For decades, the political narrative across Africa has been dominated by a single, unyielding aspiration: the adoption of Western-style democracy. It is a desirable ideal, built on the promises of liberty, equality, and institutional accountability. Yet, a sober look at the political landscape of Nigeria and the wider continent reveals a stark reality. Western democracy, in its current form, is not working for us.
The issue does not lie with the concept of democracy itself, but with our flawed implementation of it. We have attempted to graft a foreign institutional template onto a completely different socio-political reality. Modern African states are not homogenous nations; they are complex, multi-ethnic societies forced into colonial borders. When you introduce a Western “winner-take-all” electoral system into this dynamic, politics inevitably devolves into a tribal numbers game. Rather than fostering unity, it deepens ethnic polarization.
Furthermore, true democracy requires economic stability and strong, independent institutions to thrive. In Nigeria, we have instead seen the rise of “imperial presidencies,” where absolute power is centralised, judiciaries are weakened, and poverty weaponises the ballot box. Elections have become expensive rituals of power rotation rather than mechanisms for progress.
To move forward, Africa must stop trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. We need a system of governance that reflects our unique historical and cultural identity—whether that means consensus-based politics, genuine decentralisation, or power-sharing models. Until we fix the structural flaws in how we practice governance, Western-style democracy will remain a beautiful theory that fails us in practice.
Not a single political party in Nigeria conducts credible primary elections. The current models are fundamentally broken, reducing what should be a democratic exercise to an institutional farce. Direct primaries are a logistical nightmare and financially ruinous for both political parties and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Expecting sustainable oversight across all 8,808 wards is a complete illusion.
Furthermore, the “consensus” option is routinely weaponised as a tool for political imposition. It is a sham process where alternative aspirants are barred from competing or forced to abandon their bids after paying steep nomination fees.
True democratic primaries require verifiable voter accreditation. Under the current system, queues consist of unverified crowds—party members or not—while unverified officials count them arbitrarily. Without institutional credibility in the counting, receiving, and collation processes, parties inevitably resort to pre-determining outcomes or capitulating to rigged results driven by political pressure. We must stop kidding ourselves: the system requires a complete overhaul.
Actionable Policy Recommendations
To rescue internal party democracy, Nigeria must replace chaotic headcounts with enforceable statutory standards, digitised voter registries, and strict oversight mechanisms.
1. Digital Membership and Accreditation Reform
* Mandate Biometric Repositories: Require all political parties to maintain a continuous, biometric-backed digital membership register. This register must be submitted to INEC at least 90 days before any primary election to prevent unaccredited voting.
* Enforce a “No Register, No Primary” Rule: Ban any primary election where voters cannot be digitally verified against a pre-approved, permanent party register.
2. Financial and Logistical Sustainability
* Streamline via Indirect Delegate Automation: Shift away from unmanageable direct primaries toward a strictly regulated indirect delegate system. Deploy electronic accreditation devices (such as the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System – BVAS) at central locations to verify a smaller pool of elected delegates.
* Establish Financial Sustainability Caps: Limit the number of voting centres by grouping wards into centralised Local Government Areas (LGAs) for primary elections, significantly lowering deployment and logistics costs for both INEC and participating parties.
3. Protection of Aspirant Rights and Accountability
* Establish Statutory Consensus Protocols: Amend the Electoral Act to mandate that any consensus arrangement must feature written, notarised, and publicly filed waivers from all cleared aspirants.
* Mandate Refunds for Forced Dropouts: Legally force parties to return 100% of nomination fees to any aspirant who is pushed out or withdraws to accommodate a “consensus” candidate.
* Enforce Strict Regulatory Penalties: Introduce automatic disqualifications for parties that fail to provide transparent accreditation logs, authenticated counting metrics, and certified collation receipts to INEC observers.
Conclusion
Nigeria’s democracy cannot mature on a foundation of manufactured primary results and judicial overreach. By implementing these structural reforms, the nation can transform internal party selections from a chaotic, elite-driven farce into a transparent, secure, and legally sound process.
To salvage the system, INEC must do more to strictly enforce the rules governing party primaries. Under the Electoral Act 2026, the commission has been handed upgraded statutory maps to regulate internal party behaviour. INEC must move away from being a passive observer and become an aggressive enforcer. This means:
- Rejecting candidate lists from any party that fails to provide the mandatory 21-day statutory notice for its congresses.
- Disqualifying aspirants generated by illegal, parallel, or late primaries that violate established timelines.
- Verifying genuine candidate signatures to ensure that “consensus” choices are not just backroom impositions forced upon unwilling aspirants
