SANs React To Arbitrary Substitution Of Candidates By Political Parties, Describe Action As Illegal

In the past few days, Nigeria’s political space has been intriguing with several political dynamics and interesting stunts being put up by politicians in the aftermath of the primaries of the various primaries and the rush by parties to submit their list of candidates within the timeframe stipulated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

One of the interesting trends which pundits have observed with keen interest and has sparked debates on the provisions of the newly signed Electoral Act, 2022 amongst Lawyers is the unilateral replacement of candidates duly elected through primaries by political parties in favour of some former presidential aspirants who failed in their presidential bids.

In Akwa Ibom, former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, was declared as the winner of a parallel senatorial primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Akwa Ibom North-west District after an earlier conducted primary declared Udom Ekpoudom, a retired deputy inspector general of police as the party’s candidate for the senatorial ticket.

In Yobe, after entreaties to make the elected candidate of the party in Yobe North Senatorial district, Bashir Machina to step down for Senate President, Ahmed Lawan after the latter’s failed presidential bid, the party went ahead to impose Lawan as the party’s candidate in an attempt to extend Lawan’s 23-year stay at the National Assembly.

These trend has attracted criticism from the general public and a number of Senior lawyers in Nigeria have reacted to the development, unanimously describing it as unlawful.

Kayode Enitan (SAN) said INEC cannot accept the name of a candidate that did not participate in a primary in line with Sections 31 and 33 of the Electoral Act.

He said, “There are specific grounds for substitution of candidates after the primary election, as clearly provided in Sections 31 and 33 of the Electoral Act, and these are voluntary withdrawal by the candidate or death of the candidate.

He said, “Where a candidate withdraws or dies, a fresh primary election must mandatorily be conducted by the party.

“INEC can, therefore, not accept replacement names that didn’t come out of the conduct of fresh primaries after the withdrawal or death of a candidate.”

Another Senior Advocate, Matthew Buka noted that the law is very clear on the mode of presentation of candidates for elections by political parties and that no one can contest elections without participating in the party’s primary.

According to him, “By the provisions of Section 84(5) C(ii) of the Electoral Act, no political party can just foist anybody on other contestants, unless they all withdraw or step down voluntarily and in writing.

He continued: “Even when the law is followed in this regard, a new primary must be conducted to fill the vacancy. Anything short of this is unlawful and must be challenged in court within 14 days.”

Equally sharing his thoughts on the development, A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Ahmed Raji, said substitution of candidate is allowed in our electoral law, if it is willful withdrawal by the candidate and it is done within the time frame.

The Learned Silk noted, ”There is room for substitution in the Electoral Act. If somebody has been nominated by his political party and he dies, the party can conduct another primary election within a specific time frame.”

Concurring with the position taken by the Senior Advcoates, Mr Abdul Balogun, said  in the case of senatorial seats in Yobe and Akwa Ibom, those involved should go to court and challenge the actions of their party.

”It is unfortunate that politicians refuse to learn from the mistakes of the past. It is expressly stated in the Electoral Act 2022 that political parties cannot substitute candidates, but what we see now, they still engage in it.

“What I will simply say is that those who feel their tickets have been wrongfully taken away from them should seek redress in the court and get justice,” Balogun said,

A law lecturer, Mr Sylvanus U. Agom, said the law guiding our elections should be strengthened and also sanction defaulters.

He said unless this is done, politicians will always find a way to manipulate the process.

He expressed disappointment that after over 20 years since the return to democracy, the country was yet to get its electoral processes right.

According to him, by now, the country should have gone beyond what we have now in our electoral process.

“We should be thinking of how to deepen our electoral process so that we can have credible elections. Unfortunately, politicians failed to play the game by the rule, they always find a way to subvert the process”, he said.