2019: Direct Primaries’ proponents lose out as APC governors get full powers
Kaduna State Governor Mallam Nasir el-Rufai said there was no way every member of the APC would agree to one thing, pointing out that the decision on which primary elections mode to adopt in accordance with NEC decision is to be based on majority stance.
He said: “There is no way one hundred percent of the party will agree to one thing. There will always be some that will disagree but the decision of NEC is that the majority of the state Executive Committee decided on the mode of primaries.
“And in the Kaduna State that you mentioned, which I’m the governor by the grace of God, the majority of the State Executive Committee decided on indirect primaries. If one or two members don’t agree, that’s off; that is not the decision of NEC.”
National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole said the task before the leadership of the party was to ensure the conduct of credible primaries that would be free, fair and transparent.
The APC chair said: “I think my task and the task of the party is clear. We have a tradition as a progressive party to submit ourselves to the dictates of our party and we believe in internal democracy because we are democrats and democracy must begin from within the house before we can do it outside.
“We are committed to transparent primaries and will ensure that everyone who has interest in our party and we are happy at the level of enthusiasm measured by the number of persons who have applied for various positions from House of Assembly up shows a huge number of Nigerians still prefer the APC as the more credible platform of which to contest.
“Our task is very simple, obey the rules of the party, obey the rules of fairness, obey the rules of natural justice and that is what we mean when we talk about free and fair primaries.
“Number two, we have spoken to this before, it is not a new decision that our constitution consciously provided for flexibility to reflect the diversity of our great country and also to try to give expression to the entire essence of federalism which allows different states to look at their own situation and advice the NWC as to what works better for them provided that in all cases the process is democratic, the rules are fair, the officiating officials are impartial.
“All of us, governors, NWC and even president, we all agreed that this is the way to go and that is what we are going to do.”
