Henceforth, Nigeria’s ruling party, All Progressive Congress (APC) will now adopt the direct primary, a system which allow all card carrying members of the party to elect the party’s governorship candidate, unlike the delegate system, which is often prone to corruption.
National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole who gave the hint, on Monday in Abuja after a closed door meeting with members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), said that the party has adopted the system for the September 22 Osun governorship election.
Oshiomhole explained that the essence of the direct primary was to allow more party members to participate in the process of nominating candidates and to remove issues of corruption or monetising the processes.
He added that the direct primary would also give party members a sense of ownership of the outcome of the exercise.
On the Osun governorship election, Oshiomhole said that 17 aspirants who obtained the party’s Expression of Interest and Nomination forms to contest its ticket at its primary slated for Thursday, had all been screened and cleared.
According to him, the 17 aspirants are all competent to effectively govern the state.
“We do not lack competent hands to provide leadership in Osun after the exit of Gov. Rauf Aregbesola.
“Regardless of who wins the primary, we hope that the rest of them will support the person to ensure that we do our best to retain the governance of Osun.
“We have decided that in order to ensure popular participation, and to deepen democracy in Osun State, in-line with the provision of our party constitution which allows for either direct or indirect primary, we have resolved that the governorship election primary in Osun state will be conducted on the basis of direct primary.
“What that means is that every card carrying member of our party will participate in the process of nominating the flag bearer of the party.
“This for us, is the most democratic way to conduct election and is in line with what our critical stakeholders from that part of the country wants and we are quite happy to oblige,” he said.
Speaking further, he said that the party leadership had constituted a panel to be chaired by Gov. Abudulazeez Yari of Zamfara to oversee the process.
He however expressed optimism that Yari, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) could not be compromised.
“He will be assisted by four others who will work with him to ensure that this direct primary is conducted in a hitch free manner,” Oshiomhole said.