The ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) has announced the decision to conduct the governorship primary of Ondo State through a direct mode.
The party announced its decision in a letter addressed to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. It informed the Commission of its readiness to conduct the governorship primary on April 20, 2024, ahead of the State Governorship election slated to hold in November this year.
A direct primary mode is the participation of all registered members of a political party in the selection of the party’s candidate ahead of an election to produce an elective representative of the people.
In this article, AKINRINLOLA OLUMIDE writes on the history of direct primaries conducted by APC so far in Nigeria.
From the record, APC has conducted direct primaries in more than ten states with controversial results, most of which led to litigation and internal crisis. Some states where direct primaries were conducted include but not limited to the following: Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Bauchi, Cross-River, Kano, Niger, Osun, Rivers, Ogun, Edo, Taraba and Zamfara.
Historical record shows that the APC adopted direct primary anytime they wish to impose a candidate or weaken the stronghold and influence of a particular aspirant on the party. As a good student of history, anytime the ruling party introduces direct primary mode, they always have a hidden agenda.
In 2019, for their lack of internal democracy, the federal high court in Port Harcourt nullified both the direct and indirect primaries conducted by two factions of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State. The case lingers, and the party was in disarray due to the Abuja interest led by Rotimi Amaechi.
APC suffered the same fate in Taraba when it approved indirect primary for governorship elections in various states but deliberately excluded Abia, Osun and Taraba states to satisfy the unpopular interest of the national leadership of the party.
The Supreme Court nullified the governorship primary election they conducted in Taraba State, which produced Senator Emmanuel Bwacha as its gubernatorial flag-bearer.
Consequently, the Abuja interest and lack of internal democracy in the ruling APC generated crises that cost the party to lose the states of Osun, Taraba, Abia, Anambra, Zamfara, and others to the opposition parties.
To buttress the point on how every system of direct primary of the ruling APC is susceptible to manipulation to favour a particular aspirant, Senator Andy Uba of the APC who garnered over 300,000 votes in the APC direct primaries, had only 43,000 votes in the main election. He came a distant third in the main poll because he was imposed on the party to fly the party’s ticket for the state election.
I am sorry to say that most of the results of APC direct primaries are being written ahead of the election by the National leadership of the party to favour the Aso Rock Cabals.
As it is, the APC is likely going to lose the election in Edo State ahead of the state governorship election, considering the division already created by the Cabal’s interests arising from the fallout of the recently concluded direct primary.
With the above history, I conclude that the Ondo State indirect primary election will throw the party into crisis. It is not difficult to know that the party adopted the indirect primary mode to impose and implement the interest of the Abuja Cabals on party members.
One will wonder why a political party will advertise N50M expression of interest and nomination forms when they already planned to impose a candidate on their party members?
Leave a Reply