The current bitter controversy tearing apart the APC party is that concerning the method to adopt for selecting its candidates for contesting the coming general elections. Prior to the NEC meeting last Thursday, some notable party leaders and NWC members of the party had proposed that, owing to the bastardization of the indirect primary method of selecting candidates, the direct method will be adopted henceforth.
Indeed the direct primary method, as a test-run, had been successfully used in Bauchi State- to pick a senatorial candidate in a bye-election – and in Osun State- for picking the party’s gubernatorial candidate in the forthcoming gubernatorial elections in the state. But unfortunately, some party entrenched interests would have none of that. They insist on continuing with the indirect primary method but without adducing any cogent reasons for its continuance.
For those who are new to the controversy, indirect primary method involves a two-layer system of elections. The first step in this method is the election, by the generality of party members, of party delegates from among themselves. The second and final step involves the elected delegates now going ahead to elect the party candidates from amongst the party members jostling for the elective positions.
The indirect primary method as described above looks very simple and staight-forward, or is it not? We shall come back to that later.
The direct primary method, on the other hand, consists of only one single step method whereby all card-carrying members vote to elect the party candidates instead of delegates doing it on their behalf. The process appears simple enough, but why are some party members vehemently against this apparently straight-forward method? These are the contentious issues that would be examined in this piece.
In a sane environment where people appreciate honesty and orderliness and therefore play according to rules, the indirect primaries of selecting party candidates for election is simple and transparent enough and it has its merits. But like everything Nigerian, the party operators have corrupted, bastardized and turned the simple procedure upside-down to the extent that it has become totally dysfunctional.
Right now, what goes on in virtually all the parties in the name of indirect party primaries is a big fraud. A crooked party chairman together with a small group of corrupt party executive members would compile names of party members from the wards to go and vote at designated locations for contestants that had been selected arbitrarily by themselves. So, from the beginning to the end everything is manipulated to conform to the whims and caprices of the party chairman who invariably works for the interests of the State Governor.
This is why in our current political dispensation in Nigeria, the party chairman is nothing but an errand boy of the Governor or President who is now regarded as both the head of government as well as leader of the party. This is also the reason why the political party in this clime has one and only one purpose : to serve as a ladder to climb onto political office and once there, the ladder becomes of no consequence and could be dispensed with. This situation accounts for the level of impunity and indiscipline you find in the Nigerian polity today.
I’m therefore in total agreement with the APC National chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s insistence on the abandonment of the corrupt-ridden indirect primaries option. Apart from putting an end to the “see-and-buy” charade which goes in the name of indirect primaries,the direct system being canvassed by the chairman will open the political space to the real party members to participate in the affairs of the party. If this new method eventually comes on stream, it will encourage all party members to take active interest in the affairs of the party contrary to the current situation under the indirect nonsense which had forced a good number of serious-minded party members to adopt a “sidon look” policy.
While commending Oshiomhole and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for leading the crusade for party primaries reform, it must however be noted that this must be seen only as the first step in a long process of total party organization and management reforms.
A political party is a most important organ of any political system and hence must comprise knowledgeable and well-informed members who are fiercely loyal to the aims and objectives of the party. A polity can only be as strong and stable as the political parties that operate in it. That both the APC and PDP are weak is no gain saying, the evidences are there for all to see!
The defections, party indiscipline and insubordination to constituted authority, and corrupt tendencies are all evidences of weak and ineffective party system. Consequently, it is high time our political parties shaped up. The hood does not make the monk, so goes the old adage. The strength of a political party does not lie its large membership. To open the door of the political party to the hoi-polloi to the extent that their noise will submerge the voices of reason within the party is not the right way to go.
The futility of mere large party membership was demonstrated during the 2014 Ekiti State gubernatorial election when the then Governor Kayode Fayemi observed that his votes score in the election fell far below the number of registered ACN members in the state. And he therefore drew the conclusion that it was most likely that even some of his party members did not vote for him! Of course, that may appear strange, but that is what you get when a party is mainly populated by all kinds of people who only attend party meetings because of drinks and biscuits or monies shared at rallies. You will also find them at rallies organized by all parties as long as there will be food and drinks and a few naira to take home. Such people have no business in the membership of a serious political party because they will always be available for rent during rallies and when they are outside the party they cannot constitute a cog in the party’s wheel of progress.
So if our party system must be made strong, membership of a political party must entail responsibilities. Each member must be made to pay monthly or quarterly dues to the coffers of the party of which he is a member. Apart from making such a party financially strong, it will also ensure that only serious-minded individuals, who are ready to commit their resources to the cause, aspire to be members of a political party. This will also in addition provide a pool of members from which loyal, committed and dependable part leaders can be recruited as the need arises.
If our party leaders are serious and honest, as I assume Oshiomhole and Tinubu are, it is about time the idea of party by all-comers was discarded and replaced by responsible party membership.
