With the allegations of imposition of candidates and widespread electoral malpractices that characterised the recent primary elections conducted by the leading political parties, what moral justification do political parties have to criticise general and off-season elections managed by the Independent National Electoral Commission? Ejiofor Alike asks
The outcomes of the recent primary elections conducted by the various political parties in Nigeria have shown that elections managed by political parties do not fare better than the ones conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in terms of transparency, fairness and credibility.
The primaries were widely criticised as the general and off-season elections conducted by INEC due to the widespread electoral malpractices that characterised the exercise in various states.
The All Progressives Congress (APC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the Labour Party (LP) were all accused of imposition of candidates, disenfranchisement of bonafide party members and other electoral malpractices during their primary elections.
During the primaries, videos of the different political parties mocking democracy by their fraudulent counting of the number of people on queues, using Option A4, went viral on social media.
In a most brazen manner, voters on queues were counted as 1, 10, 50, 100, 300, etc, as against the numerical arithmetical order of 1,2,3,5,6,7, etc.
Field reports showed that no election took place in many places but votes were allegedly allocated to the aspirants, according to the choice of the party leaders in different states or the state governments.
In Bauchi State for instance, the immediate past Minister of Foreign Affairs and governorship aspirant on the platform of the APC, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar accused the ruling APC of imposing a governorship candidate on the party in the state.
According to Tuggar, while aspirants, including himself, were hoping for a transparent, free and fair primaries, they were shocked to observe that the party had already settled for an anointed candidate.
“We wanted an election where whoever won would emerge, and whoever lost would accept the outcome.
“But the National Chairman of our party called us, and announced that MA Abubakar had been selected as the governorship candidate,” Tuggar stated.
Similarly, the former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, withdrew from APC governorship primary in Gombe State, citing an alleged violation of the Electoral Act 2026 by the APC.
The former minister in the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari also alleged that there were no elections in the state but imposition of candidates during the National Assembly primaries.
“During the National Assembly primaries, no actual election took place in the state. According to the testimony of several aspirants, relevant details on venues, procedures, and agent and observer accreditation were not provided, but results were announced,” the former minister explained.
“If two former senior members of Buhari and Tinubu’s cabinets could be treated shabbily in such brazen manner and candidates handpicked by the ruling party without any election in Bauchi and Gombe states, one can imagine what could have happened to ordinary aspirants in other states,” said a political analyst, who opted not to be quoted.
In ADC, one of the presidential aspirants and former Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi also rejected the results of the party’s presidential primaries, alleging widespread voter disenfranchisement and electoral malpractice during the process.
According to the former Rivers State governor, the results were being “concocted”.
These are the same electoral offences, which political parties and civil society organizations (CSOs) accuse INEC of perpetrating in general and off-season elections.
Senator Ned Nwoko representing Delta North on the platform of the APC has also rejected the official results announced by the party and insisted that he emerged victorious in the primary by a landslide.
Nwoko claimed to have secured about 123,000 votes against the 6,000 votes he said were recorded by former Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa.
In the official results announced by the APC’s Returning Officer, Johnbull Tonukari, the former governor of the state, Okowa was declared winner of the APC senatorial ticket, after polling 113,309 votes in the exercise.
Tonukari, a professor, said Nwoko secured 2,612 votes, while Ms Maryam Ali polled 40 votes in the primary election conducted across the senatorial district.
But Nwoko rejected the results, insisting that he won in 97 out of the 98 wards in the senatorial district.
“I defeated Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa overwhelmingly in 97 of the 98 wards, and I have video evidence from across the district to support the outcome. Are authenticated video recordings from 98 wards not more credible than figures allegedly concocted by a panel appointed by the governor who is openly working for Okowa?” he asked.
Even NDC, an opposition party, which claimed to be on a rescue mission, was also accused of electoral malpractices in its primaries.
A frontline Federal Capital Territory (FCT) senatorial aspirant on the platform of the party, Aisha Yesufu, alleged that the primary election in the FCT was a heavily subverted process.
She described the exercise as a “predetermined outcome dressed in procedural formalities.”
According to her, the party leadership repeatedly violated its own guidelines, postponed the exercise without justification, and shifted venues at the last-minute to deliberately alienate ordinary members.
“Delegate-based process was introduced to be conducted at a central location instead of the direct primaries to be conducted at local government headquarters,” she revealed.
“When the moment came, the contest was not decided by delegates in the open; it was affirmed in a closed room, away from the people whose voices it was supposed to reflect,” she said.
Some aspirants of NDC in Imo State also alleged that the party’s national and state assembly primaries were manipulated, accusing the electoral panel sent by the national leadership and led by Chief Babatunde Ali, of failing to conduct a credible exercise and producing results outside the approved procedure.
The allegations were contained in a petition read during a press briefing in Abuja by a former member of the House of Representatives who represented Mbaitoli/Ikeduru Federal Constituency between 1999 and 2003, Dr. Uche Nwole.
In Kebbi State, the governorship candidate of the NDC, Hon. Faruk Umar Besse, also accused the state chairman of the NDC of compromising the party primaries.
Addressing journalists during a media parley in his office in Abuja, Faruk alleged that the state chairman of the NDC compromised the process, which prompted the petition submitted to the party headquarters.
Allegations of imposition of candidates, massive irregularities and other electoral malpractices also trailed the primary elections conducted by the PDP and the LP.
The shameful conduct of the primaries by political parties has validated the claims in some quarters that politicians and political parties are largely responsible for the electoral frauds witnessed in the elections conducted by INEC.
Therefore, what moral justification do political parties have in demanding accountability from the commission during general and off-season elections if they cannot conduct free, fair and transparent primary elections within their parties?