2023: APC governors meet over zoning, direct primaries, national convention

Governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) held a closed-door meeting on Sunday night in Abuja.

Sources say that the meeting was under the aegis of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) to discuss some knotty issues affecting the party at the moment as Nigeria prepares for the next round of national election in 2023.

Present at the meeting were the host governor and chairman of the group, Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi State, his counterparts from Kwara, Imo, Borno, Ebonyi, Lagos and Zamfara.

Other governors were from Niger, Ogun, Cross River, Kogi, Nasarawa, Katsina, Plateau, Ekiti, Jigawa and Kano.

At 10:00 p.m., their counterparts from Osun, Yobe, Gombe and Kaduna were expected.

The meeting was essentially called to discuss the party’s national convention, zoning arrangement, direct primary and other issues.

The PGF, at its meeting of November 9, had said adopting direct primaries by political parties would overstretch the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The National Assembly adopted Section 87 of the amended Electoral Bill currently awaiting the assent of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The section stipulates mandatory direct primaries for all political parties.

However, at PGF last meeting, Bagudu said that INEC’s decision to make it mandatory for political parties to elect their candidates for elective positions through direct primaries was undemocratic.

According to him, it will limit parties’ ability to choose their desired options.

Direct primaries involve the participation of all party members in the selection of candidates.

In contrast, indirect primaries involve delegates who are mostly leaders and executives at the ward, local government and state levels to elect the party’s candidates at congress or convention.