Former President Goodluck Jonathan, has on Thursday, condemned the ongoing primary elections by the main political parties in the country, for the 2023 general elections, .
Recall, that there have been reports of how Aspirants have been financially inducing Party Delegates just to get the winning votes.
There have also been reports of some Aspirants who failed to secure their party’s tickets after the primaries, demanding for their monies back from the Delegates who failed to vote for them despite collecting bribe.
Speaking at a book launch, titled: ‘Political Party Governance’, authored by Dr. Mohammed Wakil, a former Minister of State for Power, Jonathan said that it is “disgraceful to induce Delegates to get their votes, and then request for refund, after failing to secure tickets”.
He added: “These whole primaries going on across the country is a mess. This is not a standard practice. The process has failed.
“We cannot use the process to elect President, Governors, Senators and House of Representatives Members, and others.
“The process is already failed, which is not good for the country. But we will manage and move on.
“We pray that good people should come. I hope that what happened this year, 2022, will not happen again in this country.”
The former President speaking further, urged the National Assembly to make Laws to criminalise inducement of Party Delegates and the Electorate.
He also asked the Legislature to expunge from the Electoral Act, the Sections that state how political parties should select Candidates for elections.
Jonathan noted: “The National Assembly cannot make Laws and lock all political parties together. Parties have different ways of nominating Candidates, and the process is enshrined in their constitutions.
“Creating a situation where all parties must have the same way of selecting Candidates is nonsense. Parties are not Parastatals of government.
“The National Assembly cannot make Laws to strangulate political parties. Section 84 should be expunged from the Electoral Act.”