FG fires back at Jega

The Federal Government yesterday said President Jonathan would not be rushed into rubberstamping the electoral act, in response to complaints by Professor Attahiru Jega that delays in approving the election legal framework was threatening to scuttle the 2011 polls. Jega on Wednesday said the supremacy tussle between the Presidency and the National Assembly over the amended constitution and failure of the president to assent to the new electoral act and the commission’s budget bill have already delayed the commission’s plans by two weeks.

But Minister of State for Information and Communications Labaran Maku said yesterday the delay in signing the electoral act was to allow the bill undergo the normal process through various government departments so as to ensure that the law is operable.

“If a law is passed to a sitting President, it is not just for rubberstamping,” Maku told State House reporters in Abuja.

He said the president understood the anxiety of Nigerians about the need to hasten the process for free and fair elections in 2011 but added that Jonathan would not blindly act on such feeling so as not to create problems for the system.

“The President is not a rubberstamp. His duty is to go through this law and ensure that there is nothing in it that will cause problem during elections or that will be difficult to enforce. His duty is to ensure that the law that is forwarded to him is in accordance with the constitution and that it is something that is easily operable,” he added.

Jega had said at a meeting with political party leaders that bickering over whether the president should sign the amended constitution had contributed to stalling the commission’s plans. He said also that the commission was yet to receive funds approved for it by the National Assembly two weeks ago, lamenting that “unfortunately, we are not sure where we stand at the moment.”

In his reaction yesterday, Maku said the normal process of presidential assent to any law passed by the National Assembly is that the president would forward such bill to the relevant government departments, including the Ministry of Justice, for advice. He added that the INEC chairman should be familiar with such processes.

The minister also said the president was doing so much for the attainment of credible elections next year, citing examples with the president’s appointment of a very credible person to head INEC and also his swift action on the commission’s supplementary budget.

But the National Assembly insisted yesterday that President Jonathan is responsible for the delays in approving the election laws and releasing funds to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Chairman of the House of Representatives information committee Ahmed Aliyu Wadada (PDP, Nasarawa) in a statement yesterday said, “Contrary to the impression given by the INEC on the passage of the electoral law and the supplementary bill for its to undertake voter registration, the House of Representatives and indeed the two chambers of the National Assembly have fully discharged their constitutional responsibility. If there is anything holding back the bills from becoming laws it is the assent of Mr. President.”

For his part, spokesman for the Senate Senator Ayogu Eze (PDP, Enugu North) told our reporter by telephone: “We have completed our work and we have no hand in any delay that INEC is facing.”

On the amended constitution, Eze said, “All that we know is that we have done our job. Anyone that wants to challenge it can go to the court. The resolution of the court on the matter will add to our learning process.