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Again, former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday criticised and lambasted the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Federal Government being led by President Muhammadu Buhari for bringing hardship on Nigerians and running ineffective economic policies which has crippled businesses, causing economic woes in the country.
He categorically tagged the All Progressives Congress and Buhari-led Federal Government a failure and warned Nigerians not to re-elect a failed government that always gives one excuse or another for its failure to meet up with Nigerians’ expectations, saying it will be foolhardy to reinforce failure by re-electing the All Progressives Congress and President Buhari in 2019.
It will be recalled that the new outburst from Obasanjo is coming barely three months from when the former president wrote a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on his political style of governance which he alleged gave room for nepotism, bad economic policy, insecurity in Northeast and generally, incompetent governance.
Speaking in Abeokuta, Ogun state capital during a consultation visit of New Nigeria 2019 Group led by Chima Anyaso, Convener and Moses Siasia, Co-Convener, Obasanjo advised Nigerians to join hands and do away with bad government and governance by the ruling All Progressives Congress, adding that people should not also accept the apology tendered by People’s Democratic Party, and that neither APC nor PDP could get Nigeria and Nigerians out of the current problems.

He said, “But this time, for us to make it, we need all hands on deck. You see, I have publicly said and I mean it, that as a party, neither PDP nor APC can get us there as they have been. Never mind about reforms and apology and all that.
“And yet we have to get there. I asked one of the foundation members of PDP, the PDP when we started, was it a grassroots party? He said it was an elitist party. Really, we have never had the so-called grassroots party. Even NEPU which we could say is the nearest was not grassroots enough. And I believe strongly that we must have a strong popular grassroots movement to bring about the change, sustainability and stability that we need in our democracy and development.
“I am happy to meet with you, but don’t take anything for granted. There will be a lot of work that we have to do. What those I call power addicts would want to do is to divide you based on gender, age, tribe, religion and region. You have one commonality – interest of Nigeria. And it doesn’t matter where you come from. We had that interest.
“The truth is this: when you have an ineffective and incompetent government, we are all victims. And don’t let anybody deceive you. Those of you who are in business, your business could have been better today if we have a competent and effective and performing government. As I said, stop giving excuses; we met challenges. If there are no challenges, then we wouldn’t need you to come. The first lesson I learnt in my military training is never reinforce failure. What we have now is failure. Let failure be failure. And if you do not see what you should see, you will then be a victim of what you don’t like because it’s only when you see what you should see and you do what you should do that you put away what you do not like. And if you don’t see what you should see and you don’t do what you should do, you will be a victim of what you don’t like.”
He however advised the youth’s national movement – New Nigeria 2019 backed by Nigerian Young Professionals Forum whose membership cuts across all tribes, religions, gender in Nigeria and abroad, not to throw away the baby with bathing water as some members of both political parties still have integrity and can still help the ideology and movement succeed.
“But let us bring together all these movements because we are pursuing the same thing. If we allow ourselves to be taken piecemeal, it is finished. Now if we are together… Yes, I said you cannot take PDP as it is and APC as it is; but they are not all made of evil people.
“There are good people. I said PDP is leprous hand, APC is leprous hand, but there are some clean fingers in them. So, let’s take those clean fingers in them and graft the clean fingers in our own. That is the way to go and if we go that way, we will get there, we will move together, and we will move fast and we will move far,” he advised.
Meanwhile the Senate has insisted that it will hold firm to 41 proposed amendments in its determination to amend the 2010 Electoral Act as it commences, vigorously, the process of overriding President Muhammadu Buhari’s veto.
BusinessDay gathered that out of the 41 new clauses in the new bill, 32 of them sought to amend existing sections in the principal act, six new substitutions as well as three insertions of new sections.
The new bill retained the upward review of maximum election expenses to be incurred by a presidential candidate from N1 billion to N5 billion, representing an increase of 400 percent.
The new bill passed First Reading at the Senate last Tuesday, and is being sponsored by Suleiman Nazif, Chairman, Senate Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had on March 13, 2018, declined assent to the amendment of the Act.
In separate letters to the Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, the President said he was withholding assent to the amendment of the Electoral Act because the amendment to the sequence of the election in Section 25 of the Principal Act may infringe on the constitutionally guaranteed discretion of INEC to organise, undertake and supervise all elections provided in Section 16(a) of the 1999 constitution (as amended).
He also stated that the amendment to Section 138 of the Principal Act to delete two crucial grounds upon which an election may be challenged by candidates unduly limits the right of candidates to a free and fair electoral review process.
The President explained that giving assent to the Bill would make the National Assembly appear as if it was legislating for the states on local government issues.
“Pursuant to Section 58 (4) of Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), I hereby convey to the Senate, my decision on (3rd March 2018) to decline presidential assent to the Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2018 recently passed by the National Assembly,” Buhari said in his letter.
As contained in the bill passed by the National Assembly, which the President refused to give his assent to, the same percentage increase applies to governorship candidates from N200, 000,000 to N1, 000,000,000.
The proposal also placed a campaign ceiling of N100 million (representing 150 percent increase) and N70 million (250 percent increase) respectively for senatorial and House of Representatives candidates.
Currently, the 2010 Electoral Act pegs the amounts at N40, 000, 0000 and N20, 000,000 for both positions.
In the case of State Assembly, chairmanship and councillorship candidates of area council elections, candidates are not to spend above N30 million for both state assembly and chairmanship candidates (representing 200 percent increase) and N5 million (representing 400 percent increase) for councillorship standard bearers.
The new bill seen by BusinessDay also fixed donations to candidates of political parties by individuals and entities at N10 million as against N1 million prescribed in the Principal Act (representing 900 percent increase).
Section 87 of the proposal state that: “A candidate who knowingly acts in contravention of this section, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of 1 percent of the amount permitted as the limit of campaign expenditure under this Act or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both.’’
Lawmakers also amended Section 100 of the Electoral Act by inserting a new clause, which stipulates a maximum fine of between N2 million and N5 million to media houses that fail to allocate equal time to political parties or candidates.
In the same token, the bill imposes a fine of N5 million or at least five years imprisonment on a card-carrying member of any political party that conceals his identity to secure appointment with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Furthermore, it slams a fine of N1 million or one year imprisonment against any Presiding Officer of INEC that refuses to display originals of electoral materials to Polling Agents before commencement of any poll.
Since the return to civilian rule in 1999, the National Assembly had been able to override a president’s veto on bills only once. This was in 2001 when the then President Olusegun Obasanjo withheld his assent to the Niger Delta Development Commission (Establishment) Bill (NDDC) and the National Assembly overrode his veto and passed it into law.
Section 58 (5) of the 1999 constitution (as amended) provides that: “Where the President withholds his assent and the bill is again passed by each House by two-thirds majority, the bill shall become law and the assent of the President shall not be required”.
Already, both chambers of the National Assembly are divided along the line of Pro-Buhari and Pro-Saraki/Dogara. Both sides claim to have the required number to stop or facilitate attempts by the National Assembly from overriding the President’s veto.
On their part, Saraki and Dogara have issued a statement, dismissing media reports of disagreement between the two chambers of the National Assembly on the matter.
In a statement jointly signed by Yusuph Olaniyonu and Turaki Hassan, Special Advisers (Media) to Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively, they pointed out that: “The Senate President and the Speaker, as heads of the two chambers of the National Assembly and representing the views of their colleagues, will want everybody to know that they are on the same page on what is the appropriate reaction to the President’s withholding of assent on the Electoral Act amendment bill.
“There is no disagreement between the two chambers as well as their presiding officers. The leadership of the two chambers constantly hold discussions and are in agreement on what to do, how to do it, when to do it and why it must be done.
“The issue at stake is not personal. It is about deepening democracy. It is about improving our democracy and the National Assembly is on firm constitutional and legal grounds to amend the law as well as take decisions in the manner they have been responding.
“We see that story and the insinuations contained in it as mere distraction and unnecessary misrepresentation aimed at creating division in the Federal Legislature. The Senate President, Speaker and their colleagues urge members of the public to discountenance the report.’’
It was gathered that both leaderships have promised to accelerate the process of overriding the President’s veto upon resumption from Easter break by April 10, 2018.
RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta and OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
