President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has kicked against what he described as the ‘calculated blackmail’ against the leadership of the National Assembly over the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2021, presently before both chambers.
But Lawan in his remarks after a report on the bill was laid before the upper chamber on Wednesday, attributed the falsehood peddled in accusations fingering the leadership of the National Assembly of manipulating the contents of the bill as the work of mischief makers bent on blackmailing the leadership of the National Assembly.
But some Nigerians have challenged him and his colleagues to come out clean on legislative matters and be accountable to the electorate.
According to them, the action of the nineth National Assembly members has not inspired Nigerians but rather confirmed their fears of doing the bidding of the executive and being partisan in their discussions and legislative duties.
For instance, Lawan’s argument that the senate would only act on recommendations of the committee on the electoral act and that, Nigerians should rather lobby their representatives amount to evading the real issues involved and just reading a prepared script, which amount to working to an existing answer.
Confirming the fears of Nigerians on action of Nass on some national issues, some of the stakeholders, for instance, referenced the reason for rejection of Lauretta Onochie as INEC commissioner nominee as arrogant and tantamount to saying they are not accountable to the electorate.
“Nigerians requested for her rejection because of her membership of the ruling party as well as her partisan activities, to give another reason for her rejection, was unfortunate and smarks of arrogance, pride and insensitive to the collective will of the electorate,“, says Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, executive director, civil society legislative advocacy centre, (CISLA) on the Arise Television program, The Morning Show, on Wednesday.
According to Friday Ameh, Lagos based analyst, the argument of Lawan that the alleged manipulation and tampering with the contents of the electoral bill was false was evasive and begging the question rather than allaying fears of the electorate.
Speaking further, Ameh said,
“What kind of lobbying is the Senate President referring to and why the need for such if policies or legislations are in the interest of the masses?.
Why creating room for even that in the first instance and based on what we have come to terms with as lobbying in Nigeria, then the Senate president is very unfair to the impoverished Nigerians. “
However, the report on the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021, was laid by the Chairman of the Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Senator Kabiru Gaya.
Lawan therefore, advised Nigerians to lobby lawmakers on any aspect of the bill they feel strongly about, insisting that the National Assembly would do only what is right when it eventually considers the bill.
He disclosed that the attempt by some elements to blackmail the leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives resulted in the publication of his phone number and the Speaker’s on various online platforms.
According to him, his privacy was invaded with over nine hundred messages accusing him of manipulating the contents of the Electoral Act (Amendment) bill.
The Senate President, however, maintained that the National Assembly can only consider aspects of the amendment bill contained in the Committee’s report presented to the upper chamber for consideration.
He said, “There are various accusations, insinuations that the leadership of the Senate, sometimes the leadership of the National Assembly have tampered with the report of the committee on INEC of both chambers.
“Some of those accusing the leadership of the National Assembly are innocently misinformed, some are simply mischievous and rabble rousers.
“This is the first time this report is laid here. This is the decision of the committee on INEC and, therefore, whatever will be discussed or considered about the Electoral Act Amendment Bill will be on the basis of what has been presented to the Senate here.
“If anybody feels very strongly about anything, lobby distinguished Senators to canvass for your position, rather than blackmail our leadership, because my telephone line and that of the Honourable Speaker were published. In one day, I received over nine hundred messages saying we have manipulated this, we didn’t.
“We will do what is right, we have our procedures and lobbying is part of democracy.”