An Islamic scholar and political activist, Dr Usman Bugaje, has accused the Senate leadership under Senate President Godswill Akpabio of repeatedly undermining Nigeria’s democratic process, alleging deception and poor legislative conduct.
Naija News reports that Bugaje spoke on Tuesday during an appearance on Arise Television’s Morning Show, where he defended the ongoing move to amend the Electoral Act in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling.
He said the amendment had become necessary to provide clarity and strengthen transparency in elections, particularly through mandatory real-time electronic transmission of results.
“You see, this is precisely because of that ruling of the Supreme Court, it has become necessary for us to now go back and amend the law for clarity, accuracy and precision, so that everybody will be clear,” Bugaje said.
“The whole idea is to do a transparent election, and the best way is to make sure that the results are available electronically, immediately, that’s real time, so that everybody can see exactly where the votes are.”
Bugaje noted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had already recommended mandatory real-time transmission of results, a proposal he said had been adopted by the House of Representatives.
He, however, accused the Senate of resisting the reform.
“INEC has gone as far as saying that there should be mandatory transmission of results in real time. The House of Reps have done exactly that, while the Senate is always caught cheating or deceiving people,” he said.
Accusations Of Legislative Lapses
The activist further alleged that the Senate had a history of legislative shortcomings, including controversies around tax legislation and budgetary processes, which he said created uncertainty for governance and economic planning.
“It is one thing that we really have to address after this amendment. This is not the first time that the Senate has been found napping or caught cheating in terms of their basic function of law-making,” Bugaje said.
“They have done that with the tax law. They have done that with padding of budgets, and as a result of the mess they have done, we have now nearly three budgets, none of which is really functional. You don’t know where really you are.
“So businesses cannot plan because they don’t know which budget is going to be implemented, which one is going to be funded.”
Bugaje described the Senate leadership as a major challenge to governance and called for greater scrutiny of its actions.
“And so the Senate leadership, at least, is now being the biggest problem of this country, and we need to begin to ask of what use are these leadership. What kind of irresponsible behaviour is this?” he said.
He added that the issue would remain a subject of national debate even after the Electoral Act amendment process.
“So we’ll have to take that up after we have gone through the amendment,” Bugaje said.
He insisted that there was growing public support for mandatory electronic transmission of election results across the country.
“But I think there is a groundswell of opinion across the country, even with their fellow legislators in the House, that this mandatory transmission in real time is what everybody wants, and that’s what should actually be done. Nigerians are not ready for anything less,” he said.