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From Fred Itua, Abuja
The leadership of the National Assembly, on Tuesday, said indirect primaries adopted by political parties to elect their candidates for the 2023 general elections, was injurious to democracy as far as mass participation is concerned.
It condemned the high turnover rate the mode of primary election caused in both Chambers of the National Assembly, where 60 to 70 percent of serving federal lawmakers lost their bids of securing return tickets from their various political parties.
The leadership also described as a crime, a situation where for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), only 2322 delegates across the 774 local government councils, elected the presidential candidate for about 90 million voters in the 2023 general elections and just 774 ad – hoc delegates doing that in the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Lamentations by the leadership on the indirect primaries came to the fore at a public lecture organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), on June 12 Commemorative Democracy Day.
In his key note address at the lecture, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, said glaring imperfections were observed in the indirect or delegates mode of primary elections conducted by most of the political parties to elect candidates for 2023 general elections.
He said: “The imperfections and undemocratic nature of the Indirect mode of primary election was envisaged by the National Assembly by making Direct Primary the only option , which however was kicked against by President Buhari and some people with vested interest .
“We were told to widen the scope , we did by adding indirect and consensus but unfortunately , most of the political parties used the indirect which gives room for very few people to elect party candidates for a country with 200million population , out of which 90mllion are registered voters.
“The damage has been done and democracy in Nigeria injured with just 2, 322 delegates electing Presidential candidate for a party as big as the ruling APC.
“The mode of selection or electing the delegates was even fraudulent with one or two party chieftains in a state , compiling list of delegates who were turned to millions at party’s Congresses or convention grounds .
“The legislature is the most hit as half of the serving 469 federal lawmakers failed to secure return tickets from their various parties , particularly , APC and PDP leading to Institution memory loss.”
He, however, said the tenets of democracy will continue to get depened in the country by way of addressing the various imperfections and lapses in our electoral laws .
Making a similar lamentation, former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, said the National Assembly did the right thing by first making direct primaries, mandatory mode of conducting primary elections by the various political parties.
“The National Assembly, however, capitulated when President Buhari refused to assent to the bill by accommodating indirect and consensus options.
“Unfortunately , we all saw what happened with the indirect primaries used by the major Political parties. We saw in my own party ( PDP) where only 5 delegates voted to elect candidate for a federal constituency covering just five local government.
“We saw how the few delegates were turned to overnight millionaires in both the APC and PDP,” he lamented .
Director General of NILDS, Professor Abubakar Sulaiman, said the process of allowing highest bidders to pick political parties’ tickets for the various elections is worrisome.
He added that thw phenomenon of vote buying at the general elections should also be looked into by relevant authorities and stakeholders in the general interest of participatory democracy and sanctity of electoral process .
“Even though Nigeria’s democracy has made significant progress with 5 – multi party elections in the last 23 years with improved Electoral and Legislative framework , the country ‘s democracy has continued to be threatened in many ways,” he said.
