The Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Bashir Jamoh must resign from the position before June 3 this year if he truly desires to contest the governorship election in Kaduna State,
This is because Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari last Friday does not allow serving political appointees to vote or be voted during party primaries.
“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,” Section 84(12) of the Electoral Amendment Act reads.
Also, Section 29(1) of the Act mandates political parties to submit names of candidates not later than 180 days before the election.
Following the approval of the bill, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) updated the schedule of activities for the general election, giving political parties between April 4 and June 3, 2022 to conduct primaries. This means that political appointees seeking election must resign before June 3 — when INEC expects that all issues on party primaries must have been resolved.
Going by the provisions of the new act, Jamoh, a political appointee who has confirmed his interest in vying for the position of Kaduna State Governor should by now be preparing his handover notes.
In January, during a press briefing at the NIMASA head office in Apapa, Lagos, Jamoh said he had been called by his people to serve them “at the state level”.
“I love the maritime industry. I have a great passion for it and I can work in it for the rest of my life, but my people want me to serve them at the state level. I will not fail them. It would be unfair to do that so I will avail them of my services at the state.
“If they also want me to serve them at the federal level, I will also not disappoint them; I will go and serve them. So, it is not only about what I want for myself but what my people want me to do for them,” he said while answering questions on his governorship ambition.
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