BY MAYOWA SAMUEL
The African Democratic Congress, ADC, has alerted the public to alleged plans by the National Assembly to pass the electoral amendment bill without the inclusion of the electronic collation of results aspect of the bill.
Ralph Okey Nwosu, national chairman of ADC, made the allegation an open letter he addressed to both the Senate President, Senator Ahmed Lawal and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajamiabila, respectfully.
Nwosu claimed that “There has been a shocking revelation that the National Assembly has perfected plans to pass the Electoral amendment bill this week without the electronic collation element of the bill.
“This is truly shocking and absurd. This time when law makers are supposed to be deep in thoughts in creating laws to make Nigeria emerge as a strong democracy after 22 years of democratic government, it is incomprehensible why the National Assembly should be building booby traps and creating windows that serve parochial ends.
“With over 200 million population, Nigeria should be strongly relevant globally and to our people. Not adopting the practices and attitudes that enhance best practices in laws and policies formulations demean our parliamentarians, the national assembly as an institution and reduce and limit us as a people.
“It is of utmost importance that we begin to build integrity into our processes. Things to bring value and credibility to our processes and help our democratic journey, development and maturity.
”We cannot continue living in falsehood and corruption. The beauty of democracy is people ownership, an endearing franchise that must be guided.
”Please put back the electronic collation of results in the Electoral bill. And remove any clause that does not leverage the system.
