Direct primaries will kill democracy in Nigeria, allow parties determine best option – Barr. Alfred Bello


 

Direct primaries has been described as the worst mode of election that will draw Nigeria’s democracy backward

The Kogi State Treasurer of the Peoples Democratic Party, Barr. Alfred Bello made the disclosure in a statement.

According to the statement, ” Direct primaries has all along been in the electoral act but political parties jettison it because it has never been the best and parties always preffered indirect or consensus options

Any election that doesn’t guarantee the privacy of electorates is not an election.

By direct primaries the voting pattern will expose where each ward and local government voted for a candidate.

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If your local government voted against a candidate that eventually won, if care is not taking, that Local government will be victimized particularly in case of governorship election and the people can be denied dividends of democracy throughout the tenure of the governor.

Also, if the law compels the party to solely adopt direct primaries and it failed due to violence and distruption by thugs, that means the party will not have any other options to elect their candidate

The idea of money bags hijacking the primaries is equally not a genuine reason, because if at the general election, some candidates can still share five thousand naira to induce voters how much more party members whose figure are not up to 10% of voters at the general election.

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Let it be placed on record that the direct primaries held by the ruling APC was received with mixed feelings in Lagos when Akinwunmi Ambode was Governor and even in Anambra State at the last Governorship primaries. Without mincing words, the inclusion of the direct primaries is a precursor to the ruling APC rigging election in 2023.

It should therefore be noted that even America where we copied Presidential system of democracy from, they can not afford such Direct primaries. They still use delegate system to choose their candidates but spread across wards and states.

I will advise the National Assembly to critically look into this compelling Law and allow parties to determine the best options for themselves so that our democracy can strive


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