The Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA) has called on Nigerians to closely monitor the activities of politicians and political parties as preparations for the next general election gather momentum.
In a statement issued in Abuja, PAACA’s Executive Director, Ezenwa Nwagwu, warned that excessive focus on the Election Management Body (EMB) diverts attention from deeper problems within Nigeria’s political system, particularly the lack of internal democracy in political parties.
According to Nwagwu, the quality of party primaries largely determines the credibility of general elections.
“Nigerians underestimate the role political parties play in the outcome of secondary elections. If the primary elections are bad, the outcome will reflect in the main elections. Ninety per cent of the challenges we have in our elections are due to lack of internal democracy—imposition of candidates, absence of genuine contest, and lack of competition within parties,” he said.
He spoke against the backdrop of the anticipated resumption of deliberations by the National Assembly on electoral reforms and possible amendments to the Electoral Act.
Nwagwu urged citizens and stakeholders to pay attention to the growing wave of defections across political parties and the internal crises such movements may trigger.
“Stakeholders must pay keen attention to what the political parties are doing. We cannot be described as meddlesome interlopers in the affairs of people who recruit leaders for us. The leader-selection process is a sacred assignment that political parties are involved in. They are the ones who present candidates.
INEC does not present candidates,” he noted.
He added that political parties often submit unqualified candidates, resulting in prolonged legal battles.
The PAACA director stressed that meaningful reforms must extend beyond the frequent passage of new electoral laws, insisting that politicians’ attitudes toward democracy remain a fundamental issue.
“We may have all the good laws, but at the end of the day, it comes down to the attitude of politicians,” Nwagwu said.
“Even when you make new laws, the politicians who make the laws go back to study how to subvert them.”
He also criticised what he described as the over-concentration on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), arguing that election administrators often become scapegoats for crises engineered by political actors.
“About 60 per cent of electoral crises are orchestrated by political actors themselves. But all of us are fixated on the election administrator whose job is simply to conduct elections,” he stated.
Warning that political activities would intensify from February, Nwagwu urged citizens to remain vigilant and resist attempts by politicians to dominate public discourse.
“Politicians have mastered the art of diverting attention from the real issues, and citizens must not allow them to control the narrative,” he cautioned.
He predicted a surge in self-promotion by politicians, including awards and media recognition, urging Nigerians to demand accountability instead.
“As citizens, it is our duty to ask them how they have improved the lives of Nigerians—in health, education, and other critical sectors,” he said.
Nwagwu also faulted lawmakers who, according to him, return home during holidays to distribute food items without engaging constituents meaningfully.
“Many lawmakers went home to share rice, but none held town hall meetings to explain how they have been representing their people in Abuja,” he said.
On electoral reforms, he identified result management as a critical area requiring urgent attention, clarifying that the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV) does not amount to electronic collation.
“The real challenge is collation. What we need is a system that allows electronic collation of results from polling units to local governments. IReV is not collation,” Nwagwu explained.
He further called for the expansion of Nigeria’s democratic space through reforms such as reserved legislative seats for women, diaspora voting, and early voting.
Nwagwu lamented the absence of ideological opposition in Nigeria’s political landscape, noting that the country has “opposition figures, not opposition parties.”
“There is no imagination or alternative vision on how the economy should be run. What we see repeatedly is the same IMF-driven agenda of privatisation,” he said.
He added that a review of Nigeria’s economic trajectory over the past four decades shows little innovation in policy direction, regardless of the party in power.
