As Speaker Gbajabiamila cries out…

To begin with, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, cried bitterly in his first address to honourable members after their resumption from both “Easter” and “Sallah” breaks which spilled over to political parties primaries ahead of 2023 general elections.

The speaker blamed the “delegate system” for the loss of the return bids of many legislators in the recently concluded parties primaries. He said that they foresaw the problem which was why the House earlier opted for “direct primaries”. About 174 Reps members out of the 360 and 54 senators out of the 109 senators lost their return tickets.

One wonders why the National Assembly is so sure of “direct primaries” as the only way to escape the onslaught of our powerful state governors. They ignore the fact that our desperate modern day politicians who see power as an investment with huge returns will hardly allow “direct primaries” to go on smoothly without causing unnecessary chaos as evidenced in recent time where politicians at all levels hire thugs to disrupt “direct primaries” in order to gain more advantage over their opponents.

It is true that, the delegate system or indirect primaries have since become cash and carry in view of the fact that our delegates for primary elections know that most of the candidates contesting for one office or the other are political investors who upon their victory will recoup their investments first and thereafter quadruple their returns on investments. In other cases the delegates are teleguided by the powerful governors.

Public offices in Nigeria leave a lot of room for embezzlement due to financial leakages in the system. Politicians often seek power to enrich themselves and their families. Unless and until we largely change the situation to that of service delivery we will hardly get out of the woods. Political desperados will hardly allow a smooth “Direct primary” process, but ensuring that financial leakages are drastically blocked will certainly help.

Some political observers have argued that either out of “omission” or “desperation” the two houses of the National Assembly did not read the 2022 Electoral Act Amendment bill carefully before its passage. One continues to wonder how the NASS excludes “statutory” delegates in the conduct of primary elections of all political parties which they too are part and parcel of. Some analysts have argued that the Electoral Act Amendment was targeted at some individuals. If so, ordinarily, a “law” should not be “targeted” at an “individual”, but rather should be made for a general application.

The 2023 power struggle is largely played through the Electoral Act Amended Bill. Those who strategically positioned themselves from the executive branch of government to decide who takes over power come 2023 were challenged by those who are far way from the executive branch of government through the legislative arm of government.

The politics began in the first place by “inserting” Direct political parties’ primary elections as the only “option” for electing flag bearers of political parties in order to neutralise those in the executive branch. In the first transmission of the bill to the president, he “withheld” his “Assent” to the bill in November 2021, citing the cost of conducting direct primary elections, security challenges, and possible manipulation of the electoral process by political players as part of the reasons for his decision. The NASS had earlier contemplated overriding Mr President, but later opted to re-work the bill.

The legislature in what looks like a change of “strategy” on the power struggle strategy, deleted the “direct primaries clause” but only to replace it with a more controversial Clause 84 (12) which barred political appointees from contesting in primary elections. Upon the transmission of the re-worked Electoral Act 2022, the president drew the attention of NASS to Clause 84 (12) which he argued is in conflict with sections 40 and 42 of the 1999 Constitution as amended because it contravenes the rights of political office holders to vote, or be voted for in political party conventions and congresses as provided by the 1999 constitution.

In the end, the leadership of NASS agreed to “delete” the said clause as soon as the president signs the bill into law. Having signed the bill Into law and in what looks like a “twist” the NASS rejected the “request” to “delete” the said clause which infringes on the constitutional rights of political appointees citing the amendment being too close to the general elections.

In continuation of the power struggle, the executive arm secured a court judgement that gave it the powers to “delete” the said Clause 84(12) from the new Electoral Act 2022. However, the legislature appealed the said judgement where the Appeal Court “vacated” the lower court’s judgement citing lack of jurisdiction by the lower court on the matter and thereafter referred the parties to the Supreme Court.

Much later the NASS realised that it has already shot itself on foot by excluding statutory delegates which they are part and parcel of from primaries of political parties. It is then In another twist that the NASS which had refused to amend 84(12) of the Act citing lack of adequate time decided to re-amend section 84(8) of new Electoral Act. The lawmakers particularly amended the Act to provide for statutory delegates which they are part of to which in what looked like a tit for tat the president declined assent.

By virtue of Section 84 (8) of the Electoral Act, 2022, delegates to vote at the Indirect Primaries and National Convention of political parties to elect candidates for elections shall be those democratically elected for that purpose only. That was how the legislature excluded itself from the primary elections.

In my view, our legislators must come out with laws that will enhance transparency and accountability in government where a lot of financial leakeages will be blocked. This will likely make political power less attractive and not worth spending billions to acquire by political investors. This will similarly enhance transparency in the primary elections. Ideally, political power is a means for bettering the lots of the people, but unfortunately in Nigeria it has largely become a business where you can invest and make a supernormal profit.

May God bless Nigeria!

Nurudeen Dauda,
Kaduna
[email protected]