THE NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES

THE NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES The process of nomination should be transparent and credible

In strict compliance with the guidelines and timetable of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2027 general election, political parties in the country have commenced the process for nominating candidates for various offices. These public offices include national and state assemblies, governorship, and the presidency. The outcome of these primaries, especially in the leading political parties, will offer Nigerians glimpses of what to expect at the election proper and the kind of leaders to emerge. But from field reports, it would seem that imposition of candidates under the pretext of ‘consensus’ is now so commonplace that it could disfigure the coming general election.

Until the 2023 general election, candidates of the political parties were nominated strictly by delegates at indirect primaries. But this process produced unfair outcomes as the primaries of all the political parties, big or small, were replete with widespread fraud, monetisation, lack of respect for accountability by sundry godfathers and overbearing governors. Party chiefs and moneybags bought and imposed candidates in what became bazaars only to require the popular electorate to vote for them on a one man one vote basis. Apparently to correct this anomaly, the Ninth National Assembly amended 87(1) of the 2010 Electoral Act to include the option of direct primaries.

While the amended Electoral Act 2026 has removed the option of the much-abused ‘indirect primaries’, the ‘consensus’ option is proving to be no better, despite the safeguard provided in the law. Indeed, if the indirect primaries system was considered defective and jettisoned because it selected candidates through a warehoused surrogacy, the brazen manner in which ‘consensus’ candidates are now imposed raises questions about adherence to the rule of law. Even though the Electoral Act 2026 provides that so long as one aspirant disagrees with the option, the party is legally bound to conduct direct primaries, governors and party leaders are still forcing their ways through.

Meanwhile, the process through which the candidates emerge is critical and should not be compromised by unwholesome practices. As we have highlighted on several occasions, if intra-party primaries are flawed, as they have been over the years, it is a given that the outcomes of such exercise cannot deliver on good governance. Therefore, to the extent that credible election is a basic requirement of democratic governance and an antidote to civil disorder, it is important that the nomination of candidates by the parties be transparent and based on popular participation in which aspirants and their members are availed a level-playing field.

While appealing to members, aspirants and leaders of his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to conduct themselves as sportsmen and women in the ongoing primaries, President Bola Tinubu admonished “the winners not to gloat in victory and the losers to show sportsmanship by taking things in their stride and preparing for another time.” But the president also spoke to the issue of transparency in the process. “You must rise above sentiment to offer all aspirants a level playing field that guarantees participation without let or hindrance. While only one person will win for every seat contested, we should give eventual losers the satisfaction of a fair contest.”

Unfortunately, with the process already hijacked by overbearing governors and sundry godfathers, democratic choice is being systematically subverted in a manner that could eventually leave the determination of candidates to the courts with all its dire implications for the polity. So, the presidential appeal that the rules and regulations governing the primaries should be binding is already lost on many of these operatives. Yet at a period like this when the nation needs innovative leaders at all levels of government, the process through which the candidates emerge should be transparent.

Democracy and credible elections begin with the internal processes of political parties.  Parties that fail in conducting credible primaries cannot be expected to conduct themselves responsibly in a general election. When politicians who seek public offices do not obey the rules they make for themselves, it is a given that such individuals cannot be trusted to maintain law and order in the larger society.