Poll Shift: NASS Warns Jega, Okays INEC April Date Request

PHOTO R-L: DEPUTY SENATE PRESIDENT, SENATOR IKE EKWEREMADU AND DEPUTY SPEAKER, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, HONOURABLE USMAN BAYERO NAFADA, AT A MEETING BETWEEN INEC AND THE JOINT CONSTITUTION REVIEW COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY IN ABUJA TODAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2010.

ABUJA, Sept 27, (THEWILL) - It was a day of harsh words laced with finality, as the National Assembly today warned the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega never to come back to it for any request in connection with the 2011 election.

They also cautioned him on his penchant to make frequent request. Nonetheless they told him that that the approval of his time extension request must strictly be in compliance with Section 9 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, SAN, who was at the meeting echoed similar sentiment when he declared that any such extension must follow a constitutional review and amendment of the 2010 Electoral Act.

The lawmakers were also unanimous in telling INEC that the present request is the final they would consider in the circumstance, warning that they will not entertain any further proposal.

Though the lawmakers agreed to review the timeline for the conduct of the 2011 general election based on the proposed date of late April 2011, it insisted that doing so must be subjected to the crucible of amending the constitution.

Lawmakers, especially members of the Constitutional Review Committees of both chambers would meet State Governors and Speakers of the State Assemblies in Abuja today’s night.

These were the highpoint of the meeting between INEC, the Attorney General and the Joint Committees of the National Assembly on Constitutional Review and its INEC Committees.

Addressing reporters at the end of the closed-door session, Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu who is also the Chairman of the Senate Constitution Review Committee said the meeting would afford the National Assembly the opportunity to impress on the governors and other stakeholder on the urgency of the situation.

He however blamed INEC for the controversy, saying that they could not convince the people that they were not aware that there will be election in 2011.

"Now we are going to fall back to the rigours of amending the constitution again relying on Section 9, which empowers us to do so, involving the state Assemblies and other stakeholders involved in constitutional review.

"The current review envisaged that all election related litigations must be concluded before May, 29, 2011 swearing in ceremony, but now nobody is talking about litigations anymore. Everybody is talking about time extension and not what happens to concluding litigations before swearing in," he said.

Earlier, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, told the INEC Chairman that he hoped that there will be no other time for this kind of proposals, but promised that the National Assembly would still rise to the occasion.

"The National Assembly has always responded by providing solution to whatever constitutional problem we have. My advice to INEC is that after this presentation we will not have any reason for another presentation. We met at the presidency over the its budget, and what we discussed was not what INEC presented to the National Assembly and when it made its presentation, the proposal changed significantly, yet we gave them what they wanted, just to ensure that they succeed," the Speaker said.

In the same vein, the Deputy Speaker, Usman Bayero Nafada who also chairs the House Committee on Constitutional Review, warned that this request marks the end of any of its kind before the general elections, but accepted that the request would be considered if that is what INEC needs to do a good job.

"Nigerians are waiting anxiously for the outcome of this, we pray that at the end of our deliberation you will be able to come out with an acceptable procedure and time table for the conduct of the general elections come 2011.

"The Senate and the House came back to consider the request of INEC and to that end in the National Assembly we have done our own bit and again there will not be another request from INEC, what we are expected to do as members of the National Assembly is to play our own role and leave the rest for those who are responsible for implementing it.

"Nigerians are waiting, we have been doing our own bit, we have done it once and we have done it for the second time and we are now expected to do it for the third time, we will do it again and wait for those who are responsible for implementation to implement.

"We pray that this time around this will be the last request that will come from any quarters regarding these elections because it will not continue this way. If there is any failure, God forbid bad thing, I think it will become a crisis. Therefore for those who are responsible for implementation, I am calling on them most especially the INEC Chairman and his Commissioners, it is not an easy job, sometimes you will be looking at it as an easy job, but when you come closer you will discover that it is not the way you are looking at it from that angle, it is something different, therefore you have to pool all the resources available to actualize this elections in 2011.

"Your Excellency the Deputy Senate President, I believe it is your good leadership, the entire National Assembly will grant them whatever they want for this purpose and like I said this should be the last time we will be granting anything for that purpose to anybody in the National Assembly. We have done well, we believe Nigerians have now confidence in the National Assembly because of the way and manner we have been handling issues," Nafada said.

A bewildered Jega, however told the gathering that the commission would be more comfortable to have the timeline for the election shifted to the end of April 2011 to enable them conduct a credible voter register and an acceptable election.

"It is a challenge for all of us to really work together to achieve the end, which all Nigerians are yearning for. Therefore, you have to consider the extension to enable INEC produce a credible voter register and conduct election that would be acceptable to Nigerians," Jega said.