PARTY CONVENTIONS: BEYOND THE FESTIVITIES

…The process through which candidates emerge should be credible and transparent 

In all civilised societies, the nomination of candidates for various offices by political parties is usually taken as a recruitment process for leadership. Unfortunately, under the current democratic dispensation in Nigeria, the primaries of all the political parties, big or small, are usually replete with widespread fraud, monetisation, lack of respect for accountability and a cynical hijack of the process by sundry godfathers. As the leading political parties therefore begin to hold their congresses and conventions preparatory to nominating candidates for the 2027 general election, we hope they will begin to adhere to democratic ethos.

Despite internal wranglings, involving in some cases, judicial interventions, the four major parties–the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Labour Party (LP)–are currently either holding their national conventions or are planning for them. While we applaud all the ceremonies, it is important to stress that at a period like this when the nation needs innovative leaders at all levels of government, the process through which the candidates emerge should not be compromised by unwholesome practices. 

Credible elections, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Joash Amupitan, begin long before polling day. “They begin in the transparency of the processes that produce the candidates,” Amupitan stated at a consultative meeting with political party leaders in Abuja last week while unveiling a revised draft of its 2026 Regulations and Guidelines for Political Parties, on which he sought their inputs. We agree with the INEC Chairman, even when we also hope that his commission will also put its house in order.

To the extent that free and fair election is a basic requirement of democratic governance and an antidote to civil disorder, the selection of candidates by parties must be based on transparent popular participation in which every aspirant is availed a level-playing field. As we have highlighted on several occasions, if intraparty primaries are flawed, vicious and chaotic as they have been over the years, it is a given that the outcomes of such exercises cannot deliver on good governance.

Meanwhile, under the aegis of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), some political parties are still demanding a revisit of the Electoral Act 2026 recently signed into law following the passage by its National Assembly. On grounds that the selection of candidates remains an internal affair of political parties and should not be subjected to undue legislative interference, they want the provision mandating direct primaries to be reconsidered, and the option of indirect primaries restored. On the limited time frame for the submission of their membership registers, INEC has hearkened to their request with a two-week extension.

We also understand the contention about direct primaries. There are fears that the old problem of hijacking ballot boxes, violence and deployment of thuggery might surface. These are legitimate concerns in a milieu where elections are contested almost as a do-or-die affair. But they are coming late in the day. Besides, if the whole idea is to ensure that the rules and regulations governing the nomination of candidates by political parties are transparent and credible and that critical stakeholders play fair, we subscribe to anything that will create confidence in the system and deepen our democracy.

Speaking at the 4th Elective National Convention of the ruling APC which had in attendance Vice President Kashim Shettima, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, House of Representatives Speaker Tajudeen Abass, 31 state governors and others, President Bola Tinubu has pledged the commitment of his administration to the rule of law and credible elections. But he also had a word for members of his party and those in opposition: “Political parties do not fail only through electoral defeats… they falter when ego overrides ideology or when ambition replaces discipline.”

The ADC, currently the main opposition platform, has scheduled its national convention for 14 April. “The convention is to affirm the previous decisions that have been taken in the last few months by the various organs of the party and also to ratify some reports that have been submitted and approve the time table for primaries,” according to the ADC National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi. The PDP that ruled the country for 16 years before it was displaced by the APC in 2015 is still struggling to resolve its internal contradictions. The Tanimu Turaki-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party has been holding meetings with the faction led by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike to resolve their problems. Incidentally, the same Wike hosted APC delegates from Rivers States who came for their convention in Abuja, amid suspicions that his real role in the PDP may be to play the spoiler.  The Labour Party (LP) is still split down the middle between the faction led by Julius Abure and the Nenadi Usman-led caretaker committee.

The indirect primaries system, which has now been jettisoned, was defective because it selected candidates through a warehoused surrogacy. Party chiefs and money bags bought and imposed candidates only to require the popular electorate to vote for them on a one-man one-vote basis. Reports of the use of money to disfigure the outcome of indirect primaries that became no more than bazaars led to the call by many to discard the idea. And to the extent that the amendment merely synchronises the primaries system with the basic requirement of democratic balloting, that is some progress.  

However, the political class must limit the need for judicial intervention in the outcome of party candidate selection processes. Even more so, the transactional content of those processes must, at the very least, be reduced. Democracy begins with internal party processes. Therefore, parties that fail in conducting credible primaries cannot be expected to conduct themselves responsibly in a general election. A political class that cannot obey the rules it makes for itself cannot be trusted to maintain law and order in the larger society.