Leaders of the two chambers of the National Assembly are united in the resolve to override the president’s veto over the amendment of the Electoral Act which re-ordered the sequence of the 2019 general election.
According to a statement jointly issued by the media aides of the Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, there is no disagreement between the two houses over the step to take.
“We wish to inform the public that there is no such disagreement between the two leaders, and indeed the two chambers of the National Assembly,” Yusuph Olaniyonu, Saraki’s spokesman and Turaki Hassan, Dogara’s spokesman, said in the joint statement.
It would be recalled that the spokesman of the lower legislative chamber, Abdulrazak Namdas, had, on Wednesday declared that the House would re-introduce the rejected bill, and resend to Buhari for assent.
But in the case of the Senate, there were indications that it would go ahead with the plan to override President Muhammadu Buhari’s veto.
The statement issued by the two spokesmen on the unity of the two leaders of the National Assembly over the step to take on the Electoral Act in view of the refusal of Buhari to approve it reads in part:
“The Senate President and the Speaker, as heads of the two chambers of the National Assembly and representing the views of their colleagues, will want everybody to know that they are on the same page on what is the appropriate reaction to the president’s withholding of assent on the Electoral Act amendment bill.
“There is no disagreement between the two chambers as well as their presiding officers. The leadership of the two chambers constantly hold discussions and are in agreement on what to do, how to do it, when to do it and why it must be done.
“The issue at stake is not personal. It is about deepening democracy. It is about improving our democracy and the National Assembly is on firm constitutional and legal grounds to amend the law as well as take decisions in the manner they have been responding.
“We see that story and the insinuations contained in it as mere distraction and unnecessary misrepresentation aimed at creating division in the Federal Legislature. The Senate President, Speaker and their colleagues urge members of the public to discountenance the report (claiming disagreement over the issue).”
