WHAT IS DIRECT PRIMARY?
In a direct primary election, registered members of the party just vote for who they want to be the flag-bearer of their party. Unlike with the indirect primaries, no delegates are involved, party members choose their representatives through polls like they would in a general election.
This is currently added to the electoral bill as amended and with this type of primaries, Many people in a party across the nation will vote who they want and not leave it to some corrupt delegates that can be easily bribed or manipulated.
Unfortunately, President Muhamadu Buhari has refused to assent to the bill just because of this and it is now left for the 9th National assembly to either dance to the tune of the president and remove it or veto his non assent and pass the bill into law.
So let’s see some of the positive effects of direct primaries in Nigeria Democratic process.
1.it will remove Godfatherism in its entirety as well as prevent recycling of redundant and corrupt politicians.
2. It will give rise to productivity of the elected people cos they know that the same people who voted for them are the same people who will decide if they should run again and not some greedy corrupt ward chairmen or party leaders hence their loyalty will be towards the electorates and not to party leaders.
3. It will make the main election process a jamboree and less complicated as the Direct primary would have given a clear direction of the possible outcome of the general election.
4. Though some quarters claim that it is costly but I believe that it is better to have a strong democracy that is “costly”.
5. It will save Nigerians from having to pick from many wrong options imposed on us by the so-called “owners of Nigeria” or Clueless self centered and corrupt power brokers.
6.Ultimately strengthen our Democracy as direct primaries will be less prone to corruption or money inducement as it will be easier to bribe few delegates than bribing the entire electorates all over the country.
It is time for Nigerians to urge the National assembly to do the right thing by signing the bill into law thereby saving our crumbling democracy.
We can not be doing things the same way and expect a different result… It’s high time we changed the way we do things so that we can build a nation of our dreams.
OUR ROLE
It is not certain if it will be an open direct primary(Where registered voters can vote to choose a representative for any party without having to register into any particular party but can only vote once) or a closed direct primary (Where only registered member of a particular party can vote) but we must be proactive by getting our PVCs and if possible, join a party of our choice and be part of the process to change Nigeria.
