The Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, on Tuesday, disclosed that the ongoing amendment of the Electoral Act, 2022 would be concluded in or before December 2025, assuring Nigerians that the amendment would be used for the 2027 general elections.
Bamidele, also representing Ekiti Central in the Senate, explained that the only reason the Muhammadu Buhari administration was unable to sign the last aspect of the electoral amendment Bill was because the National Assembly transmitted it late to the presidency then.
He disclosed this in a statement he made after the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio read President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s request to confirm Prof. Joash Amupitan (SAN) as the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Tinubu had nominated Amupitan, a Professor of Law, after the Council of States unanimously approved his appointment as the new INEC chairman last Wednesday following the exit of Professor Mahmood Yakubu.
After the Council of States unanimously approved Amupitan’s appointment, President Tinubu formally requested the upper chamber to confirm Amupitan as the chairman of the country’s electoral commission.
In his statement on Tuesday, Bamidele noted that the only reason the previous administration did not sign the last aspect of the Electoral Bill in 2022 was because it was transmitted to the presidency late. He further explained: “Before then, we had made our first proposal.
We sent the bill to the then president, and it was signed. When further observations were made especially when certain people were disenfranchised as statutory delegates and the National Assembly wanted to make corrections, the late former President Muhammadu Buhari said the bill was coming too close to election.
“And the late President Buhari then observed that he did not want to be misunderstood by the public. That is why the bill was not signed then.
Between now and December 2025, we will ensure that the amendment of the Electoral Act, 2022 is concluded so that it will not be too close to the 2027 elections.”
Speaking on the review of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (amended), Bamidele further assured Nigerians that the present review would scale through because relevant stakeholders, especially Nigeria Governors’ Forum and Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria, were meaningfully engaged in the overriding public interests.
Bamidele, also Vice Chairman of the 1999 Constitution Review Committee in the Senate, dismissed speculations that the presidency would resist the effort of the National Assembly to successfully amendthe grundnorm.
(Independent Nigeria)
