The beauty of any vibrant political system lies in the ability of the system to be fair to all and sundry regardless of any primordial mindset. Since the advent of Nigeria’s democratic rule in 1999, the rule has seemingly shifted to favour only those with godfathers or have the financial muscle to bankroll their nomination. The development has brought so much tension within the country’s political party structures. The scenario has become so perverse that the foundation of democracy came under intense threat of annihilation. The lack of internal party democracy is no doubt one of the major problems facing the current democratic dispensation. It has been used as a campaign weapon by political parties. It was a sing song of the All Progressive Congress (APC) during campaigns for the 2015 General Election and the party has continuously insisted that it is the only major party in the country that practices internal democracy. Many believe that the crisis rocking the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today is the absence of internal democracy which led the party to impose candidates on the people for elective positions in the past.
During the build-up to APC presidential election, the party released its guidelines for the primaries. One of the issues on the guidelines is direct primaries adopted by the Party for its Presidential primaries. Many have praised the national leaders of APC for endorsing modified direct primaries for producing the party's presidential candidate. Many who didn’t have interest in APC started developing keen interest. Many were of the opinion that with this development the APC has now fully democratized and boosted its democratic credentials and credibility. Describing the move as a victory for democracy, political analysts praised the APC leaders for responding to the aspirations and wishes of the people. According to them, internal democracy is essential to the entrenchment of democracy. It said the APC has set a standard, which all political parties should emulate. It explained that this move would go a long way to reinforce people's confidence in the APC as the alternative platform for better change in Nigeria. They said internal democracy is about respecting all diverse interests within a political party to ensure fairness and transparency, which are necessary conditions for unity, harmony and internal cohesion. Before this very time, APC as a party adopted the same measure in 2013 Anambra Governorship election primaries, where Governor Chris Ngige defeated Chief Ezemo during the primaries. Many hailed the process as being transparent and fair.
Political parties are traditionally blamed for overt injustice in denying other candidates the opportunity to test their strength in states, where the incumbent governor will be seeking to renew his mandate or where a candidate has been anointed by some forces outside the state. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for instance, had said before the 2015 general elections that it only printed one form for the presidential post, meant for the then incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan. Expectedly, some members of the party, who also wanted to contest the presidential election, threatened to head to court to challenge the party's stance. On the other hand, though the APC also tried to reward its members, especially the defecting members of the National Assembly, who, alongside their governors, crossed over from the PDP, the APC was quick in understanding that a level playing field was necessary for a healthy competition.
In the build-up to the last general elections, pundits believe that flagrant abuse of internal democracy was responsible for the dismal outing of the PDP. In many states, members of the PDP were barred from contesting in elections to appease some people. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) repeatedly lamented how political parties breach and disrespect their constitutional provisions and mistreat their members. INEC said most of the election-related petitions were products of the near absence of internal democracy in the parties, which largely paved the way for the myriad of litigation after the 2015 general elections. This was evident in the House of Representatives election of Ado/Ogbadibo/Okupokwu constituency of Benue, where a PDP sole candidate was declared winner by INEC, but was later disqualified by court, soon after the inauguration of the National Assembly, and returned Rep Hassan Saleh Anthony, as the substantive member representing the constituency.
During Governorship election in Bayelsa State, Senator Emmanuel Paulker, the sole aspirant challenging Governor Seriake Dickson for the PDP governorship ticket in Bayelsa State, was disqualified by the party's screening panel. Paulker, who is a serving senator representing Bayelsa Central Senatorial District, was the only aspirant to head for a primary election with Dickson, after the withdrawal of the other aspirant, Chief Ebikintin Diongoli, the former local government chairman of Kolokuma/Opokuma in the state, from the race. Although reasons for his disqualification were yet to be ascertained, there are indications that the panel took the decision over alleged "inconsistent tax clearances." Director-Deneral of the campaign organisation of Senator Emmanuel Paulker, Ayakeme Whisky, described the decision as "unbelievable and laughable".
Pundits believe that the APC, which started the process of the 2015 general elections with an interim leadership, was cautious in its approach to issues ahead of the elections held early this year. According to them, the party, under the Bisi Akande interim leadership laboured to organise congresses at wards levels which produced states' delegates. There were little or no reports of any disaffection. Even where there is disaffection, the Party nullified the congresses in those states and re-organize another one like the case of Edo State. The APC organised two national conventions, including the one that produced the incumbent national chairman of the party, John Oyegun, who was elected at a rain-soaked convention in Abuja. Though the outcome of the convention led to the defection of Ali Modo Sheriff, the former governor of Borno State, and Tom Ikimi, the APC quickly picked its pieces and strategised for the last general elections. Today, APC is a success story as a political party. Another convention headed by Zamfara State Governor Abdul'aziz Yari in October 2014 was called by APC to amend its constitution, where it inserted a sub-section that allows new entrants to contest elections under the party's platform.
Political watchers believe that the successes of the party within a short period may not be unconnected with spirit of team work among those at the helm of its affairs. "The secret of the APC is teamwork," an insider said. "We have national, zonal and state officials and nobody feels that his arguments are sacrosanct. Whenever there is an issue, it is adequately debated by key stakeholders to ensure that the best decision is taken." The success of our party revolves around adequate planning," said a senior official of the party. "At our national headquarters in Abuja, we have an office that organises the party's primaries and other activities since the inception of the party. And that is why most of our conventions and primary elections are adjudged to be credible." He said what transpired in Kogi recently was a good example, adding: "All the aspirants who lost out were appreciative of the process and even congratulated the winner, Late Prince Abubakar Audu.
"It was a simple arithmetic for us to conduct the primary election in Kogi. We said Governor Nasir el-Rufa'i should go and do the primary because we believe in his credibility. The tendency is that nobody can bribe a governor." Another APC official said: "Our style is different from that of the PDP where someone will keep all the membership cards of the party in his house and distribute them to the delegates that he feels will favour him. "For example, in the case of Kogi, we went ahead and said we are going to do accreditation of delegates by using PVC (Permanent Voters Card) or international passports or national identity cards or the national driver's license. "With these ID cards, the real delegates entered the stadium. We didn't even say our own membership card because somebody can go and fabricate the card. Dr Ismaila Ali, a political analyst, said it is wrong for political parties to always blame INEC for one wrong doing or the other, adding: "You cannot expect INEC to do magic when most political parties lack internal mechanism that will ensure a level playing ground for its members." He notes that handlers of the APC have enshrined discipline in their party. Barrister Yunus, a legal practitioner, said: "When you look at most of the election tribunals across the country, you rarely see problem within the APC family and we believe this is due to the transparent manner candidates for various positions were produced." He says that other political parties need to entrench internal democracy if they want to make impact in subsequent elections.
Moving down to Anambra APC primaries, many politicians in the state are embracing the party in order to slug it out with Dr Willie obiano of APGA. INEC has fixed November 2017 as an initial date for the election. Onething that has remained in the lips of People mostly APC faithful is how will APC conduct its primaries? Will the party stick to its old tradition of direct primaries (internal democracy) which has made the party a beautiful bride among youths and people with sound political understanding? Or will the party reverse to old PDP way of doing things, where they party will be bought over and new executives and delegates will emerge to participate in primaries where a particular candidate will emerge? Information has been going on that National working committee of the party wants to dissolve all the ward and state executive members and conduct a fresh congress, where loyalists of a particular candidate will emerge as executives both at the State, Local and Ward levels. Among the aspirants in the APC, many of them did not believe in Grassroot politics. They believe in taking it from the up. Onething APC must not do as it plans to conduct its primaries in Anambra State is to give anybody ticket from the above. We are not Ondo people. They may try it in other places and succeed. Anambra is a different ball game. They should be transparent and allow the original delegates to nominate a candidate for us. APC is like a forbidden fruit in this State, but today it is people on ground that has been working around the clock to market the party. The success of these efforts can be seen from the registration the Party did in the State. Why many people still believe in the party in this state is because of the discipline in the party. They should try to maintain it. Any aspirant that wants to contest should visit all the Wards, Local Governments and State. Let him have an interaction with party faithful.
As a country and party, we should have a truly transformed heart of genuine and dedicated service instead of focusing on the things of the world and political power that will not last forever. Our Leaders should not see elections as their ultimate destines and then become desperate. Rather focus should be what will truly be financial to the people and the nation. At this, many Nigerians are looking back on their lives and sensitizing that many years of opportunities has been stolen from us through our land that was divinely assigned with grand economy and greatest Nigerians. Those with right mind can recount panorama of leadership errors, self centeredness, incompetence, besetting transgression, corruption, fraud and untrustworthiness had outsized administrative impact in many years of the country’s independence. We do not need such in APC Anambra State. Anambra Election is for the party. Actions and inactions of the party today will determine the success story of the party in November 2017 election. There is no better time to take over the Leadership of this state than this time. The party Leadership at the National level should not succumb to money bags who never believe in internal democracy, who wants to hijack everything from the top. They should allow the old executives who are the original delegates to participate in the process. The rumuor is everywhere that they want to change them in order to accommodate an interest of a particular aspirant. What APC as a party should do is to organize a special congress and replace those ward executives who might have died or have left the party instead of doing a wholesale change or better still stick with those already with the party. Then at the end of the whole electioneering, they can change those people at the appropriate time.
Paschal Candle, a graduate of International studies and Diplomacy, University of Benin, a Public affair analyst writes from Awka, Nigeria.