A few days ago, I spoke with a friend who is a chieftain of a popular political party in Nigeria. This young man, enterprising, well-schooled, intellectually sound and with good leadership credentials, has held various positions in government at all levels. He is a former elected local government chairman. He was a top government official in his home state. He had served as elected lawmaker at the National Assembly. He also served as a special adviser to a president of Nigeria. He is a professional in politics and has done well for himself and in the service of our fatherland.
With the timetable of the 2027 general election released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the primaries of political parties expected to be concluded this month, I was curious to know which elected office he would vie for since he still has something to offer in government. When I asked, he was frank and unequivocal. “I do not have any ambition, my brother,” he said. And without waiting for me to ask why, he continued: “I will only obtain our party’s nomination form to vie for elective office if our ‘political leader’ asks me to.”
My friend explained that the political space in the country is structured in such a way that nobody gets a ticket except he or she gets the endorsement of the political leader or godfather of the political structure. He said, with finality, that except his state governor gives him a nod to obtain a nomination form for the 2027 election, he would not waste his time, energy and money to venture. According to him, wise people no longer tell governors or the president they have political ambition. The best thing, he said, is to wait for governors and the president to instruct you to obtain nomination form as not waiting for that nod will make the project simply DOA – dead on arrival.
I was not surprised to hear that. My friend, like most people who have ventured into politics and sought political parties’ tickets to seek elective offices, has had his fingers burnt. It is a reality Nigerians now live with. Governors and the president have become the gods in the political system that it takes only a miracle for anybody to emerge as a candidate of any political party without their endorsement.
To say the least, democracy is being suffocated by the capture of political parties by powerful incumbents. Governors and the president, in any dispensation, dictate who gets political party tickets, making the outcome not a choice but the playground of a few people who have constituted themselves as political gods. This practice has been further legitimised with the elegant word “consensus” recently introduced in the Electoral Act 2026 by the National Assembly.
The practice in the country is that governors are the leaders of their political parties in their various states, while the president is the national leader. Where a political party does not have an elected governor, a member in the state, who occupies the highest political office, would assume that position. It is a troubling pattern, which has taken root. With it, political party primaries, intended for the emergence of the best candidates, have become rituals of endorsement by governors and the president. Now, delegates, in direct or indirect primaries, arrive not to decide, but to affirm decisions already taken in private residences of governors and presidential villas. In fact, election manipulation no longer happens on election day. It happens months before, in closed-door meetings where a governor or president decides who takes the party ticket. By the time citizens line up to vote, the real election is already over as the ballot is a formality. The winner had been chosen by the powers-that-be.
The dominance of executive influence over party structures has reached alarming levels. Since 2003, accusations of imposition and backroom deal-making have become routine features of the political process. Governors, with larger-than-life political power, handpick successors and other candidates, sidelining dissenters, and using party machinery against perceived opponents. The consequences of this structure, where governors and presidents have become sole delegates who determine who gets tickets for election, are profound and corrosive. This erodes legitimacy. When candidates emerge not through fair contest but through imposition, in the name of consensus or political anointing, they carry the stain of illegitimacy into public office. Since citizens know that their choices have been predetermined, voter apathy grows, cynicism deepens, and democracy loses its moral authority.
There are no two ways. Imposition of candidates by godfathers destroys meritocracy. In many cases, capable and visionary individuals without godfathers are pushed aside while loyalists, who may lack competence, are rewarded and given tickets to become candidates and ultimately elected officials. It is obvious that when a candidate gets elected not because of his competence or pedigree but owing to the anointing of a godfather and the manipulation of election, governance suffers as leadership becomes an exercise in loyalty repayment rather than public service.
It is because of the shenanigans of godfathers that there is instability in the political space, with mass defections across political parties. Those excluded by manipulated primaries often defect to other political parties and destabilise the system. The enactment of the Electoral Act 2026 with a provision that makes dual membership of political parties an offence has not solved the problem. Politicians not favoured by godfathers now defect before primaries. In mass defections caused by impositions and overbearing attitude of political godfather, political parties fracture, elections become battlegrounds, and governance is disrupted.
Nobody would lose sight of the entrenchment of corruption by imposition of candidates. When candidates owe their emergence to a single powerful figure, accountability shifts. Instead of serving the electorate, the anointed candidates serve their benefactors. Public resources become tools for settling political debts and primary function of the official in government is neglected. Where the godson refuses to comply, political war begins with the godfather, which inhibits progress.
It must be said that imposition of candidates weakens the very foundation of democracy. It is not possible to practice authoritarianism inside a political party and produce democracy outside it. The same governor who dictates local government chairmen also dictates who runs for House of Assembly. The same governor who anoints a standard bearer will deploy state resources and security to defend that endorsement at the polls. This is why Nigerian elections keep producing the same outcomes and public offices treated as settlement benefits. When governor’s loyalists get tickets to the state House of Assembly, the legislature cannot check him. When the president decides who becomes the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the legislature cannot check him, and the separation of powers collapses before the casting of the first vote.
Nigeria and, indeed, Africa cannot continue with this democratic charade. Political parties are the gateways to leadership. The 1999 Constitution (as amended) provides that only political parties can present candidates for elections. This means that without political parties, governors and the president would not have platforms to be elected to the offices they wield so much power. If, therefore, a few powerful hands lock up political parties, then the entire democratic structure stands on a hollow foundation. The ideal thing is for political parties to be stronger than their members, no matter how highly placed in government the members are. Therefore, party members must resist the quiet surrender of their rights to a few people.
I am persuaded that the future of Nigerian democracy will not be decided only at the ballot box on election day. It will be determined at the political party primaries, in delegate conferences, in political party conventions, in the internal processes that decide who gets the chance to contest in an election. If governors and the president continue to play kingmakers, democracy will remain a facade. If, on the other hand, political parties are reclaimed by their members, to ensure that competition replaces coronation, then elections can begin to mean the genuine expression of the people’s will.
There is a way forward. As the Electoral Act 2026 has amplified direct primaries, the foundation is laid for all political parties’ members to decide who becomes their candidate. However, to make this meaningful, political parties should introduce the accreditation of members during primaries with BVAS-style ID. Political parties should, therefore, have comprehensive membership registers, which bear names, signatures, photographs and thumbprints of members with INEC at all times, so that the electoral commission’s monitoring would be effective.
A time has come for political parties to strip governors and president of Party Leader status. Governors and president cannot be referee and player in a game. Those who hold public office should concentrate on government duties, while people elected as political parties’ leaders should run the party. This also makes it pertinent that political parties should be financially independent.
A president is one citizen. A governor is one citizen. A president and a governor have one vote each, just like the trader and farmer in Umuahia, Warri, Ife, Kafanchan and Bukuru, who will participate in primaries. The president and governors’ jobs are not to choose candidates for political parties and by extension choose those who occupy elective offices. Until we break the culture of political anointing, Nigeria will keep holding elections but never experience change. We will continue to swear in new names who run the old system. We will continue to blame the people for voting badly, that is if their votes count, when the truth is that they were never given good options. These must stop for democracy to have strong root.
