A former Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, has revealed that over 70% of National Assembly members and their state counterparts will not return to their seats in 2023. Igini made the revelation ahead of the 2023 general elections. According to him, despite that they were responsible for the passage of the 2022 Electoral Act into law, majority of them won’t return to power due to the same Act. Igini made this revelation in Abuja at a lecture he delivered at the First Ariyo Dare-Atoye Memorial Election Management and Governance Dialogue Series organised by the Abuja School of Social and Political Thoughts. He explained that with the passage of the new Electoral Act as amended in 2022, it would no longer be business as usual for politicians to unleash thugs on the electorate on the day of elections. The former Akwa Ibom REC noted that the new Electoral Act has given power to the Nigerian people, adding that the polling unit is now the centre of the universe where elections would be won or lost. Igini advanced that “Over 70 per cent of the National Assembly members and their state Assembly counterparts will not return to their seats after 2023. The innovation and inventions of INEC are not self-implementing; they are implemented by human beings. “The beauty of it is that the current Electoral Act has taken power to the Nigerian people. The polling unit is now the centre of the universe. That is where elections will be won and lost. But it requires the vigilance of the Nigerian people.
“The greatest form of democracy is peaceful transfer of power without crises. In the 2022 Electoral Act, INEC made 91 proposals and the National Assembly in their magnanimity accepted 48. This is what has given power back to the people. “Today, the lawmakers have scored own goal to the extent that those who are supposed to be statutory delegates in the party primaries, they put a section that stopped themselves, thinking that the President would not sign it. That is why they are running helter-skelter, and with this, the people are supposed to be smiling. “We had peaceful primaries because if they were to participate, they would have come with their thugs but because they excluded themselves and they were at home, we had peaceful primaries.” While speaking about how to curb vote-buying he said “We need a law to stop vote-buying because it is the law that will stop democratic franchise; citizens need to share in the franchise to be able to participate in democratic affairs.”