Your excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFRN,
I am using this medium to wish you a happy birthday and many prosperous years ahead.
Sir, like many Nigerians, I have been on a mission to figure out the real motive behind your persistence refusal to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment bill which has been traveling to and fro your excellency’s table which will pose a devastating blow to the success of democracy and conduct of a credible and transparent election in Nigeria.
The bill has been processed at snail pace since it inception in 2016 and the bill, if assented to, it will further enhance the level of proper scrutiny, credibility, transparency and acceptability of our electoral processes.
Sir, you have always claimed not to be a retrogressive but a progressive leader of our nation. Yet, you have shown and exhibited the attribute of a retrogressive element by denying the bill of your presidential assent on several occasions in which you raised complains concerning the bill of which the national assembly has made proper amendments to make the bill acceptable to you.
Your recent straw that broke my camel’s jaw was the recent letter written to the NASS where you stated some donkey reasons why you could not assent to the bill at this critical moment.
My question for your excellency are; Why are you so afraid to assent this bill? Have you some jobbers holding your hands back from assenting the bill? Is it to further consolidate your second term agenda? Have you no clue of the advantages the bill will be to the future peace and advancement of our electoral life?
These are questions flowing in the heads of millions of concerned citizens like the warm water of the Aso river of my home which requires immediate answers with utmost sincerity.
Sir, it is never too late to assent the bill, the time is right while the most important thing at the moment is the present and future peace of Nigeria which will be more secured as electoral violence caused by electoral irregularities constitute 35%.
Sir, I will urge you to cast aside all personal political reasons and ill counsel from the political jobbers and opportunist that constitute your cabinet thereby putting on the whole armour of developmental perspective and love of the polity while you put your assent to the bill.
This bill will do our democracy and electoral life a huge lot of good like the valiant Okutadudu did the Ere people. It will redefine our electoral culture where elections and elections result will be peaceful and results transmitted to the collation centre without any form of human interference, ultimately, election will be free of the usual violence while result will be credible and transparent which will reflect the people’s will.
Sir, should you assent the bill at this tense moment, there will be ease in the polity, your name will be written with gold in the history of Nigeria and in the heart of millions. The present generation of Nigerians will sing your praise and the future generation will revere you as the president of integrity, peace and progress whose meritorious deed is worth of emulation.
In conclusion, Sir, I will love to remind you of the Solomon words of John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the United States, “we shall pay any price, bear any burden, support any friend, oppose any enemy to ensure the survival and success of liberty.”
So I say to you Sir, pay the price, bear the burden, fight the friend, support the enemy, thus co-operating with all persons, groups and institutions to move Nigeria forward and ensure a peaceful, credible and transparent electoral atmosphere for Nigeria.
– Adeyemi B. Sunday writes from Odo Ere, Kogi State.
