BEVERLY HILLS, February 02, (THEWILL) – The Senate Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has rejected a suggestion that Under-18 married girls should have the right to vote.
Fielding question on Tuesday in Abuja at the NAN Forum, the flagship interview programme of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the committee chairman, Sen. Kabiru Gaya, said the suggestion was made at the public hearing on electoral reforms.
He said the on-going amendment to the Electoral Act No 6 of 2010 would not confer voting right on underage, but married girls referred to as child-wives.
Gaya said the issue raised a lot of dust when it was presented in a memorandum submitted to a technical committee set up on the reforms.
“One of the people who came to the public hearing submitted the memorandum and argued that the word underage was not his, but that any woman or man that is married should be considered as an adult.
“That was his reason. Our own resolve is that if a woman is at the age of 16 and she gets married, she should not be allowed to vote.
“Generally, there was a lot of noise. It was in a memorandum submitted by a group of people and they have their rights as Nigerians.
“But when we came to the committee, we discussed a lot on that and at the end of the day, we felt we could not go along with that suggestion and it was dropped”, he said.
Gaya said there was another suggestion not to hold elections on Saturdays as some faithful observe the day as their holy day.
He added that the same argument would be made if elections were fixed for Fridays or Sundays.
“If we move elections to Fridays some people will say it is their worship day; if we move it to Sundays, some other people will say it is also their worship day.
So, that suggestion was also thrown out”, Gaya said.
Gaya, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on INEC said the National Assembly plans to submit the amended Electoral Bill to President Buhari this February, for his assent.
“We are doing the Electoral Act, we have virtually completed. What we are supposed to do at this level is to bring it to the floor of the Senate for consideration and the floor of the House of Reps also for consideration.
“We are doing a joint hearing between the Senate and the House so that we can fast track it and also reduce the issue of having so many differences in the bill.
“If we are working together with the house, it means the bill will be one. The house bill and the Senate bill will be one. There will be no need to go for concurrence.
“I believe Nigerians will be happy with the Electoral Act 2021, which hopefully before the end of this month, will leave the chamber to Mr President for his assent.
“As we promised that within the first quarter of 2021 the bill will be signed, we hope and pray that the bill will be signed and it will enhance the democratic progress in this country,” he said.
Gaya said that the committee was doing its best to ensure that there was a law that would guarantee free, fair and credible elections in the country.
“Whatever we need to do to improve the elections, the quality of our elections, we will continue to do that.
“I thank the leadership of the Senate and the leadership and also the Speaker of House of Reps for encouraging us to make sure that we fast track or work on this issue of Electoral Act.
“People needed to have free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria and therefore we have to amend the Electoral Act, the law that can be able to let us achieve success in election; free, fair and credible”, he said.
