APC Primaries Dubbed a Sham, Undermining the Nation’s Democracy

* Says govs have become appointing authority

* Wants Tinubu’s intervention

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and aspirant for the Ekiti North Senatorial District ticket, Senator Ayodele Arise, has criticized the recent primaries of the ruling party, calling them a sham that casts aspersion on the nation’s democracy.

The APC Committee that supervised the process declared the incumbent lawmaker, Senator Cyril Fasuyi, the winner.

In addition to Arise, two other contenders for the ticket—Hon. Dipo Bamisaye and Dare Owolabi—have dismissed the outcome of the primaries as fraudulent and manipulated.

Speaking with reporters in Abuja over the weekend, Arise, who represented the senatorial district between 2007 and 2011, said the ruling party continues to pay lip service to internal democracy.

According to him, “When we talk about internal democracy, it is still a very big challenge. It’s one thing for us to have a constitution, it’s another thing for people to try to circumvent it or the guidelines for any election. That was demonstrated in no small measure when I tried to come back through the primary.”

“Because I knew what was in the pipeline, I went into it to prove a point. It will be a shame if some of us pass through this country and we don’t have the voice to correct the anomalies and let people know that if we want to practice democracy, let us practice it. If we don’t want it, it’s a different kettle of fish.”

“The experience I had during the primary I really don’t want to overbeat that because I believe the chairman of the party has spoken with Mr. President and I think they are looking at all the challenges and I am sure those of us who worked and won our elections will be given our mandate in due course.”

He expressed optimism that the appeal panel set up by the APC National Working Committee would do justice to his petition.

“I am not lobbying but I have put the facts on the table and I have presented them to those people reviewing the election and I believe we still have men of good conscience at the helm of affairs in this country who know what is right. Moving forward, we should put some guidelines in place to ensure that people don’t misunderstand democracy to mean that a person in power appoints people to different places.”

“We want to showcase the best in our country and we want to show that we understand what democracy is all about. We want to see who the people that the community or those voters want to represent them. And so, I will say that there will be some changes and this practice is an ongoing learning process and I believe they should continue to improve as we move on. There are so many things that have improved for the 27 years in our electoral process and we have to give kudos to those that have fine‑tuned some of the processes.”

“As we discover problems, people respond to them and I believe, more than anybody else, that our president has been very proactive in terms of fixing some of these challenges, working on it and ensuring that corrections are made before it’s too late.”

“So, as far as the internal democracy within parties is concerned, we still have quite a distance to cover but I believe that we will continue to improve on a daily, quarterly or yearly basis,” he said.

Arise attributed the crises trailing the party primaries to the overbearing influence of sitting governors.

His words: “The issue of the governors is still a major problem in terms of trying to get to the Senate. Even when you aren’t contesting against them, if you aren’t their favoured candidate, chances of your making it is a little bit very challenging.”

“But why it is so is because governance and political office in Nigeria has been looked at as a source of building wealth.”

“When a person becomes a governor, somehow the money coming for the commonwealth should be used for everybody but a sizeable part of it is actually cornered and annexed. So for you to want to unseat a governor who wants to go to Senate is a very difficult task. That’s because of the quantum of money that he has which is actually public fund is very worrisome.”

“So, I don’t know how actually we are going to get out of this, unless people are able to work very hard and become wealthy enough to be able to face them on the field. There is something they now call system! I have never heard of that in any democratic setting. They now say, ‘system has captured this one, he is the one picking the ticket.’ So, there are so many things that we will need to begin to correct. As far as the governors are concerned, the Senate is a retirement home for them.”

Commenting on President Tinubu’s Democracy Day broadcast, the aspirant described it as very encouraging, submitting that it dwelt on the administration’s achievements and the challenges before it.

He said: “I looked at the speech, it’s a speech of encouragement to Nigerians and it’s a speech of reality to let us know that things just don’t happen as quickly as we expect. If you try to build a house, you will know that it doesn’t have to be six months, some houses will take one year, depending on a lot of challenges that could come up along the line.”

“But in terms of laying the foundation and enduring democracy, I think Mr. President is actually doing very well to showcase some of his achievements and some of the things that he has planned for the development of this country.”