‘Direct primary is a boost to our democracy’

Prof. Christopher Oluwadare, is a lecturer at the Ekiti State University, EKSU, Ado-Ekiti, Department of Sociology. He is also a Professor of Medical Sociology and a civil society practitioner in Ekiti State. Weekend Trust spoke with him on the the recent primaries conducted by political parties in the country.   Parties are concluding their primaries, […]

Prof. Christopher Oluwadare, is a lecturer at the Ekiti State University, EKSU, Ado-Ekiti, Department of Sociology. He is also a Professor of Medical Sociology and a civil society practitioner in Ekiti State. Weekend Trust spoke with him on the the recent primaries conducted by political parties in the country.

 

Parties are concluding their primaries, what can you say about it?

I think it has become a systemic and structural issue in Nigeria. Our political leaders don’t believe in the judiciary. We are always looking for opportunity to circumvent judicial proclamations and decisions. So, at the end of the day, they end up confusing themselves and confusing the electorate. 

The ruling party, because they are more stable than the opposition party, it seems as if they are less concerned because they are the ruling party. But the opposition party, virtually all of them, are also confused. They don’t want to obey simple, logical, sensible, rational court processes.

They are always looking for a way of circumventing the procedures. But at the end of the day, they will still come back, even though it will be too late. They will still come back to bow to judicial court processes. 

That’s why we have a lot of confusing judicial statements, High court, to Appeal court, from Appeal court to this and that, until it gets to the Supreme Court. And when it gets to the Supreme Court also, they even want to go back to the lower courts to challenge the Supreme Court. So, it’s always a confusion. 

In this year’s primaries, you know, the reviewed electoral law has produced a new information that every political party must go through the direct primaries. Unlike before, that every political party wants to go through the indirect primaries of delegates, which is a caricature of political corruption. So, in going through the direct primaries that they are not used to, they tend to be comic and theatric, even in the process. 

Again, virtually all political parties, even from the APC, how can APC produce nearly 11 million votes? Even when in the general election, it cannot be like that. We can see also the way they were counted, even the voters on the queue. From Two, 10, 12, 20, 50, 200, 1,000. 

And it is everywhere. Again, also ADC did the same thing.  

But again, it’s because of the aftermath of the revised electoral law that said every political party will go through the direct primaries. To me, it’s a lesson learned. Maybe by next election, it will be better. 

It will be more accountable, more transparent, more sincere, more acceptable. But at least it has forced every political party to toe even the legal procedure of direct primaries.

Another beautiful point between delegate system and direct primary is that in those days, when they go for delegate election, somebody can come back home and go and buy a vehicle, and go and buy land, go and buy property. I’m not really sure it is like that today. As a sociologist, that’s a function.

There’s a redistribution of wealth. So many people get the wealth, now than few people getting the wealth before now.

That’s an advantage to me, though it is a corrupted advantage. But at least everybody is getting one thing or the other.  

 

What role should INEC play?

The law says, even though it is being argued, that INEC is supposed to be a monitoring observer in intra-political party affairs. But where we have confusion, INEC has a duty also to intervene, to read in between the lines and stop any further cacophony or confusion within the party or between or among the political parties. 

But INEC should not disrupt the intra-political affairs of any political party. It is not their duty to interpret the law for any political party. Let the law take its course. 

You have already given them the guidelines. There is already the constitution. There is already electoral law. 

Let the three principles guide the affairs of individual political parties. But monitor. If the rights and responsibility of a political party is being disrupted, it is not for you to counsel. 

It is not for you to say you will recognize or you will not recognize. Just follow it. If the aggrieved person within a particular party now takes that particular political party to court, then you can now be an interested party and watch the outcome or the result of that judicial decision. 

But it is not for INEC to be saying you will not recognize or you will. I align with the legal situation that INEC must not disrupt the politicking or the competition within individual political party. But where it is now getting to violent situation, then INEC can now come in. 

I like what INEC did in the case of maybe the PDP some months back. Called all the political players to a meeting, to a round table, helping them to resolve the situation. But when the situation was not resolvable, then INEC left them. 

I think that is good. That is beyond saying you are right, you are wrong. You can call them as an arbiter, as a supervisory agent for political activities, but don’t interpret the law for them. 

That would not be good because by interpreting the law for them, you now become partisan. You now say you belong to one caucus, you belong to one group, you belong to another group. Let individual political party do their own politicking. 

 

What is the effect of malpractices on our democracy?

Democracy is practiced by the democrats, either the voters or the political party or the political players themselves. And that is what we call political socialization also. 

Everybody is taking a cue. If democracy is played the way it should be played, then we have governance. The result of good democracy is governance. That is leading the people the way you should lead the people. What Nigeria called dividends of democracy. So people will be able to have the good of good leadership when democracy is given the right parts, able to tread upon.

There is a lot of sectional interest in our politicking. So the right sense of interpreting what democracy ought to be is not really there. We have not gotten there, but we will get there.

Where we are today is still better than where we were, even in 2023, or in 2019, or in 2015, especially given the style of governance of the present government.

 

Should the results of the primaries be accepted? 

APC has given us their own results. If there’s going to be any rejection, it’s going to be within APC. 

If there’s going to be any rejection in NDC, it’s going to be within NDC. If there’s going to be any rejection of the results, even in ADC, it’s going to be within the ADC. But even if they don’t accept it, the best anybody can do is to voice out. 

And if you have another platform, go to another platform. People have not been able to give us a clear implication of the revised electoral law, that once you have vied for a particular position in a particular political party, you cannot cross carpet to another political party. We have not seen that being tested, and we are still waiting. 

They are already cross carpeting. We don’t know how legitimate that one will be. And I’m waiting for that. 

There is likely to be a cross carpeting from APC to one or two other parties. And there is still likely to be a cross carpeting from any of the opposition party also to the ruling party. It is here and there. 

So we are still waiting, what is likely to play out at the end of the day. But the result of each of the political parties cannot be rejected, even by INEC. Because if INEC takes it to court, the court will rule that it is internal affairs of individual political parties. 

It doesn’t concern INEC. Once they have followed the rules and regulation, even though there is an evidence of arithmetic, geometric, from 2 to 10, from 10 to 100, once it is announced and it is accepted by the National Working Committee of Individual Party, that is the result. The problem is within that particular political party.

 

How can the law be tightened to deal with irregularities?

Except if INEC will be given the authority to either accept or to reject. But in the primaries, INEC is supposed to be an observer. It is to observe. 

It is an observer. And once you say you are an observer, your observation doesn’t stop the results.  

It is Judiciary that will now interpret even the result as either acceptable or not acceptable. So INEC is an observer. 

 

Do you think it is getting better or going backwards? 

It’s getting better. We can’t be going backwards. There is the enforcement of the rule of direct primaries. 

People have a platform now to choose whom you want to vote for or whom you will not vote for. Especially the assurance from INEC that the BVAS will work very well. Electronic transmission of the vote will work very well. 

Let’s believe in INEC. Let’s also try to educate our people to come out and vote. And believing that your vote will surely count.