Direct primaries can truncate democracy in Nigeria ― Umahi

Against the backdrop of controversies that greeted the debate on direct primaries, Chairman, South-East Governors Forum and Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for refusing to assent the electoral bill passed by the National Assembly.

According to Umahi, direct primaries will lead to so much confusion which will derail or possibly truncate democracy in the country following the number of litigations that will arise from such direct primaries and also make the electoral process too costly and too cumbersome to prosecute.

Umahi stated this when he received the Registrar of National Examinations Council (NECO), Professor Dantani Wushishi, in his office at the new Government House, centenary city Abakaliki.

He then charged the National Assembly members to have a rethink on the contentious direct primaries stipulation inserted into the electoral act amendment bill to avoid truncating the democratic process in the country.

He said: “Let me congratulate Mr President for refusing to sign that electoral bill. You see, when we are making laws we have to look at all the factors.

“This is a country that when you are defeated in any primary you refuse to accept defeat. Now, imagine the number of our local government, 774. Imagine 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 positions.

“Even if you are doing all of them in one day, expect petitions by the number of political parties times the number of wards.

“So it will just truncate our democracy. There is no doubt about that. Nobody has considered the amount of confusion that will arise out of that because everybody that contests election will like to go to court.

“And if I am contesting a particular office, I have to go to court. If I am not happy over the election in the number of wards in my constituency. So when will the litigation end? It is another ploy to derail democracy.

“So, I want the national assembly to look into this litigation aspect. When the cost of these direct primaries is taken into consideration, it is going to be too much because, for every ward that the court rules out, there must be a repeat of the exercise.

“So, I think that we have not gotten to that level of maturity, level of having the spirit of sportsmanship, level of accepting defeat. When people know that they have been defeated, they want to see if they can technically or fraudulently manipulate the system within the judiciary.

“So I think that the issue of political primaries should be left to the political parties. This is not about APC or PDP, everybody is looking at the implication. So let us take another look at it.

“Some people say governors have hijacked the primaries, is it not the governors that are at home every time, do they not have representation in every unit? So they are at home with the people, if you are not at home with the people how will the people know you?

“Some of you want to be governors, very soon we shall not be governors anymore but we are looking at what will bring stability to our democracy and sustain it. So the national assembly should take a deeper look at the application so that when it will start happening they will say we foresaw this and we advised against it.”

Earlier, Professor Wushishi said he was in the state to thank the governor for his immense support to the council which he said shows the governor’s commitment to the educational upliftment of the state.

“It is evident that in the whole of the South-East, it was only in Ebonyi State that our examinations were not disrupted during the nationwide EndSARS protest in 2020.

“Also, as a result of your tremendous effort and involvement, Ebonyi State presented the highest number of candidates for this year’s BECE not just in the South-East but in the whole country, with 22,011 candidates,” he said.

The registrar said the council plans to relocate the NECO zonal office from Enugu to Abakaliki after it completes its gigantic office building project in the city.

While noting that the project is 90 percent completed, the registrar sought the governor’s assistance to enable NECO to complete the project.

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