Oshiomhole begins reform in APC

• Abolishes delegate election of governorship candidate

The national Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has commenced reform in the ruling party. The national chairman has directed that henceforth, APC will adopt direct primary election involving all party members of the constituency to select governorship candidate. The enforcement of the new primary election policy would be enforced by the party in the primary election of APC candidate for the September 22 governorship election in Osun State.

Oshiomhole in a media interaction on Monday in Abuja after a closed door meeting with members of APC National Working Committee (NWC), highlighted that the direct primary will allow all card carrying members of the party to elect the party’s candidate, unlike the delegate system, which, he said, is often amenable to corruption.

The national chairman revealed that 17 governorship aspirants collected the party’s Expression of Interest and Nomination forms to contest the primary scheduled for Thursday for the APC ticket, hinting that they had all been screened and cleared.

Oshiomhole remarked that the 17 aspirants are all competent to effectively govern the state.

“We do not lack competent hands to provide leadership in Osun after the exit of Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

“Regardless of who wins the primary, we hope that the rest of them will support the person to ensure that we do our best to retain the governance of Osun.

“We have decided that in order to ensure popular participation, and to deepen democracy in Osun State, in-line with the provision of our party constitution which allows for either direct or indirect primary, we have resolved that the governorship election primary in Osun state will be conducted on the basis of direct primary.

“What that means is that every card carrying member of our party will participate in the process of nominating the flag bearer of the party.

“This for us, is the most democratic way to conduct election and is in line with what our critical stakeholders from that part of the country wants and we are quite happy to oblige,” Oshiomhole had declared.

He maintained that the direct primary is adopted to allow more party members to participate in the process of nominating candidates and to remove issues of corruption or monetising the processes. He added that the direct primary would also give party members a sense of ownership of the outcome of the exercise.

The national chairman disclosed that a panel had been constituted to be chaired by Governor Abudulazeez Yari of Zamfara State to oversee the process. He stated that the Zamfara State Governor will be assisted by four others who will work with him to ensure that this direct primary is conducted in a hitch free manner.