{"id":916951,"date":"2022-01-17T08:13:57","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T08:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/news\/2022\/01\/17\/there-is-too-much-in-electoral-bill-to-be-thrown-away-akpata\/"},"modified":"2022-01-17T08:13:57","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T08:13:57","slug":"there-is-too-much-in-electoral-bill-to-be-thrown-away-akpata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/01\/17\/there-is-too-much-in-electoral-bill-to-be-thrown-away-akpata\/","title":{"rendered":"There Is Too Much In Electoral Bill To Be Thrown Away \u2013 Akpata"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"There
NBA President, Olumide Akpata<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Olumide Akpata, President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), has asked for the Electoral Bill to be passed, claiming that the legislation contains too much to\u00a0be \u201cthrown away.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, he made this statement during a Townhall on the Electoral Bill.<\/p>\n

The measures in the law, according to Akpata, are pro-people and would serve as \u201cincremental steps\u201d toward a more democratic Nigeria.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the president has thrown in the charge about the direct and indirect primaries and if that provision is removed he would assent the bill, I welcome it to the members of the national assembly to take him at his words. Take out those provisions; we can deal with that further down the road. There is too much in that bill for the baby and the bathwater to be thrown away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m so disappointed with the ways things have panned out. Almost everything about that bill smells progress. Most of the provisions of the bill are pro-people. I see those provisions as incremental steps,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Also Read:\u00a0Electoral Bill: It\u2019s Undemocratic To Insist On Direct Primaries, Buhari Tells NASS<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot get it right all at once, so we can forgive people that say our government is anti-people; you can forgive them if they come to that conclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything rises and falls on leadership; leadership at the executive arm and in the legislature. We have a bill that has so many innovations that would advance the course this nation and our people, including ensuring that INEC gets funding one year before the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople with disabilities are included in the process, including that you must submit the names of your nominees 180 days before the election. These are all provisions that are responding to issues that have been highlighted in the process that are in need of fixing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, Mr President has pointed out these issues of direct or indirect primaries. He had decided that on the basis of that, he is sending it back to the national assembly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we can be forgiven when we conclude if this is a smokescreen of some sort and that there is a spanner thrown in the works to keep us in the moment, so that we will stay with the present dispensation, because this is something that could easily have been fixed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr President is of the same party as those who control the national assembly. If our leaders are interested in the progress for the people and for the nation, these are house issues that could have been sorted out by those in charge of affairs in both arms of govern<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NBA President, Olumide Akpata Olumide Akpata, President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), has asked for the Electoral Bill to be passed, claiming that the legislation contains too much to\u00a0be \u201cthrown away.\u201d On Sunday, he made this statement during a Townhall on the Electoral Bill. The measures in the law, according to Akpata, are pro-people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-916951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}