Ex-Oyo lawmaker, Olafisoye backs Buhari’s decision on electoral bill

A former Chief Whip in the Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon. Olafisoye Akinmoyede better known as Lafi  has said that Nigerians have lost confidence in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari that is why it is difficult to see anything good in whatever action he takes as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

He stated this while speaking on the controversy surrounding the refusal of President Buhari to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill passed by the National Assembly which approved conduct of Direct Primary election for various political parties to pick their candidates.

Akinmoyede , who represented Lagelu State constituency between 2015 and 2019, maintained that what the President has done was the best thing considering the peculiarities and constitution of each of the political parties as well as the excessive financial implication and shortage of staff that would be needed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to monitor the primaries of all the political parties.

He stressed further that apart from the cost implication stated above, the direct primary might create more crisis in the political space in the country that is still battling with insecurity.

According to him, this aspect of the direct primary contained in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill is beyond the National Assembly containing 109 Senators and 360 House of Representatives members alone. “What the Lawmakers should have done before passing the bill was to subject it to public debate in all the 774 local government areas of the federation to seek people’s opinion.

“This aspect of electoral process is something that affects the entire Nigerians. So consideration of this bill must be in the overall interest of over 200 million people irrespective of their political inclinations.” he maintained.

Speaking further on the internal crisis that trailed the ward, local and state congresses elections conducted so far by the APC in some states especially Oyo,  the former lawmaker noted  that such misunderstanding was normal in a big party with many gladiators like the APC for democracy to thrive.

He expressed optimism that the misunderstanding would be resolved and strengthen the party ahead of the 2023 election.

“APC has constitution which stipulates that the Governor is the leader of the party in each state but where there is no sitting governor, the former governor, if any, shall be the leader. So in the case of Oyo State, we don’t have sitting governor and the only former Governor we have at present is Otunba Adebayo Alao Akala. He is therefore automatically the leader of the party in Oyo State while Chief Akin Oke is the acting State Chairman until the substantive state Chairman of the party is sworn in.”

Lafisoye who ruled out the possibility of conducting any fresh state congress election in the state said such will be challenged and upturned by the court.

He disclosed that the leadership of the party are working on harmonizing the list of executive so as to accommodate all interested factions for peace to reign.

While calling on all gladiators in the party to sheath their sword in the interest of the party, Hon. Lafisoye advised any aspirant who sees himself as serious contender for gubernatorial election to come out and propagate himself instead of thinking that the ticket would be brought to him in his house.

When asked on his intention for the 2023 election, Lafisoye who is also a former council boss hinted that though there was already established rotational arrangement between Akinyele/Lagelu for picking candidate for Federal House of Representatives, he would embark on wide consultation among the stakeholders and weigh the credibility of aspirants from other parties as well before making his final decision on whether to contest or not for the Federal House of Representatives seat.

According to him, “based on the rotational arrangement that exists between Akinyele and Lagelu local government for the selection of our representative for the Federal House of Representatives, presently our representative is from Akinyele. During the 2019 election, all the political parties including PDP, APC, ADC and ADP conceded the ticket to Akinyele local government to present candidates.

“In 2023, it is the turn of Lagelu local government to present candidate. I hope the gladiators in these two local governments will abide by this arrangement. I will capitalise on this to embark on consultation within the leaders and stakeholders for their support.

“But if they say otherwise, I will only support any candidate who is original indigene of Lagelu local government, well brought up and has the charisma to give us effective representation.” He said.