By Joshua Egbodo
Abuja
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has stated that for primary elections of political parties to be transparent and truly democratic, the erstwhile Option A4 method should be re-introduced.
The method which is a direct voting system, where all card-carrying members of political parties are made to vote to choose candidates that will represent their parties in elections, beginning form the council, ward levels, with progression to the local government, state and national levels, was introduced in one of the transition periods from military to civilian rule by former Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, rather than the common use of party delegates as obtained in recent time.
The Speaker stated this while responding to a request from a delegation from the Conference of Female Parliamentarians of Houses of Assembly, led by its chairperson, Hon. Elizabeth Ativie, at the National Assembly yesterday.
According to him, the Option A4 should be included in the ongoing amendment exercise on the Electoral Act.
Stressing that the current method of the use of party delegates was very susceptible to manipulations, Dogara argued that direct primaries were more effective in choosing the true candidates.
On the merits of Option A4, he said: “It is there in most of the Constitution of our political parties where primaries are supposed to be by direct or indirect means. But in most cases, most political parties, if not all, have always opted for the indirect primaries. To be more candid, direct primaries can help even in general elections because once a candidate emerges under those conditions, you will know that he is generally accepted by the people.
“When it comes to the delegate, it has always been very easy for political actors to manipulate the process. In some cases, someone will house the entire delegates. If he happens to have a lot of money, he will house them in hotels, prevents all other candidates from having access to them and it is under that process that the candidate emerges.”
Speaking earlier, Ativie urged the Speaker to support women in politics by advocating for amendment of the Electoral Act to provide for use of the Option A4 in party primaries, quota system in political parties and appointments for women.
While canvassing for the 35 per cent affirmative action, she said there should be legislation for automatic citizenship for spouses of Nigerian women and indigene status for women married to men from other states in the country.
