Ahead of the 2023 General Elections, Political appointees at all levels seeking elective positions have the difficult option to either resign from office in line with the provisions of section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act 2022 or remain in office and risk their election victories upturned in court.
While a few political appointees have started resigning, others are yet to show any sign in that direction.
In this special report, ait.live State House correspondent takes a look at the issues surrounding Section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act and the dilemma that confronts affected political appointees especially as they race against time.
Section 84(12) of the newly signed Electoral Act looks set to dim the ambitions of a number of political appointees if they fail to resign their appointments in the coming days.
The new Section of the Electoral Act stipulates that
“No political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at the Convention or Congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election”.
The constitutional issue has been a source of conflict between interest groups within the Presidency and the National Assembly- with each seeking judicial interpretations on the matter.
With the matter still pending in court, the political ambitions of a number of President Muhammadu Buhari’s political appointees could be scuttled especially if a new election guidelines purportedly released by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is anything to go by.
Even though the APC guideline may not completely be in agreement with Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, it stipulates that all political appointees who aspire to participate in its primary elections at all levels must resign at least 30 days to the conduct of the primaries.
The implication of this is that the ambition of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami who is widely believed to be eyeing the governorship ticket of his home state of Kebbi may have hit the rocks.
The new guidelines fix APC’s primaries for Governorship, National Assembly and State Assemblies to hold between May 18 and 23 and given the stipulated time frame for resignation, Malami and other appointees seeking any of those positions may no longer have any chance.
Both the Electoral Act and the APC guidelines may have also foisted similar death-knell on the ambitions of the likes of Transport Minister Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and his Labour counterpart, Chris Ngige who want to succeed Buhari in 2023 if they fail to resign in the next few days.
The days to come look to be very exciting and time as they say is of the essence!
Editor : Ena Agbanoma
