By; VICTOR DAZANG, Kaduna
With less than a week to the June 9 deadline for the conduct of party primaries in Nigeria, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have renewed calls for transparent, rule-based Presidential convention by political parties.
The call was made by seven CSOs and reiterated the strategic importance of fair and credible primaries endearing positive democratic externalities within the context of the forthcoming civilian-to-civilian transition process in Nigeria.
The CSOs in a statement jointly signed by YIAGA Africa, AfriPeace, CISLAC, Transition Monitoring, Centre for the Advocacy of Justice and Rights, Women in Nigeria and Zero Corruption Coalition and made available to this medium, said that they have affirmed their demands that candidates must among other things, emerge from credible rule-based primaries in line with democratic standards.
The statement further saud that, manipulated and stage managed primaries remain antithetical to democratic ideals and they must be prevented to the barest minimum.
“We must thus call on political parties yet to nominate presidential candidates to ensure they deliver conventions that are not free and fair in the theoretical or abstract sense, but in terms of intrinsic transparent and accountability in its accreditation, voting and collation process.
“We call on political parties to collaborate with relevant law enforcement agencies to curtail the rather asinine monetization of the nomination process. The so-called Naira reign needs to be brought to a definitive end, delegates should be sentisized on the necessity of voting their conscience over primordial and pecuniary considerations.
“All political parties must consequently safeguard the sanctity of the secret ballot system by institutionalizing binding, transparency, anti-inducement and trust engendering measures that enforces the confidence of all stakeholders in the primaries election process.
“Such confidence in the electoral process will further be bolstered through more robust mechanism such as banning of handheld devices in the voting booths, accreditation of delegates through the use of national identity cards, passports, driver’s license, voter’s card as credible means of identification for the purpose of accreditation.
“As we collectively strive to build democratic institutions that would promote balanced and accelerated development, we urge INEC to enforce its regulatory powers against political parties that contravene provisions of the electoral act 2022 and INEC guidelines before, during and after the primaries,” the statement said.
