A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Olumuyiwa Adu, has thrown his weight behind the recent electoral amendments signed into law by President Bola Tinubu, describing the removal of indirect primaries as a long-overdue victory for internal party democracy.

Adu, a legal expert and aspirant for the APC senatorial ticket for Ondo Central, said the new provisions will significantly reduce the influence of political godfathers and empower ordinary party members.
Speaking on the reforms, he lamented that the previous system concentrated power in the hands of a few appointed delegates, often dictated to by party leaders.

Having contested the Akure North/South Federal Constituency bye-election under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2022 before defecting to the APC, Adu stressed that the new law ensures direct participation by registered party members in electing flagbearers.
“Why must you impose some people on others through a few individuals? That is what was done in the past. Delegates dictated by leaders would select candidates for thousands or millions of people. That is very wrong,” Adu said.

“Even when electing ward leaders, chairmen, secretaries, and women leaders, they were imposed on people. An individual would just put names forward, and that would be it. But now, if you are a party member and hold a valid card, you can join others to choose who should be your candidate. That is perfectly in order. Nobody should oppose that. We are making progress democratically and politically.”
On the electronic transmission of results, Adu said the provisions allowing manual collation in the event of technological failure will ensure no voter is disenfranchised due to poor internet infrastructure.

“People are concerned about what may happen if, for any reason, our internet system cannot support INEC. There must be an exception to that, which the law provides. It shouldn’t be a problem if we are sincere with this country. From that polling unit, you have the results you saw there. Whether transmitted electronically or manually, as long as the result exists, it can still be challenged in court. That shouldn’t be a problem,” he added.