Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on Tuesday read a letter from President Muhammadu Buhari informing the National Assembly of his decision to withhold assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.

The Speaker and the Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, however, blocked the move to debate the rejection.

Shortly after Dogara read the letter in plenary, a member, Mr Aliyu Madaki (PDP, Kano), raised a point of order to criticise the President for not assenting to the bill.

Madaki said, “This has a lot to do with the well-being of this country. What we want is a free, fair and credible election. Mr President refusing to assent to the Electoral Act (amendment bill) shows clearly what he wants to do. The whole world is watching. Everybody is watching…”

Gbajabiamila, who raised another point of order to counter Madaki, asked that the assent withdrawal should not be debated.

He said, “I have been a member of this House for 16 years. We have never, by precedence, custom and tradition, debated a letter which is by way of information. If there is the need to debate the President’s letter, we will table it on the Order Paper for debate.

“Several letters have been written by several presidents to this House. Whether we like it or not, it is a communication to the House. If we want to debate it, we will place it on the Order Paper tomorrow (today), and we are fully ready, willing and able to debate the issues. But it has to be according to our rules and the laws of this House.”

In his ruling, Dogara said, “I agree that this matter should be laid to rest today. There is a provision in our rules that guides this kind of communication and I will advise that we follow the provisions of the rules.”

Shortly after, Gbajabiamila could he heard telling Madaki from his seat, “The constitution allows that we override the veto. We can override him.”

Meanwhile, several members of the House, who spoke to one of our correspondents earlier on Monday, stated that the National Assembly had the option of overriding Buhari’s veto.

The lawmakers, who are members of both the ruling All Progressives Congress and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, expressed their disagreement with the President for rejecting the bill.

Mr Johnson Agbonayinma (APC, Edo State) stated that while Buhari had exercised his constitutional right by not assenting to the bill, the National Assembly also had the powers to take a decision in that circumstance.

Agbonayinma added, “The President made three amendments. We will look at them holistically. He has the right to assent to it or not, and we as the National Assembly also have the right to use a two-third to override him. He has performed his constitutional duty and we in the National Assembly will also perform our constitutional duty.”

Another member, Mr Sunday Karimi (PDP, Kogi State) said it was necessary to override the President on the bill. He, however, expressed doubts about getting the required two-thirds of lawmakers in both chambers of the National Assembly to veto the bill.

Asked if the National Assembly should override Buhari, the lawmaker said, “Yes. But do we have the figure to override him? I will say no. I am a member of the National Assembly and I know the politics involved. You can see the Senate Leader who is supposed to talk in favour of the President assenting to the bill, he is not saying so.

“If we want to veto him, they will call all the APC lawmakers and tell them not to work with us. This is an election year; if we want to override the President, we will not get the number required. The problem is that with the attitude of the President, are they ready to conduct free and fair elections? No. If they want to conduct free and fair elections, why is he afraid of signing what the entire National Assembly agreed upon?”

[b]https://all-gists..com/2018/12/electoral-act-dogara-gbajabiamila-stop-debate-on-buharis-letter.html

Tinubu's game boy

You see the kind of lawmakers PDP produces, a PDP lawmaker that does not know the rules of the house.

PDP will be killed in February presidential election and buried in March governorship election.

No need debating the letter. Anyhow the dullard want am for 2019, him go get am.

PDP and stupidity, the president isn't a rubber stamp to sign all your wishes, he has his constitutional duty to pass or sign.

If they are intelligent they would be finding the impossible 2/3 and stop wailing

From the way they are sounding, both the PDP and some APC members looks like they are in to override the President's decision. Even the so called impossible 2/3 can be gotten. You can see members from both divides hammering on their right to override him.

We sane, honest and hardworking Nigerians are with you Sai Baba.

No comments

This guy has been in the House of rep for 16 years... 16 fuckkng years!

K

c

the president is afraid most Nigerians are not with him so he wants to get those stupendous figures (from kano, katsina and kaduna) by hook or by crook.

any which way my advice is this

fix the road to daura and let it be in good shape come 2019 (obasanjo going back to ota in 2007 comes to mind)

baliyubla:
No need debating the letter. Anyhow the dullard want am for 2019, him go get am.

Your wailing just start

For 16yrs...WTF

And someone says we r d leader of tomorrow

nice one from buhari

These dudes are useless, I trust Buhari you override him he clears you out of the race. We need Putin to rule us.

Jothamthompson:
For 16yrs...WTF

And someone says we r d leader of tomorrow

lolz..David mark has stayed linger in the senate..my brother the youth has no future in this country

[quote author=akinhanger post=73767934]
He said, “I have been a member of this House for 16 years. We have never, by precedence, custom and tradition, debated a letter which is by way of information. If there is the need to debate the President’s letter, we will table it on the Order Paper for debate


16yrs??...WTF.. How did we get here Who are now the leaders of tomorrow

Buhari rejected the electoral amendment bill for only one reason...Because he knows there is no way he can win a free & fair election. This is clear evidence Buhari did not win in 2015.

Buhari & APC do not plan to conduct elections. They plan to simply declare fake results.

They have the power to over ride him and veto it.

babyfaceafrica:
lolz..David mark has stayed linger in the senate..my brother the youth has no future in this country

E ye salobua (bini dialect)

NO HIS NOT GOING TO SIGN IT LET THEM GO TO HELL ALL THEIR PLANS AS BEING BUSTED ,THAT WAS HOW 2015 ELECTION WAS CONDUCTED WHY NOW

From the way they are sounding, both the PDP and some APC members looks like they are in to override the President's decision. Even the so called impossible 2/3 can be gotten. You can see members from both divides hammering on their right to override him.

Now I know the Nigerian “law makers” are very foolish and in intelligent.


There are some people hell bent on ensuring that the election is cancelled (like in kenya) because of an electoral bill that will cause so much confusion.


They knew they want to amend the electoral law but went on a 3month unnecessary recess now they’re trying to muzzle the president into signing.

Bunch of jokers.

So many house members are just in the house for the sake of their pocket ,but their head is as blank as a plain paper. If truly they don't have any hidden agenda in the bill sent to the President why insist on him signing it ASAP and if am not mistaken this particular bill spent over 8 months in the house before sending it to the table of the president to sign.
They thought he was like Jonathan who won't go through what is been sent to him.

Jothamthompson:
For 16yrs...WTF
And someone says we r d leader of tomorrow

staying long in legislative chamber is good for democracy. but everybody wants power by fire by force in this country, to acquire wealth