Political parties across the country are conducting their primary elections to choose candidates that will bear their flags in the 2023 general elections. It is a positive development which signposts a measure of progress in Nigeria’s democratic journey.
The primary elections are taking place despite all the eviscerating conditions in the country which range from gruesome murder of innocent citizens, absolute collapse of the country’s security architecture on all fronts, and the perennial dislocation of the country’s university calendar occasioned by industrial actions.
Indeed, hard-pressed Nigerians can hardly wait for the current administration to end. It appears that everyday ushers in one disembowelling situation or another.
Given this mindset all over the country, Nigerians collectively accept the party primaries seeing that it is the first step to enthroning a new administration.
The principal figures in the primary elections are party delegates and representatives who are nominated to vote at designated venues of the elections.
However, there are deep concerns that the delegates and party officials have turned the exercise into a cash circus for personal enrichment. All over the country, the story is the same party delegates collect money from aspirants to vote for them. There are reports in the media that a certain politician in the North is asking for a refund of seventy-six million naira after losing the primary election.
He expended the amount to compromise delegates but eventually got only two votes. This is a despicable practice which portends disaster for our democracy.
If this kind of practice continues, it means that those who have the largest war chest, no matter their background, will emerge as party candidates. There is a risk of having neverdowells, criminals, thieves, and incompetent people emerge as party flag bearers because they have the cash.
What calibre of people are party delegates? Who selects them and what are the criteria for their selection? From reports across the country, delegates are ready to merchandise their conscience for the devil’s filthy lucre. In other climes, party delegates are distinguished, morally upright, and honest people who have the interest of the community and the country at heart. The future of our country is in danger if, through the unconscionable undoing of these party delegates, unsuitable people emerge as leaders. It is instructive that some people in Nigeria will have no scruples to steal every available currency in Nigeria even if it means the death of 200 million people.
All the party delegates in the country have a duty to themselves first, God, their families, and to Nigeria to vote for credible candidates.
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Although this view appears distant and unrealistic in a country like Nigeria battered by hardship and economic strangulation, the ugly narrative can be changed.
The party delegates have a responsibility to rescue Nigeria from the throes of political marauders who masquerade as saviours of the people.
To the delegates we say: reject the bad eggs by rejecting their money. Stay away from the devil and never dine with him. Kindly remember your future and the future of your children. Nigeria currently hangs on a dangerous precipice and your decisions at the primaries can go a long way to decide if the country will tip over the abyss or not. Party primary election is not an opportunity for self-enrichment.
Ironically, the delegates must know that the good candidates do not always have money to share. Those who share money are political predators, wolves in sheep clothing that must have made money by compromising social structures.
Party delegates who collect money to vote in the primaries are thieves, simple. There is no better way to say it. They are invidiously assaulting their conscience and the future of the country.
A process that thrives on stealing will automatically produce thieves; this is the moral burden the delegates must bear. By the time the party primaries are over, different candidates would have emerged for different positions.
Then, a head count will be made and Nigerians will know whether the delegates stole the future of the country or demonstrated a responsible attitude at the primaries. Also, politicians who imagine and are convinced that they can compromise the process by inducing party delegates with huge sums of money should remember the divine and inevitable day of reckoning. It is never far away.
The 2023 election is symbolic in many ways but more directly, its outcome will signify the revival or collapse of Nigeria. Party delegates at party primaries have the onerous responsibility to kick start a renewal process of the Nigeria entity.
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