Umahi Backs Buhari’s position on Direct Primaries
By Chinwe Imo-Eze Onwosi
Chairman South East Governors’ Forum, and Ebonyi state governor, David Umahi, Thursday, backed President Mohammadu Buhari on his position on direct primaries included in the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
Umahi congratulated the President for refusing to sign the bill saying it will truncate the democracy of the country and cause confusion if signed into law.
The governor said this while receiving the registrar National Examinations Council (NECO), Prof Dantani Wushishi and his team during a courtesy visit in his office in Abakaliki.
Recall that there have been controversies arising for and against the issue of direct primaries.
The National Assembly and governors have been urging President Muhammadu Buhari to accept or reject the provision of the direct mode.
While the Senate and the House of Representatives retained direct primary in the Electoral Act Bill, the governors are insisting on the indirect primary.
But Gov. Umahi gave his position on the issue saying, “Let me congratulateMr President for refusing to sign that electoral bill. You see when we are making laws we have to look at all the factors. This is a country that when you are defeated in any primary you refuse to accept defeat. Now, imagine the number of our local government, 774. Imagine the number of wards, you now go to conduct primaries in all these wards, maybe the presidential and after that the senate and the rest of the positions. Even if you are doing all of them in one day expect petitions by the number of political parties times the number of wards.
“it will just truncate our democracy there is no doubt about that. Nobody has considered the amount of confusion that will arise out of that because everybody that contests election will like to go to court.
” And if I am contesting for a particular office, I have to go to court if I am not happy over the election in the number of wards in my constituency. So when will the litigation end? It is another ploy to derail democracy.
“So I want the national assembly to look into this litigation aspect. When the cost of this direct primaries is taken into consideration, it is going to be too much because for every ward that the court rules out, their must be a repeat of the exercise.
“So I think that we have not gotten to that level of maturity, level of having the spirit of sportsmanship, level of accepting defeat. When people know that they have been defeated, they want to see of they can technically or fraudulently manipulate the system within the judiciary.
“So I think that the issue of political primaries should be left to the political parties. This is not about APC or PDP, everybody is looking at the implication. So let us take another look at it.
” Some people say governors have hijacked the primaries, is it not the governors that are at home everytime, do they not have representation in every unit? So they are at home with the people, if we are not at home with the people how will the people know you?.
“we are looking at what will bring stability to our democracy and sustain it. So the national assembly should take a deeper look at the application so that when it will start happening they will say we foresaw this and we advised against it.”
