Abuja—Former President Goodluck Jonathan has described the ongoing primary election conducted by various political parties to produce candidates for the 2023 elections as a ‘mess.’
Daily Trust reports that Jonathan stated this while Speaking on Thursday in Abuja at a book launch titled “Political Party Governance” authored by Dr. Mohammed Wakil, a former Minister of State, Power.
According to Jonathan, it was disgraceful to induce delegates to get their votes and then request for refund after failing to secure tickets.
This is following reports of how the son of Jonathan’s former deputy, Namadi Sambo, demanded a refund from delegates who collected his money but failed to vote for him.
The former president bemoaned that the system has failed following the current overt trend of politicians inducing delegates with huge sums of cash to get their votes.
Jonathan said: “These whole primaries going on across the country is a mess. This is not a standard practice. The process has failed.
“We cannot use the process to elect president, governors, senators and House of Representatives members and others.
“The process is already failed, which is not good for the country. But we will manage and move on.
“We pray that good people should come. I hope that what happened this year, 2022 will not happen again in this country.”
The former president, therefore, urged the National Assembly to make laws to criminalise inducement of delegates and electorate.
He also asked the legislature to expunge from the Electoral Act, the sections that state how political parties should select candidates for elections.
Jonathan said: “The National Assembly can’t make laws and lock all political parties together. Parties have different ways of nominating candidates and the process is enshrined in their constitutions.
“Creating a situation where all parties must have the same way of selecting candidates is nonsense. Parties are not parastatals of government.
“The National Assembly can’t make laws to strangulate political parties. Section 84 should be expunged from the Electoral Act.”
