{"id":56326,"date":"2021-12-29T18:14:50","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T17:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?p=56326"},"modified":"2021-12-29T16:43:01","modified_gmt":"2021-12-29T15:43:01","slug":"electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent","title":{"rendered":"Electoral Act amendment: Presidency explains Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The Presidency has explained President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent from the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2021.<\/p>\n<p>This is coming as the government continues to receive backlash from the media and the political circles.<\/p>\n<p>In an official statement Tuesday night by Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, he said Nigeria\u2019s strength and status as one of the wealthiest economies in Africa must uphold democratic processes enshrined in the Electoral Act of 2010.<\/p>\n<p>Shehu said the amendments have been presented as a means to enhance and build upon our democratic processes.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that after careful review, the President\u2019s Office has found that the opposite is true.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe proposed amendments entail significant legal, financial, economic and security consequences for all Nigerians, principal among which would be a severe spike in the cost of holding primary elections by parties \u2013 integral to democracies the world over.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd who would shoulder these costs? The Nigerian taxpayer of course. And who would benefit? Only the richest of political parties.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt a time when the nation is seeking to extricate itself from the economic mire of the worst global health crisis in living memory, whatever other merits the new bill may have, now is not the time for such frivolous spending of public money.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInevitably, the usual voices are making themselves heard, with cynical claims of election rigging and so on. This is nothing new.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe heard their self-serving cries of fraud in 2015, when we saw the first peaceful transfer of power in independent Nigeria\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen again in 2019, when President Buhari was re-elected with a lead of over three million. We will hear them again in 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shehu said until then, the President will do whatever he can to protect this country\u2019s democracy, including \u201cwithholding assent from this Bill.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He reminded critics that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is one of those that stand to benefit from a bill that favours wealthier parties.<\/p>\n<p>The presidency stressed that it is not the job of the government to cater for the APC, but to protect Nigeria, her people and democracy.<\/p>\n<p>Shehu told those who want public funds to be spent on politicking during a global crisis to \u201ccease cynical games\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\">Nigeria<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. The Presidency has explained President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent from the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2021. This is coming as the government continues to receive backlash from the media and the political circles. In an official statement Tuesday night by Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, he said Nigeria\u2019s strength and status [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":56325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,14,26],"tags":[1570,2140,97,6285,254],"class_list":["post-56326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-buhari","tag-electoral-act-amendment","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Electoral Act amendment: Presidency explains Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Presidency has explained President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent from the Electoral Act (Amendment) ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Electoral Act amendment: Presidency explains Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Presidency has explained President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent from the Electoral Act (Amendment) ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-29T17:14:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/img-61cc81ebb38f1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Electoral Act amendment: Presidency explains Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-29T17:14:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent\"},\"wordCount\":388,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/img-61cc81ebb38f1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"Buhari\",\"Electoral Act amendment\",\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent\",\"name\":\"Electoral Act amendment: Presidency explains Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent - Nigeria\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/img-61cc81ebb38f1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-29T17:14:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"The Presidency has explained President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent from the Electoral Act (Amendment) ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/img-61cc81ebb38f1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/img-61cc81ebb38f1.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":920,\"caption\":\"Electoral Act amendment: Presidency explains Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Electoral Act amendment: Presidency explains Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/\",\"name\":\"Africa Press | Nigeria | Homepage\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/author\/cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Electoral Act amendment: Presidency explains Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent - Nigeria","description":"The Presidency has explained President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent from the Electoral Act (Amendment) ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Electoral Act amendment: Presidency explains Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent","og_description":"The Presidency has explained President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent from the Electoral Act (Amendment) ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent","og_site_name":"Nigeria","article_published_time":"2021-12-29T17:14:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":920,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/img-61cc81ebb38f1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Electoral Act amendment: Presidency explains Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent","datePublished":"2021-12-29T17:14:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent"},"wordCount":388,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/img-61cc81ebb38f1.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Nigeria","Buhari","Electoral Act amendment","Nigeria"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","Policy","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent","name":"Electoral Act amendment: Presidency explains Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent - Nigeria","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/img-61cc81ebb38f1.jpg","datePublished":"2021-12-29T17:14:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"The Presidency has explained President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent from the Electoral Act (Amendment) ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/img-61cc81ebb38f1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/img-61cc81ebb38f1.jpg","width":1280,"height":920,"caption":"Electoral Act amendment: Presidency explains Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-amendment-presidency-explains-buharis-decision-to-withhold-assent#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Electoral Act amendment: Presidency explains Buhari\u2019s decision to withhold assent"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/","name":"Africa Press | Nigeria | Homepage","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/author\/cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}