The executive director, YIAGA, Africa, Samson Itodo has raised concerns over the use of consensus candidacy within Nigeria’s Electoral Act framework.
Speaking during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, Itodo argued that while the law provides for different modes of party primaries, political parties often manipulate the consensus option in practice.
“I think the point is the whole philosophy around consensus isn’t the problem. The problem is how it is implemented. And you can clearly see in the build-up to the primaries, it’s what I call organized theft. It’s actually a suppression of political aspirations of people, but also a situation where power is concentrated on a few to determine for the vast majority of party members,” he stressed.
Adding, he said: “Keep in mind that before the 2022 Electoral Act, there were only two modes of candidate nomination: direct and indirect primaries. When you look across the board, you clearly see that the way it’s being implemented is in a way that not only suppresses the political aspirations of other aspirants, but it limits the space for contestation. And that itself is problematic because what you see is really imposition of candidates, and it’s not in any way consensus.”
Itodo warned that the growing reliance on consensus arrangements by political parties is undermining internal democracy and limiting genuine competition.
“What they’re actually doing is a situation where they’re undermining internal democracy within parties where a few now determine who will be the candidate of a political party. You perhaps will give the voters and party members a fait accompli, and this could actually lead to lower turnout because if the space for contestation and competition—if people are not allowed to aspire and let them lose through a fair contest—it might really discourage people from showing up to vote,” he warned.
Speaking on whether the situation amounts to godfatherism, Itodo explained that it reflects political control where powerful actors bypass rules to impose preferred candidates.
“It’s godfatherism in every respect. The truth is, you have a political process where there are political actors that don’t like to obey the rules of the game and they want to subvert the process at the expense of the will of the people. I have no problems if an incumbent has a preferred candidate. The problem I have is if you’re circumventing legal processes in such a way that you don’t create a level playing field for all. Let your preferred candidate also go and contest—that’s why you have the rules. You cannot suppress the voices and the aspirations of other members of your party because of your preferred candidate. That itself is antithetical to democratic values and principles,” he stressed.
Reiterating his stance on the issue of consensus, the executive director said he has consistently opposed its inclusion in Nigeria’s electoral framework, noting that civil society had warned against it during the legislative process.
“I’ve argued consistently that we had no business introducing consensus mode of primaries into our electoral legal framework,” he stated.
In his last remarks, Itodo warned that failure to adhere to key provisions, including those on party membership registers, could lead to severe consequences such as disqualification from fielding candidates.
“We hope, quite frankly, that the political parties are vigilant in ensuring they comply with the provisions of the Act because the consequences are very dire. The law is very clear in Section 77 of the Act: that if you run afoul of either regarding your membership register, the penalty is that you’ll be disqualified from fielding a candidate. So, I hope that they are actually paying close attention. But also party members need to be very vigilant. But I really worry that for parties that adopt the consensus mode, I’m really looking for how they’re going to pull through with the provisions of the law.”
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