By Babatunde Ayedoju

The Senate on Tuesday November 9 passed the harmonized version of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021. The senate approved the conference committee report on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
The approval was a sequel to the presentation and consideration of the report by the Senate Leader, Abdullahi Yahaya.
The Senate and House of Representatives had passed different versions of the bill in July and some provisions of the legislation had generated controversies. A conference committee was thereafter, set up to harmonise the differences.
With this Amendment Bill, political parties are now mandated to select their candidates for elections through direct primary elections, according to Clause 87 of the Bill.
Although, the Upper Chamber initially rooted for indirect primary, it made a U-turn and supported the direct mode, just as the House of Representatives rebuffed pressure by the governors to jettison the direct primary.
Several reactions have followed this decision by the National Assembly, both from members of the Assembly and governors.
The Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), a forum of governors elected under the flag of All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Salihu Mohammed Lukman, said in a statement in Abuja that the brains behind the inclusion of direct primary as the mode of determining party flag bearers for elective posts in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill were quiet on its inadequacies when it worked for them.
Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State, who doubles as Chairman of the PGF, also told reporters at the end of a meeting recently that the forum was not comfortable with the adoption of direct primary for picking party’s candidates by the National Assembly.
He said: “We discussed the pros and cons. There has been concern that political parties are voluntary organisations. We express the concern that political parties be allowed to choose from the options that they so desire. There is an Executive Order, signed by Mr. President, against large gatherings. These are issues we discussed and hope that the best be achieved for Nigeria.
“Direct primary involves supervisory role by INEC. So, if multiple political parties are doing their primaries, INEC resources will be overstretched, and I think the chairman of INEC had even commented on that.”
On the other hand, House of Representatives Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, said at a different forum that direct primaries for political parties would create a level playing ground for Nigerians to fully participate in the leadership process.
He told a delegation of youths led by Youth and Sports Development Minister, Sunday Dare, during a courtesy visit in his office that the majority of Nigerians are happy with the development.
“If I know that my return will depend on a few men, I may not care about you. But if I know that my return will depend on my accountability and representation to the people, I will do the right thing,” he said.
The Hope spoke with academics on the matter. According to Dr Adekunle Akinola from the Department of Political Science, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA), “Democracy itself has two types, which are direct and indirect. Direct democracy in ancient Greece involved everybody in the community gathering together to make decisions. Indirect democracy came to be when the population expanded and everybody could no longer gather to take decisions. That led to representative government.
“Similarly, political parties adopted indirect primaries because of the belief that they may not have the logistics to mobilise their members at the lowest level, which is the ward level. For instance, if a party wants to conduct primary election in Ondo State and we have 3009 wards as at the last election, it means they will need to conduct election in 3009 wards to elect a candidate. The question will now be, where will the political party get the logistics to organize a hitch free primary election?”
Dr Akinola further stated, “Legislators are pushing for direct primaries because it will help them get return tickets in their constituencies. Governors are also pushing for indirect primaries because in most cases they are the ones who select the delegates. That way, the anointed candidates of the governors will get the ticket. So, it’s just a power play between the national assembly and the state governors.”
The political scientist noted, “However, if we want reason to prevail, we should know that Nigeria does not have the resources to conduct direct primaries for all political parties as it would impose a greater financial burden on our own electoral system.
Similarly, Dr Adedayo Afe from the Department of History and International Relations, AAUA, “Whether direct or indirect primaries, I believe it should be the parties that will decide. I don’t believe that the National Assembly should legislate on that. They should make it flexible for the parties to decide whether they are going for direct primaries or indirect. If we opt for Direct primaries, it is going to be more expensive. If we try it and it doesn’t work, are we going to go back to indirect primaries?”
Dr Afe also said, “Moreso, this is not about our interest but a matter of conflict of interest between governors and National Assembly members. The governors believe they own the parties while the National Assembly members do not want to bow down to them.”
In the words of Professor Simon Ehiabhi, also from the Department of History and International Relations, AAUA, “Parties tend to decide on the means by which they will select their candidates, whether direct or indirect. Party members who prefer direct primaries are mostly those who don’t have confidence in the party leadership. They are not sure if the leadership of the party will be fair in picking them as representatives.
“However, for a democracy to be truly Democratic, I believe direct primaries should be adopted by all political parties. That gives us a sense of Option A3, as put forward by Professor Maurice Iwu. Direct primary will help to know who is actually popular within the party.
Speaking about the financial implications of direct primaries, Professor Ehiabhi said, “Yes. It will be expensive but it depends on the party structure and those who are calling for the direct primaries. Of course, politicians know you can’t go into a contest without having money. Anybody who wants to go into politics should be ready to engage himself in financial undertakings.”