Dr. Usman Bugaje, a political activist and Islamic scholar, has charged that Senate President Godswill Akpabio and the Senate leadership have consistently undermined Nigeria’s democratic process by dishonesty and subpar legislative behavior.
According to reports, Bugaje supported the continuing effort to change the Electoral Act following a Supreme Court decision during an interview on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Tuesday.
According to him, the revision was now required in order to increase electoral openness and give clarity, especially through the requirement that results be transmitted electronically in real time.
“You see,” Bugaje explained, “this is exactly because of that Supreme Court ruling that we now need to go back and amend the law for clarity, accuracy, and precision so that everybody will be clear.”
The goal is to hold a transparent election, and the best way to do so is to ensure that the results are instantly available online, in real time, so that everyone can see the precise distribution of votes.
According to Bugaje, the House of Representatives has approved the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) recommendation that results be transmitted in real time.
However, he charged that the Senate was opposing the reform.
“INEC has even gone so far as to suggest that real-time results transmission ought to be required. The Senate is constantly found to be dishonest or deceiving people, but the House of Representatives has done just that,” he remarked.
Claims of Legislative Errors
The activist also said that the Senate had a history of legislative failures, such as disputes over budgetary procedures and tax legislation, which he claimed caused uncertainty in economic planning and governance.
After this amendment, it is one issue that we truly need to address. The Senate has previously been observed dozing off or engaging in dishonest behavior related to their primary duty of enacting laws, Bugaje stated.
“They used the tax legislation to accomplish that. They accomplished this by padding budgets, and as a result of the chaos they created, we currently have almost three budgets, none of which are truly operational. You have no idea where you are in reality.
“Therefore, businesses are unable to plan since they are unsure of which budget will be funded and which will be implemented.”
Bugaje urged closer examination of the Senate leadership’s activities, seeing it as a significant governance concern.
Therefore, the Senate leadership in particular is currently the nation’s largest issue, and we must start to question their usefulness. “What sort of careless conduct is this?” he asked.
He went on to say that even after the Electoral Act change process, the topic would continue to be discussed nationally.
“Therefore, once we have reviewed the amendment, we will need to address that,” Bugaje stated.
He maintained that the country’s electorate was increasingly in favor of requiring the electronic transmission of election results.
However, I believe that there is a widespread belief that this required real-time transmission is what everyone wants and that it should be implemented, even among their fellow lawmakers in the House. “Anything less is not acceptable to Nigerians,” he stated.
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