Buhari Lacks Power To Seek Amendment Of Electoral Act Says Wike

RIVERS State governor, Nyesom Wike, has argued that President Muhammadu Buhari lacks the power to write the National Assembly seeking an amendment of the Electoral Act.

Wike particularly alleged that the recent letter Buhari sent to the National Assembly praying the amendment of Section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act, 2022, was done in bad faith. He said the President had no power to determine whether the section would disenfranchise serving political office holders and to suggest that it was in conflict with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

Wike in a statement signed by his Special Assistant, Media, Kelvin Ebiri, insisted that by faulting Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, the President was usurping the power the judiciary to interpret the law. He said: “Unfortunately, what we have today is where the executive arm has taken the position and the role of the judiciary of interpreting the law. The legislature said this is what it has done. It is not the duty of Mr. President to interpret that Act. The duty of Mr. President is to assent to the bill, let those who are affected, if at all, go to the court.

Wike described the recent passage of the bill granting full financial and administrative autonomy to the local government by the National Assembly as a welcome development. He explained that as a former chairman of a local government and National President of Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) , he was in support of autonomy of the third tier of government. Wike said though the 1999 constitution did not in clear terms define the independence of the local government, he had always advocated financial and administrative autonomy of the third tier.

“I believe that the local government should be autonomous, and the only way you solve this problem is that funds allocated and meant for local government should go to them directly”, he said. The governor declared that since he assumed office in 2015, he had never interfered with the funds of the 23 local government areas in Rivers State. He said: “As governor from 2015, I’ve never one day, and I want to challenge anybody, ask about the funds that come to local government. I’ve never. I learnt this from our mentor, Dr. Peter Odili. When he was the governor of the state from 1999 to 2007, I was a chairman of council then, Dr. Odili never one day said he should preside over local government funds.”

The governor said if the country desired true federalism, the three tiers of government must be autonomous. According to him, even though the federal government has been suffocating the states, he will not advocate that states should do same to the local government. Wike acknowledged that the 1999 constitution might not be a perfect document, but strict adherence to its provisions would have tremendous impact in the democratic process. He cited the issue of federal government collecting Value Added Tax and enactment of the Police Trust Fund Act as clear cases of breach of the provisions 1999 Constitution.