Federal lawmakers in the House of Representatives of Nigeria’s national Assembly, perhaps, angered by the defeat of 178 members of the lower chamber of the federal legislature at the primaries of various political parties, may have been provoked to veto the decline of President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the amended 2022 Electoral Act into law.
Speaker of the House, Right Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, had on the resumption f plenary on Tuesday, decried the defeat and loss of tickets for the 2023 general elections by 178 members. The speaker decried that the indirect primary may have cost the members abysmal defeat at the state congresses.
The House, on Wednesday, resolved to override President Buhari, review the amended act, and pass it into law without the President’s consent required. However, the House would need the majority support of 2/3 members to endorse the passage of the Act.
The two chambers of the National Assembly, the Senate and the House of Representatives, had in April urgently re-amended Section 84(8) of the amended Electoral Act, injecting a clause on statutory delegates to vote at congresses, conventions and primaries of political parties.
President Buhari declined assent to the amended Act on the advice of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami SAN.