Tuesday 28th December 2021: Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami(SAN), has stoked controversy with his latest claim that had President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, it would have precipitated crisis in the country.

Malami’s remarks drew the ire of leader of the Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, Middle Belt Forum, MBF, immediate past Secretary-General of Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Joint Action Committee of Northern Youth Association, JACNYA, among others.

Malami, who featured on a Radio Kano programme on Sunday, said that President Buhari signing into law the Electoral Amendment Bill, would have triggered a new crisis that would lead to court cases.

Meanwhile, reacting to the claims by Malami that Buhari assenting to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill would cause crisis in the country, leader of the Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, Pa Ayo Adebanjo yesterday, described the AGF’s comments as “unfortunate.

“It is so unfortunate that many people are misleading Buhari. We pray God to get rid of him before he ruins this country.

“For heaven’s sake, why would a young lawyer sound like that in a time like this?” he said.

Also, Afenifere’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Jare Ajayi, said: “The Attorney-General of the Federation is expected to guide the government rightly. He should not speak in a manner that is confusing.

“When the president withheld his assent to the bill, the impression was not created that there was a clause in the bill that would create crisis.

“It is expected that the specific areas where the bill is faulty, should be communicated to the National Assembly, so that it will be clear to all why the president is not assenting to the bill.

“So, we expected him to clarify this and tell us specifically the aspect of the bill that would have caused crisis so as to know how to address those areas.”

MBF’s National President, Dr. Bitrus Pogu, who also reacted to Malami’s claims, said: “What Malami said was baseless rubbish. These people make assumptions based on their perception; they try to instill fear in the people.

“Which crisis is he talking about? Didn’t President Buhari come in through direct primaries, is that not what the APC used? Did it throw the country into crisis?

“The issue is yes, it is true that parties have the liberty to choose the kind of selection process they would use to conduct their primaries, we have no quarrel with that.

“The problem of Nigeria is not whether it is direct or indirect primaries. The problem of Nigeria is how to stop the wanton rigging of elections in the country by the manipulation of election results, changing of results, the cancellation of results, throwing out of results just to declare who they want.

“And we can address that by transmitting results from the polling units direct to the server, everybody sees it and you do not alter the figures. That is the thing we want for Nigeria.

“We can from there move forward to another level, but what we want at this level is that results should be electronically transmitted from the polling stations to the collation centres.

“By so doing, you cut off all the so called Returning Officers and the excuses of cancellation of results unnecessarily because some people do not want results that did not favour them and all that.

“Besides, it will save costs, because most of the returning officers are no more useful. As the results come out, we all see them and Nigeria will be better for it because the right people will be elected into offices.

“So what Malami said does not hold water at all. The President, who appointed him came into office through direct primaries.

“And whether it is direct or not, that is not our problem. Let the President sign the amended electoral act bill, so that we can have a better and credible election by 2023. And all the bad experiences of 2019 and others in the past would be halted.”