When the National Assembly amended the 2022 Electoral Act to make direct primaries compulsory, the goal was simple: give party members, not a few delegates, power to choose candidates. One election cycle later, the results are messy. Seriake Dickson, National Leader of the opposition Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), says the law backfired. Speaking on Arise TV’s Prime Time recently, he admitted NDC’s primaries were flawed, but argued the real problem is a law that ignored Nigeria’s political and logistical reality. However, observing that his comments lays bare a national dilemmas, Ekuson Nw’Ogbunka, Our Managing Editor, in this piece asked: “Can direct primaries work in a country where INEC and parties still struggle with basic election logistics?” Excerpts.
The National Assembly recently amended the 2022 Electoral Act, making direct primaries the mandatory mode for all political party candidate selection. The amendment was sold as a reform to deepen democracy inside parties.
One election cycle into the new rule, cracks are showing. The National Leader of the opposition Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, Seriake Dickson, has admitted his party experienced irregularities during its recent primary elections.
Dickson spoke on Wednesday night as a guest on _Prime Time_, Arise TV’s flagship political programme. He faced tough questions about chaos and disputes that trailed NDC’s candidate selection process.
“I want to tell all our members, particularly aspirants and their supporters, that we feel what they feel,” Dickson began. “They feel some of the processes were not perfect, and I will be one of the first to admit that.”
“I’m not here to say that the primary processes were perfect. Far from it,” he added, striking a conciliatory tone before pivoting to his main argument.
Dickson blamed the amended Electoral Act 2026 as the major cause of the irregularities and the crisis that followed NDC’s primaries. He said the law created a problem parties were not ready to solve.
The former Bayelsa governor argued that replacing the delegate system with direct primaries complicated candidate selection for almost every party in Nigeria.
“Direct primaries, in the way and manner the electoral act stipulated, has created a crisis,” he said. “For a new party like NDC, it could have been worse.”
Dickson claimed he warned against the provision from day one. “I made it clear from the day the Electoral Act was passed that it was legislative overreach,” he stated.
“The Electoral Act had no business prescribing, composing, mandating direct primaries,” he argued. In his view, the mode of primaries should be left to parties to decide based on their structure and capacity.
He contrasted the current chaos with the old delegate system. “There were complaints from people who went to court during indirect primaries, but the system was controlled because they had a delegate system,” he said.
The logistical burden, Dickson argued, is the biggest flaw. Direct primaries legally require the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to monitor elections in every ward and local government area.
“That was conceived without considering the infrastructural needs of the method,” he said. “INEC doesn’t simply have the capacity to do it.”
“So what happens when you say direct primaries? In our case, in the APC, and for a new party, you go to the field and face the same challenge,” Dickson explained.
“This is the root cause of this issue, which is affecting all parties,” he insisted. He claimed NDC is “managing it far better, even without any government influence” compared to the ruling party.
Dickson also accused aspirants of exploiting the new system. He said direct primaries encourage manipulation because candidates can mobilize crowds and declare themselves winners without proper collation.
“In a direct primary situation, for any party, especially a new party, people go to the field, gather their crowd, declare themselves, and then tell you they won,” he said.
“Most of these guys making claims that they won… if you investigate properly, most of them are brandishing results,” he added, questioning the credibility of many aspirants.
Despite the crisis, Dickson expressed optimism. He said NDC’s next primaries would be cleaner because the party is rolling out electronic voting to eliminate human manipulation and collation disputes.
He also addressed allegations of “ill-treatment” by senatorial aspirant Aisha Yesufu, suggesting she was “popular on social media” and “might not want to play by the rules.” On money, Dickson denied NDC sells tickets to the highest bidder, but admitted parties must consider whether aspirants can fund campaigns. “What is not tolerable is ‘give me this before you get a ticket.’ That doesn’t happen in the NDC,” he said. The debate over whether to amend the Electoral Act again before 2027 has just begun.
