The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released the final list of governorship candidates for next year's elections in Nigeria. The list, which was published at the weekend, has several prominent political names missing. This development may be seen by some voters as a form of post-dated election rigging. The basis for the disqualification of these candidates was laid in the Electoral Act, which was ratified by the Supreme Court and enforced by INEC.
Among the prominent candidates who did not make it into the final list were Ali Ibrahim Pantami of the Gombe PDP, Ladi Adebutu of the Ogun PDP, and Aminu Abdussalam Gwarzo of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in Kano State. These candidates were disqualified due to Sections 77(5), (6), (7), and 84(2) of the Electoral Act 2022, which barred political parties from fielding candidates whose names were not in the membership register that they submitted to INEC within the stipulated time.
However, some other candidates with question marks hanging over their heads following the Supreme Court ruling made it to the list. These include Rivers APC candidate and former House of Representatives minority leader Kingsley Chinda, Kebbi ADC candidate and former Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, and Nasarawa SDP candidate and former Police Inspector General Mohamed Adamu. The Supreme Court had on September 26 overturned the Appeal Court's ruling and restored the validity of the sections of the Electoral Act.
The Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) had gone to court seeking to annul these sections, citing that they violated the constitutional right of political parties to regulate their own affairs. However, a High Court rejected ZLP's argument, while the Court of Appeal accepted it and quashed the sections. The Supreme Court's ruling ultimately upheld the sections, paving the way for INEC to publish the final list of candidates.
The Electoral Act provision demanding that parties submit a register of their members to INEC within a certain period before they can conduct their primary elections has been a subject of debate. On the face of it, the provision makes sense because INEC is legally mandated to observe party congresses, conventions, and elections. However, in practical Nigerian political terms, a party register is unnecessary because apart from party officials and public officers elected or appointed into offices on a party's platform, no one really belongs to any political party or pays membership dues.
In the Second Republic, party membership was well marked and intense, with traders, market women, bus drivers, tenants, tailors, and roadside mechanics identifying themselves with political parties by hanging party flags and symbols all over their premises. Party support was so strong that landlords threw out tenants, customers avoided some stalls, and fathers-in-law snatched their daughters away from husbands all on account of party differences. Even then, there was nothing like a party register of members.
The implications of the Electoral Act provision and the Supreme Court's ruling are significant, as they may affect the chances of some candidates in the upcoming elections. The development has also raised questions about the role of INEC in regulating political parties and the need for a more comprehensive framework for party membership and registration.
Key points
- Several prominent politicians, including Ali Ibrahim Pantami and Ladi Adebutu, were disqualified from the governorship candidacy due to the Electoral Act provision.
- The Supreme Court's ruling on September 26 upheld the validity of the sections of the Electoral Act, paving the way for INEC to publish the final list of candidates.
- The Electoral Act provision demanding a party register has been a subject of debate, with some arguing that it is unnecessary in the Nigerian political context.
