The passage of the amended version of the Electoral Act in June this year by the National Assembly would see a drastic reduction in electoral violence in the 2023 general election, Senate President Ahmad Lawan has said. Lawan, while delivering a lecture at the National Defence College Course 29 Programme in Abuja, yesterday, said the Electoral Act undergoing amendment by the Ninth National Assembly will provide for an Electoral Offences Commission, charged particularly with the responsibility of prosecuting electoral offenders.
He stated that the piece of legislation, when passed and signed into law, would, among other things, empower the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct transparent elections in Nigeria.
He said: “Let me give some commendation to the National Assembly for continuously working on the Electoral Act to provide for a better electoral environment in Nigeria. All the improvement we have added was as a result of legislations passed by the National Assembly, and of course, supported by the Executive.
“This is going to be a continuous effort because electoral violence is largely a product of either genuine or misinformation of iniquity or some kind of conspiracy against certain persons during elections. But I also believe – and that is the position of the National Assembly generally – that we should have the Electoral Offences Commission, so that people who are involved in electoral violence will be prosecuted.
“I believe that it will go a long way in reducing and minimizing all these tendencies of people taking the laws into their hands. But in addition, we are currently working on the Electoral Act, we want to amend it and we intend to achieve the amendment before June or thereabout.
Our intention in the National Assembly with this is to further sanitize the electoral environment and empower the election management body, the INEC, to conduct seamless, transparent and very open sort of election where a winner is very happy that he is a winner and a loser will be glad that he lost in a very fair contest.
“So, we are working on this and we hope that the 2023 general election will see less of electoral violence because the law itself would have been further improved.” Speaking earlier during the lecture, the Senate President attributed the challenges faced by the Federal Government to various types of discoloration from conspiracies woven around political, ethnic and religious sentiments. He, therefore, admonished Nigerian leaders to deploy strategic leadership tact needed for the realization of developmental initiatives that accommodates national interest.
“This is an opportunity for me to appeal to all of us in political leadership that our responsibility to the people of Nigeria must remain the one and only critical factor for taking decisions. “The national interest must override any other interest because it is the interest of the majority of the people of the country. If we do that, chances are that we will always get it right. “I think it will be unpardonable for anyone to think that you can create controversies around government’s development programmes or projects. Let there be progressive and positive criticisms. Let’s allow government a chance,” Lawan said.
In another development, the Senate President has supported agitations for an end to open grazing in Nigeria, saying that the country must come up with ways to ensure improved livestock yield and food sufficiency. Lawan insisted that the Federal Government must adopt better livestock production models as practiced in other countries of the world. Speaking as a guest lecturer at an event, he criticized the current practice of moving animals from the North to the South in search of food, pointing out that it reduced the value of yield gotten from such animals. “This system where animals migrate from the North to the South reduces yield. There are better ways of doing this.
At the end of the day, the yield and milk that you’ll get from an animal that is kept in one place is much more than the one you’ll get from one that moves around,” he said. He further called on leaders across the country to place more emphasis on economic development and national unity, saying that this could be achieved by always respecting the uniqueness of societies and the country’s diversity when implementing economic programmes.
The lawmaker stated that the National Assembly was working with the Executive to ensure service delivery for the people, urging other parliamentarians to always consider the country’s diversity in their contributions and should embrace a bi-partisan approach in their conducts.
Lawan asserted that the National Assembly was stronger and more productive when it worked in harmony with the Executive than when the two arms were in a running battle, insisting that both Chambers must work harmoniously to ensure that government satisfied the yearnings of citizens.
“The National Assembly is stronger, more productive and more efficient together if it works in harmony with the executive ensuring mutual respect and partnership. This way, service delivery is enhanced and sustained and the citizen gets the best deal,” he said
