The Chairman of the PBAT Mandate Elders Forum in Ondo State, Chief Demola Ijabiyi, has maintained that no aspirant in a political party primary election can validly or conclusively claim to have emerged as a candidate until the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) has completed the nomination process and formally certified the outcome.
Chief Ijabiyi explained that declarations made by election committees at primary election venues are merely provisional returns and remain subject to review, validation, ratification and final proclamation by the National Working Committee in accordance with the party’s Constitution, Electoral Guidelines and established internal processes.
According to him, election committees conducting party primaries are not independent constitutional bodies but agents appointed by the National Working Committee to conduct the exercise on its behalf and make returns to it for certification, review and, where necessary, correction.
He argued that regarding declarations made at polling venues as final and irreversible would defeat the very purpose for which the party established appeal committees and vested supervisory authority in its National Working Committee.
“If the declaration made at the venue is treated as final and conclusive, then the party’s appeal mechanism becomes an exercise in futility, while the requirement that election committees submit their returns to the National Working Committee for certification, review or appropriate action becomes completely meaningless,” he said.
Chief Ijabiyi further stated that political parties must retain the authority to correct irregularities, manipulation, procedural breaches or other violations of their Constitution and Electoral Guidelines whenever such infractions are established during or after the conduct of primary elections. He noted that stripping political parties of this supervisory authority would amount to denying them their constitutionally guaranteed right to regulate their internal affairs and preserve the integrity and credibility of their candidate nomination process.
The APC chieftain also urged aspirants dissatisfied with the conduct or outcome of primaries to exhaust the party’s internal appeal mechanism, stressing that such procedures would serve no useful purpose if declarations made in the field were regarded as final, immutable and incapable of review.
He insisted that every contestant remains an aspirant until the National Working Committee has received and considered the returns submitted by its election committee, determined any petitions or appeals arising from the exercise, and formally ratified and proclaimed the successful candidates.
Chief Ijabiyi further argued that an aspirant who has challenged a decision of the National Working Committee before a court of law cannot, at the same time, legitimately present himself or herself as the duly nominated candidate while simultaneously asking the court to set aside the party’s decision. According to him, such conduct is legally inconsistent because the very act of approaching the court is an acknowledgment that the nomination process remains in dispute and has not attained finality.
He also clarified that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) performs only a monitoring and observation role during party primaries and possesses no constitutional or statutory authority to certify, ratify or declare any aspirant as a party’s nominated candidate.
According to him, both the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Electoral Act vest the exclusive authority to nominate and sponsor candidates in political parties, acting through their constitutions, guidelines and duly constituted organs.
“The declaration made by an election committee in the field is essentially a return made by an agent to its principal. It acquires legal finality only after it has been received, considered, certified, ratified or otherwise determined by the National Working Committee in the exercise of its constitutional and supervisory powers. Until then, every contestant remains merely an aspirant and not the party’s duly nominated candidate,” Chief Ijabiyi stated.
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