Buba Galadima says the 2026 Electoral Act is intended to hinder opposition parties.

A senior member of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), Buba Galadima, claimed that the Electoral Act 2026 was engineered to disadvantage opposition parties.

Galadima made the statement on Saturday in Abuja during the NDC aspirants’ summit, accusing the President Bola Tinubu‑led administration of undermining democracy in Nigeria.

The veteran politician alleged that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had formed a committee well before the electoral bill was presented to the national assembly, with the aim of drafting legislation that would benefit the party.

He criticized provisions of the law that govern the emergence of party candidates.

“By the time the national assembly deliberated and finalized the draft electoral bill, within an hour the president was signing it,” he said. “Did he study that bill? So, it means they had already prepared a bill before him.”

“What were the contents of that bill? One of them, which concerns this summit, is that you can only generate candidates through two ways: consensus or direct primaries.”

“Now, in the opinion of the APC and its government, they thought that the opposition would not be able to sit down and do consensus. And if they can’t do consensus, the only option open to them is to go and do direct primaries. I want to say, without fear of being contradicted, that no political party in the opposition can do direct primaries and come out completely clean,” he said.

He warned party members and aspirants against adopting direct primaries ahead of the 2027 elections, urging them to embrace consensus arrangements instead.