The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has raised a strong alarm over the removal of indirect primaries in Nigeria’s Electoral Act 2026, warning that the country’s party system is sliding into what it called “elite capture” ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Speaking at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) quarterly consultative meeting in Abuja, IPAC Chairman Yusuf Dantalle said the decision to restrict political parties to direct primaries and consensus arrangements has fundamentally altered how candidates emerge, stripping millions of party members of meaningful participation.
He noted that indirect primaries had long served as a democratic filter, allowing elected delegates to mediate between aspirants and grassroots members. Their removal, he said, has created a vacuum now filled by opaque negotiations, imposed consensus lists, and expensive direct contests that favor money and influence over legitimacy.
“What is emerging is not internal democracy, but elite consolidation,” Dantalle warned. “The absence of indirect primaries has weakened internal accountability mechanisms and handed excessive control to party power blocs who now determine who appears on the ballot.”
He pointed to recent nomination exercises that exposed deep cracks within parties, including allegations of imposition, restricted access to nomination materials, and lack of transparency in managing consensus arrangements. These developments have triggered a surge in intra-party litigation, with courts increasingly drawn into disputes originating from poorly structured nomination processes.
Dantalle also cautioned that the dominance of direct primaries has created a financial arms race within parties, sidelining credible aspirants who lack deep financial resources or state-backed political machinery. This risks narrowing political competition and reducing elections to contests between heavily funded blocs rather than popular choice.
He further highlighted growing legal uncertainty surrounding INEC’s regulatory authority over party primaries, warning that conflicting court rulings have left political actors unsure of compliance boundaries, compounding tensions within parties already struggling with internal legitimacy crises.
The IPAC chairman argued that the cumulative effect is a weakening of trust in the entire electoral chain, from party nominations to general elections. “You cannot build electoral integrity on internally compromised political parties,” he stressed.
He urged the National Assembly to urgently review the Electoral Act 2026, calling for restoration of flexibility in nomination methods. Parties should be allowed to choose between direct, indirect, and consensus models based on their internal structures and democratic maturity, rather than being forced into a single rigid system.
Looking ahead to the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections and the 2027 general polls, Dantalle warned that unresolved internal party tensions could escalate into broader electoral instability if not addressed. He called for issue-based campaigns and warned against the rising trend of political intimidation and violence.
He also urged security agencies to maintain strict neutrality, stressing that the credibility of Nigeria’s elections depends on their professionalism and non-partisan conduct. IPAC remains ready to work with INEC, the legislature, political parties, and civil society groups to reverse the creeping centralization of power within parties and restore genuine internal democracy before 2027.
