2019: Indirect primary system, bundle of corruption – Shehu Sani

…Supports Buhari, Oshiomhole
Senator Shehu Sani, representing Kaduna central has emphasized that some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), including Governors asking for indirect primary election for the party to select its flag bearers in preparation for the 2019 general elections are not faithful to the party.

Within the last few days, the issue of indirect/direct election for the party primaries has generated reactions within and outside the APC.

Speaking with journalists at the party secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday after a petition submitted to the leadership of the party, Senator Sani, who led other stakeholders from Kaduna along with a governorship and senatorial aspirants in the state said he supports the direct primary as proclaimed by President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

He said those insisting on indirect primaries are against the progressive ideals of the ruling party and President Buhari’s war against corruption.

The letter reads: “Delegate System, otherwise called Indirect Primaries will rely on the whims and caprices of the few that control the party after emerging from Ward, local government and state congresses that have been widely rejected by party members as a sham with names of all party executives that were solely written by the Governors.

“That alienated many of our party members and caused mass exodus from the party. These selected party executives under the tyrannical hold of the Governors have been complying with their Governor’s biddings, limiting access, communication and association to only those candidates favoured by the Governor.

“A great number of party executive members have been appointed to serve as campaign coordinators of the Governor’s preferred candidates at various levels while those deemed to be sympathetic to the cause of the people other than the Governor have been shown the way out.

“It would have come to your notice that the proponents of Indirect Primaries in the state, particularly the Governor and his cohorts, rely on the excuse that the current security situation in the state makes direct primaries impracticable end risky. This argument is not nearly as clever as it should be considering that it out rightly contradicts claims by the same Governor that Kaduna State has been made secured.

It was also noted in the letter that, “indirect Primaries stand as direct antithesis to the commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari to fight corruption at all levels”, they maintained.