Dave Umahi, the governor of Ebonyi State on Thursday called on the National Assembly to rethink the controversial direct primaries clause it inserted in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
According to him, forcing political parties to use the direct primary to elect their flag bearers could derail or even truncate the democratic process in the country if the National Assembly insisted on going ahead with it.
Speaking when he received the Registrar of the National Examinations Council, Prof Dantani Wushishi, in Abakaliki, Umahi commended President Muhammadu Buhari for allegedly refusing to assent to the bill, because of the envisaged tension it could generate in the polity.
The governor said direct primaries would lead to so much confusion, which could possibly truncate democracy in the country.
He said the amount of litigation that will arise from direct primaries will be so much that it will make the electoral process too costly and cumbersome to prosecute.
Umahi stated, “Let me congratulate Mr 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 where when you are defeated in any primary, you refuse to accept defeat. Now, imagine the number of our local governments, 774. Imagine the number of wards; you now go to conduct primaries in all these wards, maybe for the President and 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.
“So, it will just truncate our democracy; there is no doubt about that. Nobody has considered the confusion that will arise out of that, because everybody that contests election will like to go to court.
“And if I am contesting a particular office, I have to go to court if I am not happy about 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 the direct primaries is taken into consideration, it is going to be too much because for every ward that the court rules out, there must be a repeat of the exercise.
“So, I think that we have not got to that level of maturity of having the spirit of sportsmanship and the level of accepting defeat. When people know that they have been defeated, they want to see if they can technically or fraudulently manipulate the system with the judiciary.
“So, I think that the issue of political primaries should be left to the political parties. This is not about the APC or the 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 who are at home every time? Do they not have representation in every unit? So, they are at home with the people; if you are not at home with the people how will the people know you?
“Some of you want to be governors; very soon, we shall not be governors any more, but 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.”
Earlier, Wushishi said he was in the state to thank the governor for his immense support to the council, which showed his commitment to educational development in the state.
He stated, “It is evident that in the whole of the South-East, it was only in Ebonyi State that our examinations were not disrupted during the nationwide #EndSARS protest in 2020.
“Also, as a result of your tremendous effort and involvement, Ebonyi State presented the highest number of candidates for this year’s BECE, not just in the South-East, but in the whole country, with 22,011 candidates.”
The registrar said the council planned to relocate its zonal office from Enugu to Abakaliki after completing the office building project in the city.
