Direct primary valuable for accountability in our political system – Gbajabiamila

……Says House will reintroduce amendments to electoral bill tomorrow

By Christiana Ekpa 

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila has said that he remained convinced that the proposal for direct primary elections is valuable for building accountability in the country’s political system, even as he said that expected amendments to the rejected electoral bill will be swift as the document will be reintroduced to the House on Wednesday for a possible rework.

The Speaker who made the disclosure in his address to welcome members of the House back from the 2021 Christmas holidays at the plenary on Tuesday disclosed that the nation can’t afford to “throw the baby with the bath water” as far the electoral bill was concerned.

Gbajabiamila described as appalling the argument or submission that lack of proper membership registration of the political parties was amongst the reason for rejecting the bill.

It was that the argument even ran at variance with the spirit and letters of the Constitution of the land.

The Speaker said that it was left for the House to either stick to their guns on the bill with regards to the direct primary mode or rework the bill and retransmit it to President Muhammadu Buhari for his assent.

He said “The 9th House of Representatives, despite the limitations imposed on us by a global pandemic, has been an unusually productive parliament.  We have taken legislative action to address longstanding challenges of governance and economics in our country.  We have passed landmark legislation to fix our oil and gas industry, reform the police and reorganise the corporate administration system in our country. 

“We have considered and passed meaningful legislation that impacts all areas of our national life.  Some of these bills are the Police Service Commission Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (Amendment) Bill, and the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act (Amendment) Bill, amongst others.  Just before we adjourned in 2021, we passed a slate of bills to reform the aviation sector and clean up our airports so that these critical national assets can be properly administered to the best expectations of the Nigerian people. 

“We have used the appropriations process and the power of parliament over the public purse to pursue community and constituency development across the country.  We have invested in primary, secondary and tertiary education infrastructure.  We have provided ICT training centres to facilitate learning and enhance educational outcomes.  There is, at the moment, virtually no constituency in the country that hasn’t benefitted from significant investment to improve primary healthcare, rehabilitate classrooms and schools and provide community roads. 

“In reminding us of these things, it is not my intention to encourage complacency or give the impression that our work here is done, far from it.  I intend to remind us all of what can be achieved when dedicated public servants work with purpose and precision in the public interest.  And I want us to be inspired, in this last year of our present term in office, to work harder, work faster and achieve more than we ever did in the past.  

“Too often, the legislator’s work and the benefits that derive therefrom are not uniquely recognised and acknowledged.  Active measures are required to change that, and it is our responsibility to make sure that the people we serve have sufficient information to judge us on the facts.  Therefore, it must be a priority for us this year to document our efforts and our success and communicate the same to our constituents across the nation so that we can be judged individually and collectively by our evident accomplishments. 

“Honourable colleagues, we have a lot still left to do in a very brief time.  Principal amongst these priorities is the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill.  First, let me express my profound gratitude to all of you for your work to pass this most critical legislation. I want to commend you all for the work done. Unfortunately, that Bill did not receive presidential assent, and it is unlikely that it will in its current form.  Now, we have to choose between sticking to our guns regarding the provision to mandate direct primary elections for political parties or reworking that provision to save the rest of the Bill. 

“Now let it be clear to all that our only objective in introducing that provision was to strengthen the foundations of our democracy so that it works for all of our nation’s people.  The process by which political parties nominate candidates for election is essential, perhaps even just as important as the general election itself.  A primary nomination process that deprives the majority of party members of the opportunity to choose who represents them in the general elections is susceptible to bad outcomes and ought to be fixed.

“Some argued that political parties do not have proper registers of their members, which was a reason to reject the direct primary option.  This is an appalling admission that political parties in the country do not have credible and up to date registers of their members.  We are left to question how those parties have thus far managed their affairs, including conducting congresses and primary elections, whether by direct or indirect means.  Besides, it can be inferred that the failure to maintain a proper register of members violates the spirit of the constitution, as it makes it impossible for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to enforce the constitutional requirement for political parties to ensure that their membership reflects the federal character of Nigeria. 

Nonetheless, it is disappointing that the failure of political parties to adequately document their membership is being used to not give the Nigerian people the power to fully participate in our nation’s politics.  If nothing else, including a direct primary mandate in the law, would have forced political parties to properly register their members within the shortest possible time.