The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL) has applauded the Lagos State chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for its decision to adopt the direct primaries option in electing the party’s candidates for the forthcoming general elections.
CACOL’s Coordinator for Research and Documentation, Mr. Okechukwu Ndiribe, in a statement on behalf of Mr. Debo Adeniran its executive chairman, said direct open primaries would check rigging during the exercise.
Adeniran said: “The decision of the Lagos State chapter of APC to adopt the direct primaries option is not only going to deepen democracy in the state, but will also drastically reduce the magnitude of money politics and its corruptive influence in the emergence of the party’s flag-bearers in future electoral contests.
“It is pertinent to mention that CACOL has always maintained that the option of direct primaries will give power back to the grassroots of the party and drastically reduce the influence of moneybags who have hijacked the party for a long time through imposition of candidates for elective positions.
“It is also our position that such imposition of candidates promoted unbridled corruption across the party and the apparatus of government it controls.
READ ALSO: Intensify probe of looters, APC tells EFCC, ICPC
“We are optimistic that with the adoption of the direct primaries in the election of all future candidates of the party, pervasive corruption which had characterised the exercise in the past would be minimised thereby paving way for the true representatives of the people to emerge.”
Adeniran also expressed the hope that the development would sound the death knell to godfatherism in Nigeria’s political system since democratically elected candidates would not be tied to the apron strings of any moneybag.
He called on other state chapters of the party and all political parties in the country to embrace “the true democratic tradition of adopting direct primaries in the election of their candidates for all future elections across the nation.”
