Peter Ameh is a former chairman of the InterParty Advisory Council in Nigeria (IPAC). In this interview, he speaks on the provisions of the Electoral Act and the election guidelines released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU reports

Events are unfolding ahead of the 2027 general elections in line with the stipulations of the Electoral Act. What do you think about all of that?

I think it’s just the internal organic process by which parties organise themselves. And that is on the fabric to which the National Assembly made attempt to try to throw rubble and disorganise them because there are a lot of decisions that were taken by the National Assembly. So, this recently signed Electoral Act by the President actually undermines the internal workings of political parties because parties are supposed to be organic in nature and have the power to organize themselves internally.

What we now have today is that certain powers that have been donated to the political party from section 22(3) to 22(10), where they can self-regulate their own activities and manage the affairs of their party with the organs of the parties as established through several organs , have been taken away.

There is the national convention, national executive council meeting, you have state working committee meeting, national working committee. So, all these have been taken away where you have the issue that direct and consensus is only a valuable tool for the parties, you know, to apply when they are trying to select their leaders.

There’s no problem; parties can navigate around it. But we need to allow the National Assembly to know that the kind of approach that they are applying to regulation and overregulating the affairs of political party will further shrink the democratic space and limit the function of the party to just only hoping on the National Assembly. There are several other provisions that the National Assembly have taken, like the 21 days’ notice after your membership has been sent to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that you can no longer move. That undermines the direct confrontation to the provision of the constitution.

Why did you say so?

Yes, it is clear in section 40 of the Constitution. It says you are entitled to move freely and assist whoever persons you want. There’s no guideline in this that can undermine the provision of the constitution.

You are saying that within 21 days, that section 40 has been suspended. Where our problem lies is not the freedom of Nigerian citizens who are willing to be members of political parties. No, that’s not our problem. Our problems are people who are taking mandate of parties and moving to other parties without the respect to the party upon which they were elected.

That’s where the problem is. They’re not willing to touch that. What the National Assembly is doing is the application of the tyranny of majority in the sense that we have the numbers to pass some of these laws, but we’re going to parties to try to protect our parties and also shrink the opportunities that are valuable to the opposition parties. That is not right.

But then there’s also an ill that some people are happy with that that law is there to address because if you’re going to be in a political party, you don’t just jump to the next one if it doesn’t favour you?

Let’s leave our assumptions aside. Let’s leave our feelings aside. For citizens of this federal republic, the constitution is very clear. You need to read section 40 of Constitution. Our democracy and our freedom, the movement, this expression and the association is built on one cardinal principles of the constitution, that you do not restrict the power of the people to associate.

Please, you can ask any lawyer, I’m not saying moving on the day of the election, even on the day of election. What would you rather have is to have a transparent electoral process.

I think this clause is unnecessary and that’s the truth. The 21 days is unnecessary. They did it last time, people went to court and the court threw it out. I heard Justice Salami’s opinion. But this is the opinion of a partisan person. He has been a member of committees under Malami and all that.

Does that take away his knowledge and his professionalism?

You can ask lawyers, the constitutional definition of freedom of association and freedom to participate in and freely participate with other persons is very clear that you shall belong to a trade union, a political party, or an association that protects your interests.

That’s what the constitution says. You can’t suspend that through the Electoral Act. The constitution says anywhere that any law exists and it contradicts the provisions of the constitution, that law is void.

But INEC is saying that views like yours will give them headache and that they can’t practicalize it?

They are not as difficult as you are looking at it. As long as you do not over-regulate the process, you are forgetting one thing, that INEC is a registrar and a regulator of political parties. The National Assembly cannot over-regulate and should not over-regulate, because there are buffers and check and balances that have been established by the constitution. I’m telling you that you are undermining the provision that the constitution has.

The responsibility of a political party has been stated in the constitution that the political party will sponsor a candidate, and that a person willing to contest will become a member of a political party. So, whatever internal things you need to have, whether it’s direct, concessional, indirect, these are what the national body of the party will sit down and then take a decision upon it. If you take away all this function, the parties will no longer have the authority to take certain decisions.

Doesn’t the law say something about that if you are elected in a party, you can’t move with the mandate of that party?

One thing with the National Assembly is that they make a law and they make another law to counter the first law. That law has been weakened by section 109 that says that when you move, it is the speaker or the Senate president that will declare your seat vacant.

There is a law that you cannot execute because the Senate president will not declare the seat vacant if the movement is tailored towards the interest of his party. You challenge a law if there’s something that is done.

A good number of Nigerians and even party members are concerned that a particular provision of the Electoral Act is as troubling as it is, the electronic register. It is not a new thing in the law. But now that the law seems to be making it mandatory, it seems that some parties are jittery. Why do you think that is?

I don’t think the parties are jittery. I think the problem is the timeline. Look, the APC has been preparing for this thing for over a year. You need to understand that all parties have party registers. It might be manual form just like you used to have when you want to vote, your name will be checked on the voter register and then you go and vote.

So, all parties have register, what they are saying is not electronic register that the concern is the new Electoral Act. It’s digital register. So, you can have a manual register and tell your typist to put it into Microsoft Word and then submit.

But when you are having online registration, it’s a process that you register and then at the end of the day, this digital platform can help you to collate the numbers of members you have and then probably help you partition where they come from and where they are pulling it in. So, it makes it easier. But when you want to prepare an electoral process, you cannot strangulate the commission. You remove the timeline for releasing funds to INEC by 12 months to six months.

That will affect the logistical planning and distribution of material and reverse logistics operations of the electoral commission, which will further probably undermine the conduct of our elections. Secondly, you will not just wake up and decide that this register will be submitted within so-so time and you pass the law at the tail end to the time of the submission. Look at when the law was signed. They had all the time but they decided not to do it.

How does the unfair advantage that the APC has affect the chances of other political parties?

There are parties that are organised. There are parties that are, like, right, people who want to join them. At the tails end maybe two days to election, five days to election. APC knows what it has done.

They have been arresting people from the opposition camp. You have a convention that will be happening with the APC, but you have people who have bought forms and are not allowed to participate. That’s why the constitution is very clear that if a member is disenfranchised, if a member does not enjoy the protection of his rights and interests as established by section 40 of the constitution he or she can leave the party but APC is saying no, you can’t be part of another political party.

So, what APC is doing is to say we have the majority, so we will use the majority in a tyrannical manner to be able to make laws and make sure that we do self-protection. This selfprotection is not in the collective interest of the Nigerian people and does not augur well for entrenchment of democratic values that will help to promote the collective interest of our people.

Are you arguing about the 21 days, so that people don’t move from one party to the other because the Labour Party is expecting Peter Obi to return if he doesn’t get the ADC ticket?

That is not true. Peter Obi has gone, he’s in the ADC. You need to get it clear. I’ve been a Labour Party member for a very long time, even before Peter Obi joined. Today, we have a platform and we have a governor.