***Warns Nigeria’s Party System Is ‘Sliding Into Elite Capture’ Ahead of 2027

The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has sounded a sharp alarm over Nigeria’s Electoral Act 2026, warning that the removal of indirect primaries has triggered what it described as a “silent collapse of internal party democracy” and is steadily concentrating power in the hands of a few political elites.

Speaking at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) quarterly consultative meeting in Abuja, IPAC Chairman Yusuf Dantalle said the decision to restrict political parties to direct primaries and consensus arrangements has fundamentally altered how candidates emerge in Nigeria, stripping millions of party members of meaningful participation in candidate selection.

He warned that indirect primaries—long regarded as a stabilising mechanism within party structures—had effectively served as a democratic filter, allowing elected delegates to mediate between aspirants and grassroots members. Their removal, he said, has left a vacuum now being filled by “opaque negotiations, imposed consensus lists, and expensive direct contests that favour money and influence over legitimacy.”

According to him, the result is an increasingly volatile internal party environment where aspirants are locked out of competition through last-minute consensus deals, while others are pushed into direct primaries that are financially exhausting and often strategically manipulated.

“What is emerging is not internal democracy, but elite consolidation,” Dantalle warned. “The absence of indirect primaries has weakened internal accountability mechanisms and handed excessive control to party power blocs who now determine who appears on the ballot.”

He said recent nomination exercises exposed deep cracks within parties, including allegations of imposition, restricted access to nomination materials, and lack of transparency in the management of consensus arrangements.

These developments, he noted, have triggered a surge in intra-party litigation, with courts increasingly drawn into disputes that originate from poorly structured nomination processes.

Dantalle further cautioned that the dominance of direct primaries has created a financial arms race within parties, sidelining credible aspirants who lack access to deep financial resources or state-backed political machinery.

This, he said, risks narrowing political competition and reducing elections to contests between heavily funded blocs rather than popular choice.

He also pointed to growing legal uncertainty surrounding INEC’s regulatory authority over party primaries, warning that conflicting court rulings have left political actors unsure of the boundaries of compliance. This ambiguity, he said, is compounding tensions within parties already struggling with internal legitimacy crises.

The IPAC chairman argued that the cumulative effect of these challenges is a weakening of trust in the entire electoral chain, beginning from party nominations and extending to general elections. He stressed that “you cannot build electoral integrity on internally compromised political parties.”

He therefore urged the National Assembly to urgently review the Electoral Act 2026, calling for the restoration of flexibility in nomination methods. Parties, he said, should be allowed to choose between direct, indirect, and consensus models based on their internal structures and democratic maturity, rather than being forced into a single rigid system.

Looking ahead to the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections and the 2027 general polls, Dantalle warned that unresolved internal party tensions could escalate into broader electoral instability if not addressed. He called for issue-based campaigns and warned against the rising trend of political intimidation and violence.

He also urged security agencies to maintain strict neutrality, stressing that the credibility of Nigeria’s elections depends on their professionalism and non-partisan conduct.

IPAC, he added, remains ready to work with INEC, the legislature, political parties, and civil society groups to “reverse the creeping centralisation of power within parties” and restore genuine internal democracy before the 2027 elections.