Kicking Nigerians like a football over Electoral Act (Amendment)Bill

By Shamsudeen Ayeni History is ever kind to those who make good decisions and vice versa. The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, had again withheld his assent to the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2021. The same unfortunate incident happened during the 8th National Assembly. On both occasions, the president did give […]

By Shamsudeen Ayeni

History is ever kind to those who make good decisions and vice versa. The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, had again withheld his assent to the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2021. The same unfortunate incident happened during the 8th National Assembly. On both occasions, the president did give reason(s) why he chose to withhold his assent to the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill. Details of these reasons are already in the public domain and do not need to be repeated. What is worthy of note is that while the first rejection by the president was based largely on timing, his recent rejection was based on the internal affairs of the political parties. Specifically, the president rejected the bill for the second time because it recognises direct primaries as the only mode by which political parties can nominate their candidates for elective offices in the country. Direct primary means that all interested members of a political party can vote to nominate its preferred candidates for any elections. However, some current governors and the president want indirect primaries to remain as contained in the extant Electoral Act, 2010; whereby party candidates can be nominated by a few groups of people (a.k.a. delegates) in the political party.

While both the direct and indirect primaries have their demerits and merits, I agree absolutely with the lawmakers that both the indirect and consensus primaries be expunged from our electoral law as they breed and encourage godfatherism, bribery and corruption. Indirect and consensus primaries also cause political instability and apprehension within and outside of the political parties. It makes party members rather loyal to some cabals than to the political parties themselves. We have equally witnessed how a political party could vagrantly abuse the direct, indirect, and consensus primaries. The ruling party, for instance, used direct primaries in Lagos state to nominate its 2019 gubernatorial candidate. The same party, however, without any explanations used indirect and consensus primaries in Oyo and Ogun States to nominate its 2019 gubernatorial candidates. Such kind of inconsistency, unpredictability and unreliability in choosing between direct, indirect, and/or consensus primaries, no doubt, heat the polity and causes serious acrimonies and internal wrangling amongst the party members, which is a bad development, especially for the ruling party.

If there is anything that has done more harm to the stability of our party politics, is the conduct of the indirect or consensus primaries across the 36 states of the federation and the major political parties in the country. Improper conduct of the indirect and consensus primaries in 2019 made the All Progressives Congress (APC) lose all the elections it won in Zamfara State following a declaration by the Supreme Court. It was the same misunderstanding arising from indirect/consensus primaries that made the Supreme Court bar APC from participating in the 2019 state elections in Rivers State. There are also many cases of defections from one party to another because of the misconduct of indirect and consensus primaries across the board. All these problems are what I believe could have been addressed if the president had assented to the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2021.

Mr. Garba Shehu, the presidential spokesman, said that “The amendment as proposed is a violation of the underlying spirit of democracy, which is characterised by freedom of choices”. This is just a misapplication and wrong interpretation of the spirit of democracy to cover the ulterior motive of his principal and that of the governors who want to continue dictating and determining the political careers of others. Democracy is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. It is always about the majority. Active and mass participation by members of any association including political parties is the real ingredient of democracy. In a democracy, choices are not made by a few minorities as is the case with either consensus primary or indirect primary. Freedom of choices expressed only by a few cabals or godfathers in our political parties cannot stand as the underlying spirit of democracy. Therefore, every registered member of a political party has the inalienable right to vote for any preferred party candidate. That power should never be domiciled within the apron string of certain privileged party members.

It is imperative to remark that conducting a presidential or a governorship indirect primary is not without any serious economic, security and financial consequences. Elections are generally expensive in Nigeria partly because delegates are heavily and financially induced during indirect primaries. Politicians who end up winning indirect primaries are those with the fattest purses or have received the financial blessings of the bigwigs in the political parties. If direct primaries would bring serious adverse security and financial consequences, why are the venues of indirect primaries always “militarized”, “dollarized” or “nairalized”?  If we can conduct elections in over 150, 000 polling units nationwide during the presidential elections, I honestly cannot see the fear of the president, coupled with the fact that political parties do not conduct their primaries in one single day. 

Finally, instead of insisting on indirect primaries, political parties should begin full digitization and computerization of their affairs. Already, political parties have commenced online registration of members. We can extend this further by allowing all registered and financially active party members to vote online for their preferred party candidates from the comfort of their homes. With the deployment of appropriate technology, direct primaries can be conducted without any security breaches or serious economic consequences as the president wanted us to believe. Direct primaries would minimize or discourage financial inducement as how many voters can politicians bribe! If the president and the governors are also worried about the possible manipulations of direct primaries, they should go and understudy Big Brother Naija’s online voting and counting processes for proper guidance and hindsight.    

Ayeni wrote from North Carolina, United States