Why Pres. Buhari won’t sign new electoral law — Justice minister Malami .

The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Nigeria (AGF), Abubakar Malami, has revealed why President Muhammadu Buhari won’t assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill.

Speaking in an interview with Radio Kano on Sunday, December 26, Malami explained that the bill did not capture the interest of Nigerians, hence Buhari will not sign it into law.

He said the new electoral law has an excessive cost implication, is discriminatory, as well as supportive of insecurity adding that signing it into law will only initiate a new crisis that will lead to court cases.

According to him, “Any bill signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari is in the interest of all Nigerians irrespective of their inclinations. He is after satisfying the interest of the over 200 million Nigerians he is serving and not a particular sector.

For example, one of the reasons is that there are 18 political parties and law is founded that will allow for direct primaries. This means that you will repeat the general elections 18 times.

Today INEC requires N305 billion for the 2023 general elections. Now if the general election, which is not the newly proposed electoral system, will cost this much, how much will it cost to do the same election in the APC? It might cost at least N200 billion because it will involve everyone.

Therefore, if it is assumed that every political party will spend N200 billion, how much will then be spent in conducting the same primary election in 18 political parties just to produce a qualified candidate?

Let’s assume there are about 60 million politicians in the country, what about the remaining over 160 million Nigerians who have nothing to do with politics? Are you fair to them?

My answer to this is that to spend this N305 billion that will be given to the INEC and the about N200 billion to be given to the political parties is not fair to the remaining 160 million Nigerians who have no business about politics and political appointments. Their business is just a better life in Nigeria. This is the issue of cost implications.”