The first indication that those bent on defeating the clause on direct primary in the revised Electoral Reform Bill, which is currently awaiting presidential assent, were still working hard emerged last Thursday when the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation.
The Committee had summoned the INEC boss to clarify the N500 billion being touted as the sum required for political parties to conduct the direct primary, which its proponents think will give power to members to choose their leaders as opposed to the indirect primary, which relies heavily on delegates, who are more open to control by power blocs and interests, especially state governors who control delegates in their states and determine the texture of local politics by exercising full control over state electoral commissions.
Held behind closed doors, the meeting, which was based on a resolution passed on a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by the Chairman of the House Committee on Customs and Excise, Leke Abejide, laid speculations over the N500 billion to rest.
Although Yakubu said after the meeting that INEC did not “come up with any cost for the conduct of direct primaries per political party,” the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Mukhtar Batera, explained that the INEC chairman told them that only political parties had the responsibility to fund the primaries. Batera said, “In our discussions with the INEC chairman, we wanted to know his requirements for the 2023 elections, as well as the cost of direct or indirect primaries.
“On the primaries, when we discussed with him, he specifically told us that INEC’s role in direct or indirect primaries is just minimal. He said party primaries are the responsibility of political parties and not INEC.
“The INEC chairman told us that only the political parties have the responsibility to fund of direct primaries.”
Alarmingly, political parties are unaware of how the sum of N500 billion, which could be spent on the conduct of the direct primary was derived, since INEC obviously had no hand in it.
“No political party was consulted, the figure was just brought up,” erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr Kola Ologbodinyan, told THEWILL on Friday, shortly before he handed over to his successor.
The Secretary-General of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), Chief Willy Ezugwu, is also miffed at the amount. “N500 billion to conduct direct primary?” he asked this reporter rhetorically.
“To answer your question, nobody, either from INEC or the legislature, consulted the political parties to arrive at that figure. But what I can tell you is that it is part of the plan to kill the bill. Many of the lawmakers, who initially supported the bill, are looking for a way to kill it. They have developed cold feet after meeting with their state governors, who had been opposed to the bill right from the beginning. The intention is to present that bogus amount and if government says it cannot afford it, then bye to the bill.”
Also speaking on the matter, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, said he had nothing to add to what his boss, Prof Yakubu, said on direct primary during his meeting with the House Committee on Appropriation but wondered aloud, “I believe the unprecedented interest in the matter is orchestrated and misplaced.”
When asked why, Oyekanmi replied, “The answer to the question of who is responsible for the conduct of party primaries has always been there in the Electoral Act 2010. In fact, the Act has clear provisions for both direct and indirect primaries. Therefore, it is not new.”
He, however, refused to be drawn into the conversation of how the N500 billion expenditure was arrived at.
Repeated phone calls to the phone of Senator Bisiru Ajibola, media spokesperson of the Senate, went unanswered and text messages to him were not replied.
Recent Power Play
Although controversy has trailed the inclusion of the direct primary clause as a provision in the Electoral Amendment Act 2021 passed by the National Assembly on November 9, recent developments appear to have hardened the position of its adversaries.
THEWILL has learnt that given the possibility of the bill becoming a law, following the support it received from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) tri-partite committee during a meeting in State House on November 8, 2021, prominent politicians like the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, have increased their consultations across the country.
Tinubu has seen the new development as a golden opportunity to checkmate party leaders, particularly the President’s men, who have never hidden their plan to scuttle his presidential ambition. Direct primary would mean allowing elbow room to reach party members as against delegates, mostly in the hands of his enemies. This would work the magic for him, sources close to his sprouting campaign outfits confided in this newspaper. For this same reason, his opponents are digging in against the signing of the bill by President Muhammadu Buhari.
That envisaged a ray of hope for the APC leader had been kept alive with the high-level support the bill had received before its passage.
At that meeting of the presidential committee headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and attended by the leadership of the National Assembly, state governors elected on the platform of the APC and other party big wigs, the party stakeholders decided to support the direct primary bill.
According to the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Office of the Vice-President, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, “Acting on the President’s mandate, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo called the meeting to allow all parties to ventilate their voices in a no holds-barred manner. It was a family affair. In the end, a common ground was reached. Direct primary was upheld and aspirants under the party can now go back to the people and seek endorsement rather than giving a few delegates the power to decide for all.”
While power contenders like Tinubu took the message seriously and increased their consultations with party chieftains and politicians across the country, others like the leaders of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), a platform of state governors of the ruling party actively supported by Malam Abubakar Malami, bided their time.
That time came when the President, who had been away to Glasgow, Scotland to attend the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from October 30 to November 6, 2021, arrived the country and was immediately confronted by the two factions in support for and against the direct primary bill: the Governor Bagudu Atiku of Kebbi State led-PGF, alongside Governor Badaru of Jigawa State and the now shaky VP Osinbajo led tri-partite committee, which had lost its unity since Buhari arrived the country from Glasgow, Scotland. Both factions went to war in the court of public opinion immediately with one getting the upper hand.
Appearing on a national TV programme, Malami said President Buhari would be guided in giving assent to the bill by security and monetary considerations.
“What will be the point in people queuing up to vote under the cloud of COVID-19 pandemic and alarming insecurity in the country?’’ he wondered.
In his submission, Malam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, reportedly said Buhari would continue to consult with relevant stakeholders on the matter before the bill is signed.
“The President will consult with those who he believes are important to his decision and who can advise him on the Electoral Act. And he will meet them. But I cannot draw boundaries or name specifics and say this is who the President might meet. He ultimately decides,” Shehu said.
Part of that consultation was the letter the President was said to have written the INEC Chairman, Yakubu, to seek his advice on the cost implications of direct primary. It is uncertain whether INEC has replied the letter within the one- week deadline since the President sent it on November 30, 2021, almost a fortnight ago.
Oyekanmi drew a blank when he was asked about it. He said, “I have no comment of the exchange of letters between the President and INEC.” Then he added rhetorically: “If indeed there was a confidential correspondence between the two entities, it will not be fair to discuss the details on the pages of newspapers.”
As the intrigues grow deeper, Senate President Ahmed Lawan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, came out to take different positions on the issue after their recent meetings with the President, a week ago. While Lawan came out of the meeting with the president tongue-tied, Gbajabiamila was outspoken. The Speaker said direct primary would consolidate the country’s democracy by giving members direct voice in the choice of their leaders and give more room for inclusion of youths in party politics. Many of the legislators in support of the bill see the Speaker as their arrow-head.
Enter Tinubu
According to an acolyte of Tinubu, the House of Reps Speaker’s outspoken support for the bill, coupled with the Osinbajo-led Tri-partite Committee agreement, though comparatively silent even as it still represents an intra-party voice, with its decisive support on the bill, have bolstered the confidence of the former Lagos governor in the pursuit of his presidential ambition.
Tinubu is believed to have seen the direct primary as a potential tool that would boost his presidential ambition. A close aide of the former governor told THEWILL, “Asiwaju’s recent move to increase consultations among stakeholders across the country has been as a result of the favourable conditions surrounding the direct primary bill. We used it successfully in Lagos to remove former governor Akinwumni Ambode and so we know how powerful it can be.”
Regrettably, Tinubu’s political adversaries are for this same reason fighting to make sure the bill fails to see the light of the day.
Deadline Approaches
The National Assembly transmitted the bill to the President on November 19. Buhari has until December 19 to sign it or send his comments about the bill to the lawmakers. Should the constitutionally allowed period of 30 days pass and Buhari refuses to sign the bill, the NASS can recall it and pass it into law if they are able to muster the required two-third majority in both chambers of the assembly.
Within this time lag, many governors from the two major political parties, the APC and the PDP, have reportedly been mounting pressure on President Buhari not to sign the Electoral Amendment Bill into law until contentious areas, such as the direct primary, are resolved.
Many of the state governors, who are currently in dispute with senators and members of the House of Representatives from their various states, are insisting that the National Assembly must remove direct primary and at best, include the option of indirect primary in the Electoral Act.
Although the majority of lawmakers had threatened to veto the President should he fail to give assent to the bill, before it was transmitted to him for assent, a lot of water seemed to have passed under the bridge to warrant that threat.
“The current NASS lacks the political will to override the President on the bill and I will challenge any of them to do so. The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, said long ago that anything Buhari asked them to do they would do. What has changed since he made that statement?”
Chief Ezugwu laughed off the question, saying “President Buhari is the luckiest President we have ever had. The NASS cannot do anything different from what he wants them to do. The lawmakers will not override anything.”
United Front
Except for the APC, whose officials are divided over the direct primary bill, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is united against it. State governors from both parties, 35 in all, are unanimous in their thinking that the bill will interfere with party independence and supremacy. Those like Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, who sees nothing conceptually wrong with the bill, however, thinks the country’s democratic culture is still too young and immature to have only one mode for the conduct of party primaries.
While most civil societies in the country think the adoption of the principle would deepen democracy, the Inter-party Advisory Council, composed of all political parties has shunned it, arguing that smaller parties may be unable to cope with the financial outlay involved with it.
In his response last week, Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State and Chairman of the South-East Governors Forum, said direct primary would truncate Nigeria’s young democracy, arguing that it would result in confusion, litigations and more expenditure.
“This is a country where you are defeated in any primary and you will refuse to accept defeat. Now imagine the number of local government areas in the country, about 774, and 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 population. Even if you do that in one day, expect petitions from the number of political parties multiplied by the number of wards. It will truncate our democracy. There is no doubt about that. It is a ploy to derail democracy. I think we have not got to that level of maturity, the level of having the spirit of sportsmanship and accepting defeat.”
Fall Out
As supporters of the bill, some of the leaders of the National Assembly, who until now refused to listen to concerns raised by state governors, may lose out in the ongoing power play.
As there is an indication that the President may reject some provisions in the Electoral Act Amendment, such as the direct primary bill unless the option of indirect primary is included, many governors, who felt embarrassed by the position taken by lawmakers from their states, are already baying for blood, THEWILL can confirm.
Many lawmakers, particularly from the governing APC, were already aggrieved that governors have hijacked the structures of the party, ahead of the 2023 general election.
These lawmakers believe that direct primary would raise their chances of returning to the Assembly in 2023, if allowed to scale the hurdles. If President Buhari decides otherwise, they can consider their 2023 ambition gone for good. But as current web of intrigues lingers, there is no telling who may smile last as the President may want to yet give the lawmakers, who have been quite supportive of his administration, a fair hearing.
TheWill
The first indication that those bent on defeating the clause on direct primary in the revised Electoral Reform Bill, which is currently awaiting presidential assent, were still working hard emerged last Thursday when the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation.
The Committee had summoned the INEC boss to clarify the N500 billion being touted as the sum required for political parties to conduct the direct primary, which its proponents think will give power to members to choose their leaders as opposed to the indirect primary, which relies heavily on delegates, who are more open to control by power blocs and interests, especially state governors who control delegates in their states and determine the texture of local politics by exercising full control over state electoral commissions.
Held behind closed doors, the meeting, which was based on a resolution passed on a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by the Chairman of the House Committee on Customs and Excise, Leke Abejide, laid speculations over the N500 billion to rest.
Although Yakubu said after the meeting that INEC did not “come up with any cost for the conduct of direct primaries per political party,” the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Mukhtar Batera, explained that the INEC chairman told them that only political parties had the responsibility to fund the primaries. Batera said, “In our discussions with the INEC chairman, we wanted to know his requirements for the 2023 elections, as well as the cost of direct or indirect primaries.
“On the primaries, when we discussed with him, he specifically told us that INEC’s role in direct or indirect primaries is just minimal. He said party primaries are the responsibility of political parties and not INEC.
“The INEC chairman told us that only the political parties have the responsibility to fund of direct primaries.”
Alarmingly, political parties are unaware of how the sum of N500 billion, which could be spent on the conduct of the direct primary was derived, since INEC obviously had no hand in it.
“No political party was consulted, the figure was just brought up,” erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr Kola Ologbodinyan, told THEWILL on Friday, shortly before he handed over to his successor.
The Secretary-General of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), Chief Willy Ezugwu, is also miffed at the amount. “N500 billion to conduct direct primary?” he asked this reporter rhetorically.
“To answer your question, nobody, either from INEC or the legislature, consulted the political parties to arrive at that figure. But what I can tell you is that it is part of the plan to kill the bill. Many of the lawmakers, who initially supported the bill, are looking for a way to kill it. They have developed cold feet after meeting with their state governors, who had been opposed to the bill right from the beginning. The intention is to present that bogus amount and if government says it cannot afford it, then bye to the bill.”
Also speaking on the matter, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, said he had nothing to add to what his boss, Prof Yakubu, said on direct primary during his meeting with the House Committee on Appropriation but wondered aloud, “I believe the unprecedented interest in the matter is orchestrated and misplaced.”
When asked why, Oyekanmi replied, “The answer to the question of who is responsible for the conduct of party primaries has always been there in the Electoral Act 2010. In fact, the Act has clear provisions for both direct and indirect primaries. Therefore, it is not new.”
He, however, refused to be drawn into the conversation of how the N500 billion expenditure was arrived at.
Repeated phone calls to the phone of Senator Bisiru Ajibola, media spokesperson of the Senate, went unanswered and text messages to him were not replied.
Recent Power Play
Although controversy has trailed the inclusion of the direct primary clause as a provision in the Electoral Amendment Act 2021 passed by the National Assembly on November 9, recent developments appear to have hardened the position of its adversaries.
THEWILL has learnt that given the possibility of the bill becoming a law, following the support it received from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) tri-partite committee during a meeting in State House on November 8, 2021, prominent politicians like the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, have increased their consultations across the country.
Tinubu has seen the new development as a golden opportunity to checkmate party leaders, particularly the President’s men, who have never hidden their plan to scuttle his presidential ambition. Direct primary would mean allowing elbow room to reach party members as against delegates, mostly in the hands of his enemies. This would work the magic for him, sources close to his sprouting campaign outfits confided in this newspaper. For this same reason, his opponents are digging in against the signing of the bill by President Muhammadu Buhari.
That envisaged a ray of hope for the APC leader had been kept alive with the high-level support the bill had received before its passage.
At that meeting of the presidential committee headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and attended by the leadership of the National Assembly, state governors elected on the platform of the APC and other party big wigs, the party stakeholders decided to support the direct primary bill.
According to the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Office of the Vice-President, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, “Acting on the President’s mandate, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo called the meeting to allow all parties to ventilate their voices in a no holds-barred manner. It was a family affair. In the end, a common ground was reached. Direct primary was upheld and aspirants under the party can now go back to the people and seek endorsement rather than giving a few delegates the power to decide for all.”
While power contenders like Tinubu took the message seriously and increased their consultations with party chieftains and politicians across the country, others like the leaders of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), a platform of state governors of the ruling party actively supported by Malam Abubakar Malami, bided their time.
That time came when the President, who had been away to Glasgow, Scotland to attend the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from October 30 to November 6, 2021, arrived the country and was immediately confronted by the two factions in support for and against the direct primary bill: the Governor Bagudu Atiku of Kebbi State led-PGF, alongside Governor Badaru of Jigawa State and the now shaky VP Osinbajo led tri-partite committee, which had lost its unity since Buhari arrived the country from Glasgow, Scotland. Both factions went to war in the court of public opinion immediately with one getting the upper hand.
Appearing on a national TV programme, Malami said President Buhari would be guided in giving assent to the bill by security and monetary considerations.
“What will be the point in people queuing up to vote under the cloud of COVID-19 pandemic and alarming insecurity in the country?’’ he wondered.
In his submission, Malam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, reportedly said Buhari would continue to consult with relevant stakeholders on the matter before the bill is signed.
“The President will consult with those who he believes are important to his decision and who can advise him on the Electoral Act. And he will meet them. But I cannot draw boundaries or name specifics and say this is who the President might meet. He ultimately decides,” Shehu said.
Part of that consultation was the letter the President was said to have written the INEC Chairman, Yakubu, to seek his advice on the cost implications of direct primary. It is uncertain whether INEC has replied the letter within the one- week deadline since the President sent it on November 30, 2021, almost a fortnight ago.
Oyekanmi drew a blank when he was asked about it. He said, “I have no comment of the exchange of letters between the President and INEC.” Then he added rhetorically: “If indeed there was a confidential correspondence between the two entities, it will not be fair to discuss the details on the pages of newspapers.”
As the intrigues grow deeper, Senate President Ahmed Lawan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, came out to take different positions on the issue after their recent meetings with the President, a week ago. While Lawan came out of the meeting with the president tongue-tied, Gbajabiamila was outspoken. The Speaker said direct primary would consolidate the country’s democracy by giving members direct voice in the choice of their leaders and give more room for inclusion of youths in party politics. Many of the legislators in support of the bill see the Speaker as their arrow-head.
Enter Tinubu
According to an acolyte of Tinubu, the House of Reps Speaker’s outspoken support for the bill, coupled with the Osinbajo-led Tri-partite Committee agreement, though comparatively silent even as it still represents an intra-party voice, with its decisive support on the bill, have bolstered the confidence of the former Lagos governor in the pursuit of his presidential ambition.
Tinubu is believed to have seen the direct primary as a potential tool that would boost his presidential ambition. A close aide of the former governor told THEWILL, “Asiwaju’s recent move to increase consultations among stakeholders across the country has been as a result of the favourable conditions surrounding the direct primary bill. We used it successfully in Lagos to remove former governor Akinwumni Ambode and so we know how powerful it can be.”
Regrettably, Tinubu’s political adversaries are for this same reason fighting to make sure the bill fails to see the light of the day.
Deadline Approaches
The National Assembly transmitted the bill to the President on November 19. Buhari has until December 19 to sign it or send his comments about the bill to the lawmakers. Should the constitutionally allowed period of 30 days pass and Buhari refuses to sign the bill, the NASS can recall it and pass it into law if they are able to muster the required two-third majority in both chambers of the assembly.
Within this time lag, many governors from the two major political parties, the APC and the PDP, have reportedly been mounting pressure on President Buhari not to sign the Electoral Amendment Bill into law until contentious areas, such as the direct primary, are resolved.
Many of the state governors, who are currently in dispute with senators and members of the House of Representatives from their various states, are insisting that the National Assembly must remove direct primary and at best, include the option of indirect primary in the Electoral Act.
Although the majority of lawmakers had threatened to veto the President should he fail to give assent to the bill, before it was transmitted to him for assent, a lot of water seemed to have passed under the bridge to warrant that threat.
“The current NASS lacks the political will to override the President on the bill and I will challenge any of them to do so. The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, said long ago that anything Buhari asked them to do they would do. What has changed since he made that statement?”
Chief Ezugwu laughed off the question, saying “President Buhari is the luckiest President we have ever had. The NASS cannot do anything different from what he wants them to do. The lawmakers will not override anything.”
United Front
Except for the APC, whose officials are divided over the direct primary bill, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is united against it. State governors from both parties, 35 in all, are unanimous in their thinking that the bill will interfere with party independence and supremacy. Those like Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, who sees nothing conceptually wrong with the bill, however, thinks the country’s democratic culture is still too young and immature to have only one mode for the conduct of party primaries.
While most civil societies in the country think the adoption of the principle would deepen democracy, the Inter-party Advisory Council, composed of all political parties has shunned it, arguing that smaller parties may be unable to cope with the financial outlay involved with it.
In his response last week, Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State and Chairman of the South-East Governors Forum, said direct primary would truncate Nigeria’s young democracy, arguing that it would result in confusion, litigations and more expenditure.
“This is a country where you are defeated in any primary and you will refuse to accept defeat. Now imagine the number of local government areas in the country, about 774, and 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 population. Even if you do that in one day, expect petitions from the number of political parties multiplied by the number of wards. It will truncate our democracy. There is no doubt about that. It is a ploy to derail democracy. I think we have not got to that level of maturity, the level of having the spirit of sportsmanship and accepting defeat.”
Fall Out
As supporters of the bill, some of the leaders of the National Assembly, who until now refused to listen to concerns raised by state governors, may lose out in the ongoing power play.
As there is an indication that the President may reject some provisions in the Electoral Act Amendment, such as the direct primary bill unless the option of indirect primary is included, many governors, who felt embarrassed by the position taken by lawmakers from their states, are already baying for blood, THEWILL can confirm.
Many lawmakers, particularly from the governing APC, were already aggrieved that governors have hijacked the structures of the party, ahead of the 2023 general election.
These lawmakers believe that direct primary would raise their chances of returning to the Assembly in 2023, if allowed to scale the hurdles. If President Buhari decides otherwise, they can consider their 2023 ambition gone for good. But as current web of intrigues lingers, there is no telling who may smile last as the President may want to yet give the lawmakers, who have been quite supportive of his administration, a fair hearing.
TheWill
