Sen. Ali Ndume has said that lack of updated membership register remain a challenge to the adoption of direct primaries being advocated by leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to elect its candidates for 2019 general elections.
The Senator, who represents Borno South in the Senate, said this at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) forum in Abuja.
He added that while direct primaries was the best alternative in a democracy because it deepened the process and reflected the views of party members, adequate preparations must be put in place before it could be adopted.
Ndume said such preparation was critical to ensure the adoption of direct primaries, which guaranteed that every party member had opportunity to participate in deciding who would fly the party’s flag at various levels.
“There are challenges in some states; first of all, we were not adequately prepared for the direct primaries nationwide.
“There must be some recognition precedence before you implement the direct primaries and that is where the greatest challenge of APC is
“We embarked on members’ registration, but we have not really done that to a level where it can be effectively used for primaries.
“I give you an example of my state, or myself personally; right now, I have a membership slip, but I do not have a membership card”, the Senator said.
He noted that with just a membership slip, the party’s membership data base could be exposed to the challenges of security and manipulation, especially when a member tried to log in on the web.
Speaking further on the adoption of indirect primaries, the Senator said states that might be comfortable with the direct primaries because of challenges could get the party’s approval on the mode of primaries they wanted to adopt.
“Like in my state, we don’t have updated membership card and you know we have security challenges in the North East, where some local governments are still not very safe.
“We have instances of suicide bombings here and there, even though we thank God that we are running to three months or more now, without incidence of suicide bombing in Borno.
“But we have to take all the necessary precautions, after all, the people that will be involved in the indirect election were elected by party members,” the lawmaker added.
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