Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State had in a media interaction commended President Muhammadu Buhari for declining to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law because of the controversial direct primaries infused into the act by the federal lawmakers. The governor dismissed insinuations that the federal lawmakers are at loggerhead with governors over the controversial direct primaries in the act.
Governor Umahi also dismissed accusations that governors hijack party structures in their respective states. He said that governors play crucial roles, funding political parties, which according to him, make it look like governors control the parties.
Governor Umahi, however, stated that the major problem with the amended Electoral Act is the direct primary.
Governor Umahi was cited to have declared: “There is no battle between the legislators and the governors. The party politics and administration are quite clear in the various political parties.
“I will rather congratulate Mr. President for not assenting to the bill. I will also commend the legislators very well because they did very thorough work with the issue of electronic transmission.”
The Ebonyi Governor, however, acknowledged that some party stakeholders coming from the same state, feel threatened, essentially when they are aggrieved, they feel someone is hijacking the party structure at the state level.
Umahi asserted that governors are not afraid of direct primaries, saying that governors control legion of party members which include those on political appointments from the wards to the state levels.
Umahi had highlighted: “When people say direct primary is the only way of giving the party back to the people, I just laugh. There is no governor that doesn’t have at least hundreds of government officials in each of the wards.
“There is no governor that is not the one, who through contributions from friends, is paying the salaries of party officials.
“The governors are the ones keeping the party alive in the various wards so these are the commitments of governors that seem as if they are hijacking the party.”
Meanwhile, the National Assembly has proceeded on holidays and would be resuming in January 2022 before considering the Electoral Act Amendment Bill returned to the federal legislature for review.
President Buhari, writing the National Assembly on his decline to assent to the bill on Tuesday, noted some gray areas relating to direct primary, expressing readiness to sign the act if those areas are reviewed.