 Welcome back it's still the breakfast and plus TV Africa away from aviation and the issue of health that will be talking politics right now and specifically we're looking at you know the electoral act amendment bill would report saying that the president has returned it back to the National Assembly let me just give a beat of him of a background from some papers that we have here let me just go straight to the vanguarder the confusion in the polity was probable over the president Muhammad Buhari's reported refusal to assent the electoral act amendment bill president Buhari reportedly wrote leaders of the two chambers of the National Assembly after refusing to sign the bill into law because of the huge cost of conducting direct primaries among other reasons now spokesmen of the Senate in House of Representatives denied knowledge of president Buhari's rejection letter as a host of federal legislators contacted on the matter kept mom we have a guest there who will be joining us to look at all of the issues that are starting right now we have up on Larry Wajisuraj he is a public affairs analyst many thanks for joining us on the breakfast thank you very much thank you all right let's talk about this electoral act amendment bill I mean pressure you know pressures are just mounting everywhere specifically you know the issue of a direct or no dive or indirect primaries from what we are reading the president has reportedly refused sign in your opinion don't you think the direct primaries is what will do the nation's elections or in the you know elections really you know so much good why are there so much rejections and so much consent as regards at this issue Larry yeah go ahead we can hear you now I think we need to understand the issue of our lawmaking in Nigeria especially since with the advent of our civilian rule and when you have issues and also policies or laws that are capable of reducing the individual power of our election electoral office order political office orders you can expect this kind of and also so much big cream manipulation and the noise that you get to hear from the process of the enactment of the law if you go down the administration of criminal justice at the freedom of information and also the petroleum industry bill that became the Petroleum Industry Act you would understand how long it took for these laws and the host of others to get enacted into into law based on the interests that are affected either negatively or those that will think for the fear of the unknown needs to reject the policy formulation and that is exactly what you're experiencing with the amendment of the electoral act that basically because some of the particularly now it is shown that the governors who even under the current dispensation of our governor system in Nigeria and the civilian rule are even more powerful than the president of the National Assembly this this proposition of the direct Congress and process of electing candidates obviously is a threat to the governor's the fact that it is not going to be in the direct control of where a few people can be gathered and also the process of the primaries that we manipulated that is number one number two is the fact that we have not really been taking keen interest which is very important for us in the primaries of the political parties are forgetting that the primaries the term is the final occupant of our political offices so where we live it as a party affair where we're reduced to the fate a company of having to choose between the devil and the blue sea when the leading political parties are either coming with a mix of armed robbers cyber criminals cameras and all the rest of that and we would have no option than to choose between those options that it is about the opportunity now not only for a net to keenly scrutinize the electoral process of the parties but also for people to understand and see more how candidates of the political parties are elected doing and through the the party primary so what is clear is also the manipulation and I think it is important for political parties to also I mean sorry the media to actually be a bit more circumspect by ensuring that we don't pander to the interest of those that are variants with interest of the country the interest of the country is paramount and we have spent so much for the electoral process so now if we're going to spend additional amount to have good governance to entrench you know party influence party supremacy over individuals I think we should go to that process and see what will be the benefit for our democratic consolidation we should not be intimidated by the by the amount that that is going to be involved if I make it's already said to be in control and it's capable of conducting the election I think we should we should manage it and go ahead with it all right for for the sake that let's also look at this now don't you think that at this point in time we probably should be done with the electoral art amendment bill because if that if the president has censored it would therefore mean that it would guarantee electronic transmission of result and we know the essence of time in preparation of our elections it would require that Inek would need to put her acts together get all of the equipment and what it is necessary to make purchase and of course start the training you know immediately for some of this you know equipment and gadgets that will be needed to conduct that elections so with that don't you think at this point we should get with done with this bill no I think it is still within the realm of the possibility of Inek to meet up with the expectations you know sometimes we're always just a little bit not too keen or giving necessary attention to details Inek has been electronically transmitting results from cooling stations and even before now Inek has been transmitting accreditation electronically before now so the additional requirement of ensuring that the whole process is approved I mean they look at the state governments elections that are held in a dual and the two previous elections are well we're actually done by these process and what is but this is entirely different we're going to be looking at election for 36 states I mean we can say that with the pockets of transmission it's just in few states we're talking about 36 states at this point in time so that's a lot of work I mean there's nothing that is a lot of work there what I'm telling you is that Inek has piloted it in those states and we have seen the results we've seen the inability of the difficulty for manipulation of the result we have seen the reduction of influence of human and manual interference with the results and the process so if we have had successful piloting in those states then it means we're capable of expanding the capacity also stretching a little bit more like you said the training and whatever and the deployment to have that the problem with those in Nigeria is not usually about the law it's about our implementers it is just I can tell you if we stop making new laws today and we implement the existing laws Nigeria would be better than many of the developed countries that we we seems to envy our problem has been our not only the lawmakers alone but the mentors in the office the executives the civil servants and even the judiciary are usually the problem because they're capable of not only misinterpreting the law but also influencing the undermining of the laws so there's no fear that we need to loss but the fear is not about the viability of the process the opposition is not about the viability of the law and the process the opposition is about the people that are negatively going to be affected who are going to lose their dominance and control of the political process who are not going to be the sole determiner of those who will occupy offices in the states and that is the challenge that you have like I said many of our governments are not only responsible for a point in and because we don't even have a lecture or selecting those who become the local government chairman and councilors in their state except is where they have godfathers and those are the exception about but outside that the determine who becomes you know the local the council of the chairman at the local government level they also determine who becomes you know the state house of assembly members the determine who becomes the speaker in many instance the determine who becomes the senator from the state and also the house of reps members but there's so much power and ifness that the governors with the cause the supremacy of the parties have been totally reduced basically because the parties only also get funding and support from the governors or if the president as the case may be so the that is why they call them the leader of the party in the state because they are usually the sole sponsor of the party so they control the party mercenaries and that is where the electoral process the new electoral act that is meant to be reviewed would technically reduce and we to this power that is with by individuals in the name of being governors and that is as far as a navigational politician is concerned it is not bothered about the implication of of the position to the country or to the larger interest is looking at his own personal interest so if the electoral act would guarantee all of the principles of democratization and electoral process it will be jettison and jeopardized for that singular interest of the direct families that they are actually of Germany now opposed and I think some of them may not be far away from the propaganda that is going around all the misinformation about the president you know we're told in essence to that view because there's no official statement ever from the president of from the National Assembly to the effect of of the withdrawal of essence but it's been already there and it's been promoted unfortunately people are not allowed to look at the the benefit and the real detail of the electoral act amendment view but we've just been reduced to the direct and indirect families that is also captured in it all right I'm a lot of you let's look at them other angles to it they have been talk about you know financial or huge financial implications are out there right now but some CSOs have come out to you know counter that that basically if you're talking of direct and primaries that the bulk of it does not really rest on IE but for the political parties you know so what exactly is the true picture not the true picture of the IEG does not convene the primaries for the political parties the business of IEG in the primaries of political parties is limited to supervising electoral process and also witnessing the the primary so the the so-called huge cost is nothing for for IEG to mount and that was why IEG as also from some of you understanding replied to the president to to say that it not only does it have the capacity to monitor the process the financial burden is not going to be a problem for for the electoral body but these are just some of these things that that are going around it there's really not so much additional financial burden that IEG should be contacting with in dealing with monitoring the primaries IEG will be there anyway for most of the primaries that are conducted by the by the parties and any primary conducted by any of the political parties without the presence of IEG is to the extent of that also subject to nullification to be a copter of competent jurisdiction if challenged so it is very important for for us to understand and that that's what I was talking about understanding the details of of the bill beyond the propaganda that that is there are quite a number of people would comment on the bill will also condemn or support the bill without even saying it but basically from the sentiments that are read on the pages of newspaper and also media reports so but I could tell you that this is not a problem that that I'm actually be worried about there are some of the even those problems or issues that goes beyond the Naira and Kabul we can save you whole lot of money and not only for the states but also for the country because if you if you imagine the amount of money that is spent by the governors you know on some of these elections then then you will actually weep for this country and it is always about the election look at the we had a meeting a program last week where we presented our annual compendium on the hundred high-profile corruption cases and the lead prosecutor to EFCC and Mr. Roti Mijekov came around to also tell to report that and not only that is done about the cases of former governors and of these 20 governors the main issue has been about the security votes and this security votes from almost the least of the country the states with the least federal location goes from about 250 million Naira on a monthly basis to 2.5 billion for those with higher federal allocation on monthly basis and security votes seek on monthly basis and when it comes to the election time these would almost go like ten times to the governors because this is what is used not only for the general election but also to buy delegates and the rest of them for the party primaries and we've heard how this was also done at least if not for now that we're yet to know about what the current ruling party is doing we heard what was done when it was about the primaries for the PDP when monies were moved from Maida Central Bank or NNPC to pay delegates and we've seen that also going to go so we need to start working around the incentivizing the process of you know electoral officers or politically exposed persons buying the conscience of delegates and compromising the electoral process to the dismantling of finances okay so let's talk about you know other benefits of having the electoral act amendment view I mean apart from the fact that it would guarantee or give us the right to transmit our result electronically what are the benefits do we have yeah I mean it's an improvement on what has what has been our whole electoral law and that is why some of the civil society also engaged with the process to ensure that we we have like I said not necessarily what the parliamentaries and the politicians would expect to continue understanding and manipulating the existing law is to ensure that we make the law to be dynamic and respond to the issues that are emerging the moment that you see our politicians not only understanding the existing law but manipulating it so for the the system for the citizens we must learn how to deal with the situation so as much as the the birds are also learning to fly without passion we must also learn how to shoot without missing so that is why you could see the response that you're getting from the governor so you know we must be able to go ahead and see how much we want to deal with the situation one of the other thing is the increase in the limited budget that is expected of the political office holders in bidding for or contesting for offices the visa has been increased unfortunately for us what we needed was the enforcement of what was there before because there's been no compliance and the increase in that now if not enforced again we'll only just allow for increased monetization of the electoral process we would have love to see INEC unfortunately INEC is extremely overwhelmed and making it seriously difficult for it to monitor the political financing of the electoral process and ensure that candidates are kept within the ambit of the provided you know peg Larry thank you so much you're gonna say something very quickly we're running off now yes and I think the other one is the the the electoral offenders commission that we hope that would have the capacity to deal with the prosecution of electoral offenses the cases are almost just compromised at the normal court or a delay so we need the electoral offences commission that is going to be capable of dealing with all the offenses that are associated with the electoral process so it is not just enough that people would lose election at the electoral tribunal and then they just get away I mean some people will spend three hours three years in office after manipulating the electoral process and the election would only just be overturned by the court and they still enjoy the loot of the three years that they have access you know public for but we need that electoral offenders commission all right to secure all those that have found to have violated the law thank you very much right thank you so much indeed we need to really take a casual look at the electoral act amendment bill because the benefits you know far outweigh you know the merit we must have very big thank you to a larry or larry watches sirat he is a public affairs analyst and thank you so much for all of your input today we do appreciate them thank you so much thank you for having all right that's the size of the show for today most of every thank you to all of you who have stood by to watch my name is justin at the door and in case you missed out on internal the conversation it's all right to call us on facebook and instagram is a class cv africa and uh post cv africa lifestyle on youtube i am messy book will do have a great Monday morning