Umahi Opposes Direct Primary

Benjamin Nworie in Abakaliki

Ebonyi State Governor, Mr. David Umahi, has opposed the direct primaries been proposed in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.

Umahi stated this when he received the Registrar of National Examinations Council (NECO) Professor Dantani Wushishi in Abakaliki, Capital of the state.

He commended the President Muhammadu Buhari for refusing to asset to the bill, stressing that adoption of direct primary would give rise to litigations.

The governor said that direct primaries would lead to so much confusion that would derail or possibly truncate democracy in the country.

He said: “Let me congratulate Mr. President for refusing to sign that electoral bill. You see, when we are making laws we have to look at all the factors.

“This is a country that when you are defeated in any primary you refuse to accept defeat. Now, imagine the number of our local governments, 774. Imagine the number of wards, you now go to conduct primaries in all these wards, maybe for the president and after that the senate and the rest of the positions.

“Even if you are doing all of them in one day expect petitions by the number of political parties times the number of wards.

“So it will just truncate our democracy there is no doubt about that. Nobody has considered the amount of confusion that will arise out of that because everybody that contests election will like to go to court.

“And if I am contesting a particular office, I have to go to court if I am not happy over the election in the number of wards in my constituency. So when will the litigation end? It is another ploy to derail democracy.

“So, I want the national assembly to look into this litigation aspect. When the cost of these direct primaries is taken into consideration, it is going to be too much because for every ward that the court rules out, there must be a repeat of the exercise.

“So, I think that we have not gotten to that level of maturity, level of having the spirit of sportsmanship, level of accepting defeat. When people know that they have been defeated, they want to see if they can technically or fraudulently manipulate the system within the judiciary.

“So I think that the issue of political primaries should be left to the political parties. This is not about APC or PDP, everybody is looking at the implication. So let us take another look at it.

“Some people say governors have hijacked the primaries, is it not the governors that are at home every time, do they not have representation in every unit? So they are at home with the people, if you are not at home with the people how will the people know you?

“Some of you want to be governors, very soon we shall not be governors any more but we are looking at what will bring stability to our democracy and sustain it. So the national assembly should take a deeper look at the application so that when it will start happening they will say we foresaw this and we advised against it,” he said.

Earlier, Professor Wushishi said he was in the state to thank the governor for his immense support to the council which he said shows the governor’s commitment to educational upliftment of the state.

“It is evident that in the whole of the South-east, it was only in Ebonyi State that our examinations were not disrupted during the nationwide EndSars protest in 2020.

“Also, as a result of your tremendous effort and involvement, Ebonyi state presented the highest number of candidates for this year’s,” he said.