Last week, it was reported that President Bola Tinubu has given 31 governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, the authority to decide the destiny of aspirants in their states ahead of the 2027 general election.
Tinubu stated that this was vital to maintain the party’s unity and coherence ahead of the elections next year.
The situation occurred during Tinubu’s closed-door meeting with governors on the platform of the ruling APC.
According to the DAILY POST, Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, along with Niger State Governor Mohammed Bago, addressed reporters after the meeting with the president, stating that deliberations focused on measures to forge a stronger and more cohesive party following the party primaries.
The governors noted that Tinubu restated his support for the APC’s decision to allow states to hold either consensus or direct primaries in accordance with the Electoral Act.
“We came to thank the president for his magnanimity and support for the governors and our party, the All Progressives Congress.
“He gave us a matching order on what to do for him,” AbdulRazak added
The governor further stated that the president “delegated his executive power to the governors to conduct primaries based on the Electoral Act, either through consensus or direct primaries.”
The DAILY POST said that prominent members of the National Assembly met with the president at the Villa, begging for automatic tickets for their colleagues.
However, Tinubu argued that each state’s governor wields power over aspirants.
According to the DAILY POST, the move is causing disquiet in the APC, with some federal lawmakers becoming increasingly concerned, particularly those who are not on their governors’ good side.
However, a member of the House of Representatives from the South-East, who spoke with DAILY POST in confidence, stated that there is still time to address any concerns about MPs’ fate.
According to the politician, internal party systems still allow for issues to be addressed before the primaries are concluded.
He noted that it would be premature to infer that MPs have been sidelined or treated unfairly, emphasizing that a more accurate evaluation can only be made once the primary process is concluded.
He stated, “Our party has issued a revised timetable for the primaries. There is still time to seek out all concerns.He stated, “Our party has just released a revised primaries timetable.” There’s still time to look at all issues.Yes, the problem of automatic tickets affected several measures in the National Assembly.We believed that cooperation with the government would automatically translate into political security.Although the reality on the ground appears to be different, and some are beginning to question those assumptions, as I previously stated, we still have time to have all issues resolved.As things stand, I can’t say we’ve been sidelined or treated unfairly until the primaries are over. Meanwhile, Sumner Sambo, Political Editor at Arise News, revealed recently that some federal lawmakers are expressing regret about their political decisions ahead of the elections.
Speaking on Arise Television’s The Morning Show on Monday, Sambo noted that many politicians have relied on automatic tickets rather than participating in party primaries.
According to him, the situation has been influenced by perceived political commitments around President Bola Tinubu, with some lawmakers assuming that supporting government policies will earn them party nominations.
He stated that some of the impacted lawmakers have privately revealed that they would not have defected if they had realized that automatic tickets were not assured.
Sambo stated that parliamentarians had supported executive measures in the National Assembly with the assumption of earning automatic tickets, but are now facing a different reality.President Tinubu has a lot of “I Owe You” (IOUs) to politicians because everyone depends on him, but he is starting to realize that he cannot succeed on his own and that the governors’ forces will undermine him.The federal parliamentarians who relied on President Tinubu to provide them automatic tickets have suddenly realized that their efforts over the last three years have been in naught until they serve the Nigerian people. The idea was that since President Tinubu was going to give them an automatic ticket, they would promote every item he brought to the National Assembly. They are all living with remorse if you look at what has transpired.
Nduka Odo, a communication specialist at Peaceland University in Enugu, criticized President Tinubu’s order allowing governors to choose APC candidates in an interview with DAILY POST, calling it a danger to democratic ideals.
He claimed that despite the move’s seeming orderliness, it raises questions about how the electorate’s will is being undermined during the candidate selection process.
Odo questioned if a system in which candidates are chosen by governors can still be considered democratic.
He cautioned that the situation also raises the possibility that the president’s approval could affect governors’ political prospects.
He asserts that any governor who departs from the president’s stance runs the risk of losing the party ticket.The expert pointed out that the Electoral Act’s restrictions on party desertion at this point make things more difficult for the impacted politician.He claimed that although the president’s command to political candidates in his party appears to be a formal process, it demonstrates the state of democracy in this nation. If he gives the governors control over the candidates’ futures, where will the people’s will be? Tell Mis that democracy if he informs candidates that the party will only accept candidates chosen by the governors.The darker side of that is that he is subtly stating that he, the president, is ultimately responsible for the governors’ fate. This implies that any governor who disobeys his orders will forfeit their APC ticket.As you are aware, a change of party is currently prohibited by the new Electoral Act. You are eliminated from the election if you lose favor.Although it hasn’t been evident in his recent rule, Tinubu is a marvelously clever politician because of his ability to engineer difficult circumstances like this.Before he ran for president, I previously thought that practically all former governors would want to have the same degree of authority over Lago as Tinubu.the authority to remove anyone from any political position. This authority would have been beneficial if it had created people-focused policies.Now that people have the ability to choose who runs for office, our political institutions will continue to degrade.Hopefully, our political system will see the light one day.
About The Author
