By Haruna Salami
The direct primary election used by the ruling All Progressive Congress and other major parties in their last primaries attracted
both condemnation and commendation from many stakeholders, The most widely reported was its condemnation by some APC state governors who didn’t hide their anger against APC national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.
However, Honourable Goodluck Nana Opiah representing Ohaji/Egbema/Oguta/Oru west federal constituency of Imo state and former speaker of the State House of Assembly was full of praises for the system. Opiah commended his party, the APC for adopting the direct primary election in choosing its candidates for the 2019 general elections because it reduced the incidence of manipulation and inducement which the country’s democracy is prone to. “With the direct primary it became a little more difficult for impunity to thrive, an individual to highjack the process and the money bags to buy over the process because more people are involved, unlike the indirect primary where you have delegates usually handpicked by few party chieftains.
Usually the governor of a state where the party controls the state government directly or indirectly handpicks the delegates and therefore the delegates will be under obligations to listen to the governor to choose the governor’s candidates. This is not possible in a direct primary situation. Therefore Hon. Opiah thanked the leadership of the APC under Comrade Adams Oshiomhole for adopting the direct primary form of election.
According to Hon. Opiah the direct primary also has the larger advantage of opening the party to popularity by giving the party the opportunity to bring its members together for “membership audit”, for self assessment in readiness for the general election.
On the concern raised by some members of the APC over the sanctity of the party’s membership register with which the direct primary was based, Hon Opiah said “one thing the APC has done very well is that the party’s membership registration is highly computerized (done online), with a reliable database. You can have a whole register of a state APC or the entire country on a chip or flash drive and anyone can open from the comfort of his living room”.
“Those who are against direct primary are anti democratic, who are in love with impunity, with dictatorial tendencies and those who enjoy none transparent and credible forms of election, Opiah said.
Narrowing it down to his home state of Imo, where the exercise raised a lot of dust between Rochas Okorocha, the governor’s group and other APC stakeholders opposed to Okorocha and his anointed son-in-law, Hon. Opiah said he was satisfied with the outcome. “I am satisfied with the Ahmed Gulak electoral panel for Imo state. It had its hitches, but the election was conducted and it produced Senator Hope Uzidinma as the governorship candidate. The panel was put in place and inaugurated by Adams Oshiomhole, the national chairman. The election was observed by INEC officials and monitored by security agents. Whatever happened afterwards is a product of mischief and poor attitude of bad losers. The party has done everything to put that behind it and has moved on”.