It’s curious that the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is still in denial concerning the status of two of its high-profile members in the eyes of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The ruling party is still employing delaying tactics that cannot change things, rather than simply doing the right thing.
Just in case the party needed a reminder, INEC’s National Commissioner and chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, recently restated the electoral body’s position on Senate President Ahmed Lawan, who represents Yobe North, and ex-governor of Akwa Ibom State Godswill Akpabio, who wants to represent Akwa Ibom North West.
Okoye said in a TV interview on August 14: “In these two constituencies, two names were forwarded and the commission made a determination that the names were not persons who emerged from validly conducted party primaries and we did not publish their names. That is where we are.
“Their (Lawan and Akpabio) names were uploaded by the APC to our candidates’ nomination portal but the commission made a determination that they were not the candidates that emerged from valid party primaries.” He explained: “Under section 29(1) of the Electoral Act, it is the responsibility of the party to forward to INEC the list and personal particulars of their members who emerged from validly conducted party primaries.”
Lawan was among the losers in the party’s presidential primary, and Akpabio had withdrawn from the same contest at the eleventh hour. Both had concentrated on the presidential primary, and had given the impression they were not interested in the senate seats.
Now they want to be regarded as the party’s candidates for the seats when other persons who had emerged as candidates through a proper process are unwilling to give up their candidacies for the party giants.
Obviously, the APC has a lot of explaining to do on the listing of Lawan and Akpabio among its 2023 senatorial election candidates. The party had submitted their names to INEC on June 17, as its candidates for Yobe North and Akwa Ibom North West respectively. It’s unclear why the party had included their names in the list in the first place. The action was undemocratic.
The winner of the APC senatorial primary in Yobe North, Bashir Machina, had observed that his name was not on the list the party was said to have presented to INEC. “For the avoidance of doubt, I remain the candidate duly elected to the APC Yobe North zone C senatorial zone,” he had declared.
“I am the elected candidate; I did not withdraw for anybody and will not withdraw… So surreptitiously removing my name, I consider, is very undemocratic, illegal and of course inhuman.”
Machina said he would seek redress from the party’s National Working Committee, headed by Senator Abdullahi Adamu, adding that he “would have no choice but to resort to legal action” if the party leadership failed to correct the “anomaly.”
Indeed, he has gone to court. When the matter came up before the Federal High Court in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, this month, Machina’s lawyer, Ibrahim Bawa (SAN), told reporters that his client wanted the court to “declare that the APC cannot send the name of Ahmad Lawan, who didn’t participate in the primary election of the APC for Yobe North Senatorial District.” He added: “We are saying the court should direct the APC to send the name of Machina, and INEC should be directed to accept and fill him as the candidate of the party for Yobe North Senatorial District.”
In Akpabio’s case, the ex-governor, former senator and immediate past minister of Niger Delta Affairs had emerged the winner of a re-run senate primary.
But the then Resident Electoral Commissioner for Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, had described his emergence as a “Nollywood fantasy.” He said the primary that produced a former Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Udum Ekpoudum (retd.), was the contest recognised by INEC because it “was not cancelled, was not nullified, was not inconclusive.”
He explained that the so-called rerun could “only be conducted between and among those who participated in the first senatorial election of May 27, 2022.” Akpabio did not participate in that senatorial primary.
According to Igini, the 2022 Electoral Act is a game changer, and “the report of the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District APC primary as submitted to INEC headquarters in Abuja is final.” He advised politicians to “go and study” the new Electoral Act “very well.”
It’s an untidy situation. The APC, Lawan and Akpabio need to urgently sort out the mess. But they are temporising. This is not to the party’s advantage, and they should all know.
”The implication is that as of today, the APC does not have candidates in those two constituencies,” Okoye pointed out. It is unlikely that the candidates that emerged from the validly conducted primaries recognised by INEC would agree to have their names replaced with the names of the unrecognised would-be candidates. In the circumstances, that is the only way Lawan and Akpabio can become genuine candidates recognised by INEC. The rules are clear enough.
Party supremacy, which the APC seems to be relying on in this matter, does not give it the power to break electoral rules, which are supreme in this case. The party should not give the impression that it is prepared to disregard the law to satisfy the would-be candidates.
This situation is inspired by individual and corporate egos. But this is not an ego game. Lawan and Akpabio consider themselves too big to be sidelined, even when they are responsible for their exclusion. The party leadership also thinks its authority is unchallengeable, even when it created room for the challenge and the challengers.
The question is: Is the party ready to lose the chance to possibly win the senate seats in question because it undemocratically presented unrecognised so-called candidates to INEC?
Why does the APC find it so difficult to do the right thing in this situation when it is clear what the right thing is and why it should be done? Failure to do the right thing gives the party a bad image, pure and simple.
Femi Macaulay
It’s curious that the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is still in denial concerning the status of two of its high-profile members in the eyes of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The ruling party is still employing delaying tactics that cannot change things, rather than simply doing the right thing.
Just in case the party needed a reminder, INEC’s National Commissioner and chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, recently restated the electoral body’s position on Senate President Ahmed Lawan, who represents Yobe North, and ex-governor of Akwa Ibom State Godswill Akpabio, who wants to represent Akwa Ibom North West.
Okoye said in a TV interview on August 14: “In these two constituencies, two names were forwarded and the commission made a determination that the names were not persons who emerged from validly conducted party primaries and we did not publish their names. That is where we are.
“Their (Lawan and Akpabio) names were uploaded by the APC to our candidates’ nomination portal but the commission made a determination that they were not the candidates that emerged from valid party primaries.” He explained: “Under section 29(1) of the Electoral Act, it is the responsibility of the party to forward to INEC the list and personal particulars of their members who emerged from validly conducted party primaries.”
Lawan was among the losers in the party’s presidential primary, and Akpabio had withdrawn from the same contest at the eleventh hour. Both had concentrated on the presidential primary, and had given the impression they were not interested in the senate seats.
Now they want to be regarded as the party’s candidates for the seats when other persons who had emerged as candidates through a proper process are unwilling to give up their candidacies for the party giants.
Obviously, the APC has a lot of explaining to do on the listing of Lawan and Akpabio among its 2023 senatorial election candidates. The party had submitted their names to INEC on June 17, as its candidates for Yobe North and Akwa Ibom North West respectively. It’s unclear why the party had included their names in the list in the first place. The action was undemocratic.
The winner of the APC senatorial primary in Yobe North, Bashir Machina, had observed that his name was not on the list the party was said to have presented to INEC. “For the avoidance of doubt, I remain the candidate duly elected to the APC Yobe North zone C senatorial zone,” he had declared.
“I am the elected candidate; I did not withdraw for anybody and will not withdraw… So surreptitiously removing my name, I consider, is very undemocratic, illegal and of course inhuman.”
Machina said he would seek redress from the party’s National Working Committee, headed by Senator Abdullahi Adamu, adding that he “would have no choice but to resort to legal action” if the party leadership failed to correct the “anomaly.”
Indeed, he has gone to court. When the matter came up before the Federal High Court in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, this month, Machina’s lawyer, Ibrahim Bawa (SAN), told reporters that his client wanted the court to “declare that the APC cannot send the name of Ahmad Lawan, who didn’t participate in the primary election of the APC for Yobe North Senatorial District.” He added: “We are saying the court should direct the APC to send the name of Machina, and INEC should be directed to accept and fill him as the candidate of the party for Yobe North Senatorial District.”
In Akpabio’s case, the ex-governor, former senator and immediate past minister of Niger Delta Affairs had emerged the winner of a re-run senate primary.
But the then Resident Electoral Commissioner for Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, had described his emergence as a “Nollywood fantasy.” He said the primary that produced a former Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Udum Ekpoudum (retd.), was the contest recognised by INEC because it “was not cancelled, was not nullified, was not inconclusive.”
He explained that the so-called rerun could “only be conducted between and among those who participated in the first senatorial election of May 27, 2022.” Akpabio did not participate in that senatorial primary.
According to Igini, the 2022 Electoral Act is a game changer, and “the report of the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District APC primary as submitted to INEC headquarters in Abuja is final.” He advised politicians to “go and study” the new Electoral Act “very well.”
It’s an untidy situation. The APC, Lawan and Akpabio need to urgently sort out the mess. But they are temporising. This is not to the party’s advantage, and they should all know.
”The implication is that as of today, the APC does not have candidates in those two constituencies,” Okoye pointed out. It is unlikely that the candidates that emerged from the validly conducted primaries recognised by INEC would agree to have their names replaced with the names of the unrecognised would-be candidates. In the circumstances, that is the only way Lawan and Akpabio can become genuine candidates recognised by INEC. The rules are clear enough.
Party supremacy, which the APC seems to be relying on in this matter, does not give it the power to break electoral rules, which are supreme in this case. The party should not give the impression that it is prepared to disregard the law to satisfy the would-be candidates.
This situation is inspired by individual and corporate egos. But this is not an ego game. Lawan and Akpabio consider themselves too big to be sidelined, even when they are responsible for their exclusion. The party leadership also thinks its authority is unchallengeable, even when it created room for the challenge and the challengers.
The question is: Is the party ready to lose the chance to possibly win the senate seats in question because it undemocratically presented unrecognised so-called candidates to INEC?
Why does the APC find it so difficult to do the right thing in this situation when it is clear what the right thing is and why it should be done? Failure to do the right thing gives the party a bad image, pure and simple.
Femi Macaulay
