PDP governors, Reps plot legal over Direct primary

Emmanuel AmudaNovember 21, 2021

6 minutes read

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is bracing up for a long haul battle with the Federal Government and the National Assembly over the recently passed Electoral Act Amendment Bill, according to indications last night.

The party’s main contention is the direct primary clause in the bill which requires all parties sponsoring candidates for elective offices to pick them using direct primary.

The PDP prefers indirect primary and wants the insertion of direct primary expunged from the new bill.

Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Matters, Senator Babajide Omoworare, announced on Friday that the bill is now on the president’s table, awaiting his assent.

Newsflash Nigeria gathered yesterday that the PDP has resolved to continue its rejection of the bill.

Its chieftains, sources said, are already considering taking legal steps to stop the bill from becoming law.

Besides, the National Assembly caucus of the PDP may also commence formal protest against the process that led to the passage of the bill in the House of Representatives.

Stakeholders, including PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) members, governors, members of the National Assembly and National Working Committee (NWC) members-elect, are expected to meet in Abuja later this week to take a position on the matter.

A source knowledgeable about the unfolding development said governors elected on the platform of the PDP have succeeded in rousing members of the party in the National Assembly to reject the direct primary clause.

It was further learnt that the party, on the prompting of the governors, may take legal steps during the week to stop President Buhari from assenting to the bill.

“The APC lawmakers played a fast one on our members in the National Assembly; the bill is now before the President and we have been advised that only the judiciary can stop it from being signed with the spurious direct primary clause still in it,” a source said.

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The source added: “As a political party that respects the rule of law and given our determination to save our nascent democracy from being derailed by power mongers, we will do all that we can do to ensure that political parties are free to decide how to choose their candidates as declared by the Supreme Court.

“The manner in which the House of Representatives leadership got the bill passed is suspect. But we are also up to the task. The days ahead will decide a lot of things.”

The party had earlier made its position on the bill known through a statement by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.

The party dismissed the inclusion of the direct primary clause in the bill as retrogressive and designed to wipe off the gains achieved in the nation’s electoral practice since 1999.

The PDP labelled it a humongous blow to the development of democratic norms, and a plot to introduce anarchy during internal party elections.

“The PDP holds that the provision is aimed at increasing the costs of nomination procedures thereby surrendering the processes to money bags against the wishes and aspiration of Nigerians,” Ologbondiyan said.

Continuing, he said: ”Our party makes bold to state that with the exception of the APC, which intends to deploy looted funds in future elections, hardly will there be any political party that will be able to raise the cost of conducting internal elections under a direct primary process.

“Such a mode of conducting party primary does not reflect the wishes and aspirations of the majority of Nigerians.”

Affirming the decision of the opposition party to press on with its rejection of the direct mode of the primary election, a PDP lawmaker, Hon. Ayo Yusuf, who accused House of Representatives Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, of aiding alleged plot by the APC ahead of the 2023 general election, said: “APC is plotting a rigging process against the other opposition parties.”

He said the PDP may head to the Supreme Court over the restriction of political parties to direct primary.

Yusuf said that PDP lawmakers were not given the opportunity to debate the matter.

His words: “I was in the chamber and I was opposed to it but it was not allowed to be debated. One, it was not part of the report, it came as an amendment and that day, I told the Speaker that it was wrong; that the Supreme Court had ruled – I can’t remember the case’s details now – that parties should be allowed to decide the modus operandi for the selection of their candidates. So, the National Assembly is taking away the right of the parties.”

Confirming the possibility of litigation by the PDP in its quest to stall the signing of the bill into law, a highly placed chieftain of the party said: “We have resolved to meet and review the issues surrounding this matter. Truth be told, most of the things you have been hearing are largely personal opinions except for our governors who have made their objection to the bill very clear as a body through the PDP Governors’ Forum. As a party, we spoke way back in October when the Senate passed the bill.

“We were sure the bill would not escape at the House of Representatives because our members there are in agreement with the party’s position. But the House of Representatives passed the bill.

” It came as a surprise and there is a need for us to meet and take a position on that. Of course, we have heard of how the House was arm-twisted by the Speaker to allow the bill to scale through. Is that how it should be? Some of our leaders and members have said we will go to court. If there are grounds for that, we will do it. But we will meet and take a position.”

Another source, a former governor, said that with the “treacherous way the APC smuggled the direct primary clause into the controversial bill, the battle for 2023 has openly begun. The APC government must know that we are not going to be caught napping. It is only a party that has come to the realization that it cannot win free and fair elections that will be attempting to force a particular mode of primary on all other political parties. We smell a rat and we will kill the rat.

“The bill is before Mr President now but we have reason to say the process of passing it by the national assembly is not in conformity with the law. We will approach the court to urge the President to stay action on the bill. PDP members in the National Assembly too are unrelenting in their quest to question the process and that is not something anybody can take away from them. They were elected to represent the people and if they feel what has been done does not reflect the wish of their people, they will kick against it.”

The Senator representing Ebonyi Central Senatorial District, Obinna Ogba, said he would abide by whatever decision taken by the PDP on the mode of primary for political parties in the country. He revealed that it is not true that all senators from both the APC and the PDP had united to embrace the direct primary as the sole mode of primary for political parties.

Governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had earlier kicked against the adoption of direct primary for the election of political party flag bearers by the National Assembly.

The Governors, under the auspices of Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), at a meeting in Abuja soon after the action of the National Assembly vehemently rejected the model of the party primary.

Chairman of the Forum, Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi, said the National Assembly’s decision was nothing but a usurpation of the duties of the political parties in the determination of their flag bearers.

He said: “There have been concerns that political parties are voluntary organisations, and our concern is that once you limit the abilities of parties to choose options that they so desire, that may even be arguably undemocratic because noting stops one party from adopting one or the other.

“Direct primary involves of necessity, supervisory role by INEC, at multiple levels, at multiple points, so you can imagine that if political parties are doing their primary, by direct primary, INEC resources will be overstretched and I think the chairman of INEC had even commented on that, so, whether the legislation has incorporated the financial implications, I don’t know yet.”