By Ibe Pascal Arogorn
“Power is not an institution, and not a structure; neither is it a certain strength we are endowed with; it is the name that one attributes to a complex strategical situation in a particular society.”
According toEdmund Burke, “the greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse”.
A direct primary, which is now used in some form in all U.S. states, functions as a preliminary election whereby voters decide their party’s candidates. In an indirect primary, voters elect delegates who choose the party’s candidates at a nominating convention.
The electoral reform bill which was passed recently is the approval that political parties in Nigeria should adopt direct primaries to choose candidates for all elective positions and that they should be monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
For simple definitions, a direct primary is one whereby members of a political party choose their party’s candidates while an indirect primary is one whereby party members elect delegates from among themselves who in turn decide the party’s flagbearers for upcomingelections.
With the atmosphere already warming up for the 2023 general elections, some have applauded the move while others see it as an infringement on the independence and internal democratic workings of individual political parties.
The two major political parties, the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, went poles apart with the mode of primaries used in the election of their candidates for 2019.
While the ruling APC went for the US-style direct primaries, the PDP fine-tuned the familiar indirect primaries. Now, no method is better than the other and any method can be skewed to subvert the will of the people.
For instance, those that argue that direct primaries give every party member a say and reveals the true will of the people on the choice of candidates waters the representative republic we imbibed from the developed democracies. Saying that a handful of delegates are insufficient to express the true will of all or may incorrectly express it makes our parliament unnecessary.
Whenever we exercise our franchise, what we are actually doing is voting for persons within our constituencies to speak for us. We all can’t go to Abuja to agree on every national issue or every national issue brought to our doorsteps before a deal is made. That would be anarchical.
Governors elected on the platform of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) are equally kicking against what they describe as an attempt to impose direct primaries on other parties by the ruling APC. In a statement by the PDP spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party said the decision of the National Assembly was anti-democratic and against the wishes of Nigerians. The party cited the huge cost that direct primaries would foist on political parties. Ologbondiyan said: “The decision by the APC-controlled National Assembly is a humongous blow to the development of democratic norms and a plot to introduce anarchy during internal party elections as currently obtainable in the APC.
“The PDP holds that the provision is aimed at increasing the costs of nomination procedures, thereby surrendering the processes to money bags against the wishes and aspiration of Nigerians. Our party makes bold to state that except the APC, which intends to deploy looted funds in future elections, hardly will there be any political party that will be able to raise the cost of conducting internal elections under a direct primary process. This is why the decision has elicited widespread rejection from Nigerians across the board.”
But, why are they all afraid of direct primaries? Some say members of the National Assembly took the decision because they are afraid that their governors would hijack the primaries that would lead to the next general elections in 2023 and stop them from realizing their aspirations of either becoming governors themselves or returning to the parliament.
Indeed, observers believe that state governors would be the biggest losers if the bill eventually becomes law. In a situation where all members of a political party are required to vote to pick candidates, the powers exercised by governors in the past in determining delegates who will vote in primaries will be greatly whittled down. This is based on the premise that the old system of using delegates allows them to impose their candidates, by bribing or blackmailing the delegates to do their wishes.
Former APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole was a strong advocate of direct primaries in the APC. Oshiomhole maintained during the build-up to the 2019 general elections that the direct primary is free from the vices associated with the indirect primary. He added: “Direct primary cannot be manipulated. It is not prone to corruption. We want to grow democracy. We want the party members to have ownership of the party. We want to give our members a sense of belonging.”
But his position did not sit well with some party stakeholders, particularly the governors. At the end of the day, the party adopted the direct primary for the election of its presidential candidate but left the states with the discretion to choose the mode to be adopted in the selection of their candidates. Eighteen states eventually adopted the direct primary mode, while the remaining 19 chose the indirect primary method.
The issue of internal democracy within political parties, particularly as it affects leadership recruitment, has been a big challenge since the return to civil rule in 1999. The Nigerian Constitution has empowered the people to choose their leaders through democratic elections. The same constitution has made political parties the only avenue through which leaders can emerge to serve the people. But, there is currently a lacuna in the leadership recruitment process because the political parties have been hijacked by moneybags.
The same concept that has succeeded elsewhere in the world was distorted by the political class, to suit their whims and caprices. This is because even when there is a good system in place, getting the benefits from the system would depend on the character of the politicians. There appears to be a division in their ranks at the moment; hence the current attempt to fine-tune the process.
In calling for the direct primary option, Gbajabiamilla said: “I will seek an amendment to Section 87. Section 87 provides for either indirect or direct primary. In the true ethos of democracy, I would like to amend Section 87 to delete indirect and make direct primary mandatory.” The Speaker had to speak from the floor of the House rather than his exalted seat because the Deputy Speaker presides over consideration of bills and reports in the committee of the whole. His position was seconded by the House Leader, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa. The Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Wase, who presided over the clause-by-clause consideration of the bill at the Committee of the Whole, put the prayer to voice vote and the amendment was unanimously adopted by the lawmakers. The position was adopted by the House, while the Senate initially opposed the idea, but agreed to it at the conference committee level. Section 87 (1 &2) of the Electoral Act 2010 provided that “(1) A political party seeking to nominate candidates for elections under this Act shall hold primaries for aspirants to all elective positions. The procedure for the nomination of candidates by political party for the various elective positions shall be by direct or indirect primaries.” It also provides guidelines for the parties in the conduct of their primaries.
But, the House Committee retained the provision with a slight amendment to read: “A political party seeking to nominate candidates for elections under this act shall hold direct or indirect primaries for aspirants to all elective positions, which may be monitored by the commission. The procedure for the nomination of candidates by political parties for the various elective positions shall be by direct or indirect primaries.”
The committee explained that “this amendment guarantees an all-inclusive primary process and system of all political parties and provides clear statutory primary roadmaps to forestall systemic control of parties’ primaries by a select few in any party. It sets limits on fees/financial expenses payable by aspirants seeking their parties’ nominations to contest elective public offices. It is intended to limit internal party crises arising from exclusion of candidates or manipulation of primary processes by a few.”
Spokesman of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu tried to justify the position of the House. He said the lawmaking chamber was conscious of the fact that the time has come to have a credible mode of primary and, so, decided to restrict the mode of primary to the direct option. The decision was later adopted by both chambers in a conference committee. Kalu said: “Nigeria’s nascent democracy has matured in these 22 years of the Fourth Republic. Without a doubt, the people are wiser, more informed, more engaged and yearn for a new political order that empowers them to reject unpopular or incompetent political aspirants. A popular yeaning of Nigerians in the electoral reform process was the call to discard the delegate based primary election method in favour of direct primary. Following extensive stakeholders’ consultations and engagement on electoral reforms, it is clear to the leadership of the House that the delegate based primary election method is not only unpopular, but is inefficient in producing credible candidates.”
Kalu argued that the indirect mode of primary which has been in use since the return to civil rule in 1999 and that it enabled godfatherism and corruption. He added: “It has created a system where unpopular political candidates rely on buying of delegates to vote for them or their cronies at the party primary. This is antithetical to the aim of a diligent primary election which is to choose credible candidates that would most likely be acceptable to the electorates.”
Conscious of the fact that the provision in the original recommendation of the House Committee on Electoral Matters recommended the use of both direct and indirect primary to select candidates for elections, he recalled the position of the Speaker during the clause-by-clause consideration of the Electoral Act. He said: “Femi Gbajabiamila’s contribution to the amendment of clause 87 of the Electoral Act is reflective of the agitations of the people. The House wishes to remind all political players that direct primary is in the best interest of our democratic advancement as a nation. The conduct of party elections by direct primary remains the most transparent mode of nominating a candidate in any election. It marks a true return of power to the people. It is more participatory creating a level-playing ground for all aspirants and allowing the emergence of popular candidates.
“The direct primary will increase the participation of women and youth in the political process. It will help check godfatherism, enhance intra-party democracy and reduce the commercialisation of elections in Nigeria. The House is pleased that the Senate has agreed with its position on direct primary, as well as the electronic transmission of election results. The harmonisation of the National Assembly on these issues is a clear indication of the maturing of our democracy. The House remains committed to the improvement of our electoral process and expresses confidence that the Electoral Acts (Amendment) bill will be expeditiously assented upon transmission to the President.”
However, Anthony Sani, former Secretary-General of the pan–northern socio-political organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), agrees. He said: “The endorsement of direct primary would improve internal democracy in political parties by allowing all party members to participate in the choice of party candidates for elections. That way, party members would own the primary and the ensuing results. This is because it is hard for moneybags to bribe all party members in the way they bribe delegates during indirect primary. That is to say that direct primary will reduce incidence of parallel primaries and reduce kleptocracy and plutocracy.”
But, Senator Shehu Sani, who represented Kaduna Central between 2015 and 2019, is not convinced that the adoption of the direct primary option would eliminate all the problems associated with electing candidates for political parties. This, he said, is because the direct primary has its positive and negative sides. He said: “The positive side of it is that it is popular, it is cheaper and the most credible way of producing credible candidates. The negative side is that Nigeria political parties do not have a database of their members. Secondly, there are security challenges in direct primary because almost everybody will come and line up. This is going to be done at the ward offices of the parties and we don’t have the security apparatus that will be able to protect such a process. It could be chaotic since almost everybody is going to come and line up, even non-members of the parties can be mobilised to join the line.
“Another aspect of it is that any figure can be written as results from direct primary. You will remember that when President Buhari opted for direct primary, the claim by the ruling party was that about 30 million members voted for him. The question then was, where are those people? Only 18 million people voted for him during the general election. But, anybody who does not have enough money to give to delegates opts for direct primary, but it is subject to a lot of abuse. It is equivalent to the general election; the only difference is that it is conducted by political parties.”
Sani said the decision to adopt direct primary by the National Assembly may not be unconnected with the struggle for relevance by the lawmakers, especially in their states. The former lawmaker who lost out to power play in Kaduna added: “The reason behind the adoption of direct primary by the Senate is that many of them have lost favour with their governors and the governors have conducted congresses without their supporters. As such, the only way for their political survival is through direct primary. In 2019, many of them were beneficiaries of indirect primary. But, now that the governors have decided to change many of them, the idea of direct primary as the only legal and credible process comes into play. So, that law made by the National Assembly is informed by the crisis they are having in their states.”
A member of the Arewa Roundtable, a socio-political group working to fashion out an acceptable leadership option for the North devoid of rancour, Matamaki Tom Maiyashi said what the country needs at this point in time is a leadership recruitment system that will throw up true leaders for the country. He believes that the leadership drive in the country has been on the downward trend since 1999, leading to a series of agitations by Nigerians. He warned that the direct primary must be made to work if agitations in the country must stop. He said: “The provisions hitherto were based on the delegate system. If you look at it, the delegate system is more convenient because it reduces the cumbersomeness of throwing up those to be elected at all levels.
“But, that type of law can only be made for a sane society. We are not a sane society. Everything that needs to be judged is judged through rationalistic decency and our society is not for that. Public officers are elected and when they are elected, they are sworn in on oath. If you are a Muslim, you hold the holy Quran and if you are a Christian, you hold the Holy Bible and that is a very serious business. You swear to do justice to all without discrimination. But, as soon as they are through with the oath, they go and do something completely different. If you are a governor, for example, you are elected to take charge of a constituency described by the constitution as a state. But, as soon as he settles down, he completely appropriates all the resources of the state for himself, does whatever he wants and even controls the State House of Assembly. So, we are really not a sane society. The agitations you are seeing now have come about as a result of the distrust and disgust of Nigerians with the way public officers emerge.
“So, it is a reaction to a specific situation. With the delegate system, a presidential or governorship candidate can decide who qualifies to be a delegate. The delegate could emerge from his local government and he will change the delegate list until he is satisfied that he now has the people that will vote him into power. There is no way people will not react to this type of situation. This type of situation is going to cause serious chaos in this country. Our political culture has been degenerating and you can see this from the quality of leaders we are having. From 1999 till date, the quality has been degenerating. In everything, the aspiration of the people has been completely compromised by the system. So, whether we are going to do an open delegate system or not, what the country must face is the integrity and the accountability processes that will make sure that credible candidates emerge. Unless we do that, this direct primary option may fail, and Nigerians are going to react. So, we must look for a credible leadership recruitment system.”
A member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in Kaduna State, Mordecai Ibrahim, believes that the National Assembly deserves commendation for the giant step it has taken to make the people take back their parties. He said: “If there is anything the National Assembly has ever done deserving of commendation, it is this aspect of the Electoral Law’s amendment which has now provided for direct primary elections for political parties. This provision of the law will go a long way to ensure the people take back the proper ownership of the political parties. Card-carrying members of any given political party can now decide who will be their party’s flag bearer and this will translate into greater chances for transparent electoral victory, which will in turn be seen and accepted as credible.”
Ibrahim added: “When a candidate emerges through direct primary to contest election against a candidate that was produced through indirect or delegate election, chances are that such a candidate will always win the general election. He will win because it is the majority of party faithful that chose their flag bearer. Voting for such a candidate during the general election will be a smooth exercise because he is already liked or loved by the majority of the party people who also in most cases are the majority in the state/Federal Constituency, local government or senatorial district. Direct primary election is a giant step at handing over the political party to people.
“By the time direct primary elections are combined with electronic voting and e-transmission of election results, Nigeria will be obviously heading towards an egalitarian political society.
Ibe Pascal Arogorn, a journalist and writer, writes from Owerri, Imo state.
Email: ibepascal858@gmail.com
