Senate Yields To Pressure, Amends Electoral Act …To Allow Elected Govt, Party Officials Vote At Congresses, Primaries …Passes Four Bills For Concurrence

The Senate, yesterday, amended the Electoral Act, 2022, to allow all elected persons ‘statutory delegates’ at all levels of government to participate and vote in the conventions, congresses or meetings of political parties.
This is even as the Senate passed a Bill to enact the Arbitration and Mediation Act to provide for a unified legal framework for the settlement of commercial disputes.
Also passed were other bills for concurrence from the House of Representatives by the chamber after a clause-by-clause consideration by the Committee of the Whole.
The upper chamber, in an accelerated legislative process, considered the bill for the Amendment of 2022 Electoral Act No 13, at plenary where the bill scaled first, second and third readings, and was passed by the Committee of the Whole.
The bill to amend the 2022 Electoral Act No. 13 was sponsored by the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege (Delta Central).
Those identified as ‘statutory delegates’ include the President, Vice President, members of the National Assembly, governors and their deputies, members of the state Houses of Assembly, chairmen of local government councils, councillors, National Working Committee (NWC) of political parties, party chairmen in the 774 local government areas, state party chairmen and secretaries, amongst others.
Presenting the bill, the sponsor and Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege, said the bill seeks to amend the provision of Section 84(8) of the Electoral Act.
According to him, the provisions of the section “does not provide for the participation of what is generally known as ‘statutory delegates’ in the conventions, congresses or meetings of political parties.
“The extant section only clearly provides for the participation of elected delegates in the conventions, congresses or meetings of political parties held to nominate candidates of political parties.
“This is an unintended error, and we can only correct it with this amendment now before us”, Omo-Agege said.
In his remarks after the passage of the bill, President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan, said that the amendment became imperative in view of the deficiency created by the provision of Section 84(8) of the extant Act.
He said, “The amended Electoral Act of 2022 that we passed this year, has a deficiency that was never intended, and that deficiency will deny all statutory delegates in all political parties from participation in congresses and conventions.
“And, therefore, such a major and unintended clause has to be amended before the party primaries start in the next eight days. This is an emergency legislation, so to speak.
“Our expectation is that the National Assembly – the two chambers – would finish with the processing of the amendment of this bill, between today (in the Senate) and tomorrow (in the House of Representatives), and then, the Executive will do the assent.
“That is so important to enable every statutory delegate to participate in the party primaries right from the beginning that will start on May18, 2022.
“So, this is an emergency effort to ensure that nobody is denied his or her rightful opportunity as a delegate, especially the statutory delegates, and these are those who are elected.”
The Senate president commended the efforts of his colleagues, and expressed belief that the amendment bill would be signed into law to grant the political parties hitch-free primaries in respect to who is a delegate to the conventions, primaries and who is not.
Similarly, the Senate, yesterday, passed a Bill to enact the Arbitration and Mediation Act to provide for a unified legal framework for the settlement of commercial disputes.
Also passed were other bills for concurrence from the House of Representatives by the chamber after a clause-by-clause consideration by the Committee of the Whole.
The bills include Federal Medical Centre, Ogoja, Cross River State (Establishment) Bill, 2022; Federal Medical Centre, Igboora, Oyo State (Establishment) Bill, 2021; and Advertising Regulatory Council Bill, 2022.
The four bills for concurrence were sponsored by the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi (Kebbi North).
In his lead debate, Abdullahi said the Arbitration and Mediation Act, 2022, seeks to repeal the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, Cap A18, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
He disclosed that the piece of legislation recognises and enforces the New York convention on foreign arbitration awards to any award made in Nigeria or any contracting state arising out of international commercial arbitration.
Abdullahi added that it also seeks the application of the Singapore convention on the international settlement agreements resulting from mediation.
The four bills for concurrence were passed by the Senate after a clause-by-clause consideration by the Committee of the Whole.
Meanwhile, a bill to repeal the National Secondary Education Commission Act, yesterday, scaled second reading in the Senate.
The bill seeks to enact the National Senior Secondary Education Act, 2022, to prescribe minimum standards for senior secondary education in Nigeria.
The sponsor of the bill, Senator YahayaAbdullahi, in his lead debate on the general principles, said the bill makes provision for the management of the National Senior Secondary Education Commission Fund – as a source of government intervention toward the repositioning of Senior Secondary Schools in Nigeria.
The bill, after consideration, was referred by the Senate President, Dr Ahmad Lawan, to the Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary) for further legislative work.
The committee was given four weeks to report back to the chamber in plenary.

By: Nneka Amaechi-Nnadi, Abuja