Primaries: APC dispatches materials for direct mode

By Omeiza Ajayi

The National Working Committee NWC of the All Progressives Congress APC appears to have retreated from its push for consensus primaries ahead of Thursday’s House of Representatives shadow elections, bowing to intense pressure from aspirants and grassroots members across the country’s 360 federal constituencies.

The clearest signal of the policy reversal came when the party’s Organising Department dispatched election materials and result sheets to all states on Thursday — a development insiders interpreted as a green light for direct primaries.

The NWC had initially championed the consensus route as a mechanism for preserving party cohesion, but the groundswell of opposition made that position increasingly untenable. The source confirmed that the leadership ultimately opted for flexibility to head off a full-scale internal crisis.

“Reports from many states reaching the NWC showed that our members and aspirants would rather subject their aspirations to an election than concede to consensus,” a high-ranking source within the party’s administrative organ told our correspondent.

He said, mindful of the demand, “the NWC has directed that everybody should go to the field where aspirants and stakeholders cannot agree.”

The revolt was most visible in Oyo State, where supporters of former Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu stormed the party secretariat in Ibadan, protesting the endorsement of Senator Sharafadeen Alli as the consensus governorship candidate.

“Imposing a candidate denies others a fair opportunity. We demand transparency and the adoption of direct primaries,” one protester declared.

In the Ile-Oluji/Oke-Igbo and Odigbo Federal Constituency in Ondo State, tensions ran equally high after reports emerged that Hon. Mathew Oyerinmade, popularly known as MATO, was being steered toward the House of Representatives seat following a failed senatorial bid — a move critics dismissed as a “consolation prize” dressed up as consensus.

Resistance was no less fierce in the North. Former Minister of Communications Prof. Isa Pantami publicly vowed to fight consensus arrangements in Gombe State, while former Inspectors-General of Police Abubakar Mohammed Adamu and Usman Alkali Baba — contesting in Nasarawa and Yobe states respectively — joined Benue’s Mathias Byuan in demanding a competitive process.

Thursday’s House of Representatives primaries mark only the opening round of what promises to be a defining season of internal contests for the ruling party.

The exercise serves as a litmus test for the APC’s commitment to internal democracy ahead of a sequence of primaries that will culminate in the Presidential Primary scheduled for May 23.

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