Senate President Godswill Akpabio has indicated that the 2022 Electoral Act will be amended to reinstate statutory delegates in political party primaries ahead of the 2027 general elections.
While addressing the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Abuja on Monday, Akpabio admitted that the omission of statutory delegates from party primaries in the current electoral law was a “costly mistake” that needed to be rectified before the next election cycle.
He pointed out that the exclusion of statutory delegates, including the president, vice president, governors, deputy governors, members of parliament, and local council chairmen, from the 2022 Electoral Act inadvertently created a situation where only “super-delegates” had a significant say in candidate selection. This, according to Akpabio, made the process less inclusive, as it reduced the number of participants in the selection of candidates for legislative, governorship, and presidential elections.
Akpabio emphasized, “Democracy is about numbers. When statutory delegates were omitted, it meant that unless one contested as an ad hoc delegate, they had no role in selecting party flag bearers.” He argued that this reduced the democratic nature of party primaries and needed to be corrected.
In addition to reinstating statutory delegates, Akpabio also stated that the National Assembly would review the powers granted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under the 2022 Electoral Act. He expressed concern that INEC had, in some instances, appeared to have the final say on candidate selection, rather than the political parties themselves. Akpabio called for a system where political parties retain the authority to choose candidates who align with their manifestos and have the integrity to deliver democratic benefits to the public.
Beyond electoral reforms, Akpabio used the opportunity to address the issue of quacks in the legal profession. He urged the NBA to take action against fraudulent individuals practicing law without proper qualifications, stressing the importance of protecting the integrity of the legal profession.
In response, NBA President Afam Osigwe (SAN) urged the National Assembly to incorporate reforms in the justice sector during the ongoing constitutional amendment process. Osigwe shared an anecdote about exposing an impostor practicing as a lawyer at the Igbosere Magistrate Court in Lagos in the early 1990s, underscoring the need for the NBA to continue to identify and remove quacks from the profession.
