device. We have the, you know, the evaluation of candidates who want to go there are several other clauses in that amendment that we've been told if the president this time around again refuses to sign the bill into law or the national assembly has the power to say it's a precedent. If you're feeling to do what we expect you to do, we can go ahead because what sections 58 and 59 will seek is that if the national assembly goes ahead to veto the president, then the bill becomes law automatically. So the gates are up, they said they don't want to go should I get. And what if the national assembly does not do this because again, like you have said, it's your words, not mine, that they've been nicknamed a rubber stamp national assembly. What if they don't, like I said earlier on, they've been given two opportunities to test and see if they would go against the president, but they rather stuck to their guns and hopes that the president would do right. But going forward, the window of opportunity for Mr. President to append his signature to this is too open, of course. But then let's move away from the president because we're hinging everything on this piece of paper and saying that this is how our elections should go or will go. But then there are other things that will make sure that the electoral process goes well. Of course, INEC, the political parties, the guys who are running for these offices are security agencies. We have laws in this country that is supposedly to settle on the streets and narrow. How much of those laws have we adhered to? Talk more of a new set of laws or rules and regulations guarding our elections. And I'm not trying to mean any way pessimistic, but I'm just, you know, realistically asking. You know, I have made reference to the fact that we still have the Estank law. The electoral act 2010 has not been abrogated. We are just trying to amend it. And if you cannot amend it, it will still fly as it is. It's just some key areas that should unwind the fortunes of our electoral processes may not come into law. For example, the engagement of electronic devices, which would have helped extensively to prevent ballot snatching and reduce dog breed. You know, several issues like that, but then, just like many other policies that the president gave while committed office, we are waiting to see if he's a man that will work his talk by precisely showing integrity, who was arid and presented as a man of integrity. And there are several tests now, particularly in the real security, in the area of improving the economy and in the area of fighting corruption. And of course, in strengthening the democratic structure that we have in the country. And if he leaves office without fulfilling these promises, history will record that also against his regime. Once again, Mr. Logo, I'm sorry to cut in and I don't want to sound prejudicial towards the president, but he's been here for what, almost seven years. So is anything going to change in less than a year? Or I mean, he's been here seven years. What has changed? What will change before Mr. President leaves? I mean, is there going to be a stroke of miracle? Is something going to happen for the president to change? Because if, like you've said, all of the promises he made, none has necessarily been kept. Why should we be hoping upon hope that something will change in this particular instance? It's up to the president. He's a pilot of the aircraft. So he is a presiding officer over this regime. So if he wants to be on the golden side of history, like he himself has stated at some point, why not? Or if he wants to go down in history as the leader of your regime that has recorded the highest level of indebtedness in the country with killings, with uncertainties, with inflation. So be it. You see, God, he has been given that opportunity, like you said. And are we close with this parable? A young man came to test a wise man and was holding a butterfly and asked the man, please tell me, sir, is this butterfly in my hand? Is he alive? And the wise man told him it is up to you. If the wise man said it is not, the boy can crush the butterfly and present it as dead. And the man said it is up to you. And lo and behold, when the boy opened his hand, the butterfly flew away. So whatever the president intended to achieve in office, history has been quietly recording the characteristics of this regime. And let me disclose this. We arrest people, intimidate them, stop protests and everything, or you cannot arrest history. History will document everything. And if the expectations are not met now, it does not mean another regime will not come to meet expectations. For Kagami have proved that in Rwanda. We have. Well, Mr. Logo, I'm sorry, we have to go. Unfortunately, time is not on our side. Jido Logo is a legal practitioner. And just as you said, Mr. Logo, let's hope that Mr. President would want to end his career on the right side of history. Thank you so much for being part of the conversation. Thank you, God bless Nigeria. All right. Well, thank you all for staying with us as we round up the conversation today. Nigerians have been reacting to the postponement of the All Progressive Congress National Convention. Well, this is where I wrap things up. I'm Mary Ann Ako. We'll see you tomorrow talking for development. It makes no difference as long as I'm concerned. My thoughts towards them moving the dates from one month to the other, it makes no difference. The event is what is important. So posting it does not make any difference. But if by March they have it done, it's an event, let's see what will happen. And we are all Nigerians are waiting. As a public viewer, I would just say that what I foresee, in my own opinion, is that it's something within the party. And these are the things, these internal, what do you call it, crisis within the party. So I felt they have not put their house together. And if you look at it, there is some power short within them. We are not to go to not sit or any of these very places. I think that's some of the reasons why they have not been able to come together and put and have a good and have a date. Yeah, I don't think there's anything wrong in moving their best shot by postponing their convention because maybe they might not put what is supposed to put properly in place. They have to put their room in order before going for conversion. There's some issue within the factions, they have to settle. Without that, there's no way conversion can be successful. There's something fishy about it because of the intraparty differences, because of everybody wants to present themselves as a candidate for the presidency. So I think that is the reason why they had to shift it to other dates, which also I was watching last time, the different factions, the Boone faction, the Tinnable faction, name it. Sorry for calling names, but that is what I know that is going on now. So just because of the intraparty differences, that is why they shifted it.