Politics
Why APC Leaders, Tinubu’s Enemies, Are Panicking Over Direct Primaries
By Emmanuel Aziken
President Muhammadu Buhari could give assent to the Electoral Act Amendment bill on his return from South Africa setting the stage for direct primaries in selection of candidates for elections, a prospect that has set the current leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC in panic over the prospects of Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu
GreenWhiteGreen GWG reports that the APC under the Governor Mala Buni led Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, CECPC has been severally alleged to be working towards blocking the 2023 presidential aspiration of the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
It would be recalled that a major offensive to stop Tinubu was to remove the Adams Oshiomhole led leadership of the party in 2020 ostensibly because of the perceived proclivity of that leadership to the former Lagos State governor.
Since then, efforts to elect a new national leadership of the party have been stonewalled mainly because of fears that Tinubu was still in good position to push forward a new leadership sympathetic to his interest.
In that vein, the CECPC working in cahoots with other vested interests, especially those aligned to the cabal around the minister of justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN have continued to frame one policy or the other to checkmate Tinubu. One of the more notable efforts was the party re-registration effort. That was done because the Buni-Malami alliance felt that Tinubu had the electronic blueprint for the registration that was done while the party was in formation and could use it to his advantage in the party primaries.
However, while his enemies in the party have continued to meet towards checkmating him, Tinubu has quietly been consolidating himself in voter rich states like Kano, Borno, Sokoto and Akwa Ibom States. That is besides his strong foothold in Lagos and most of the Southwest.
GreenWhiteGreen GWG reports that it was based on that premise that Tinubu’s supporters in the National Assembly pushed through the amendment in the Electoral Act to provide for direct primaries in the political parties.
Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, a famous acolyte of Tinubu was the one who proposed the amendment in the House of Representatives before the Senate concurred on it.
“It is important for this generation to open the door of leadership to the next generation. We must allow every Nigerian to participate fully in the process of leadership. I, therefore, stand with Direct Primary,” Speaker Gbajabiamila said recently when he received a delegation of youths led by the minister of youths and sports, Sunday Dare, himself another acolyte of Tinubu’s.
The proposal on direct primaries GreenWhiteGreen GWG reports has positioned Tinubu with the strong advantage given that many of the states with heavy votes in the country are with him.
That is a development that has made Tinubu’s rivals in the party especially the APC governors aligned to the Buni leadership to be in panic.
Their fear is that if candidates are selected through direct primaries that Tinubu is in the most advantaged position to win.
Given this inclination, Tinubu’s enemies in the party leadership it was gathered have now started working towards another postponement of the party’s national convention.
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