With the refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, only 2,340 delegates would be permitted to vote in the Presidential special convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
By virtue of Section 84(8) of the Electoral Act, 2022, delegates to vote at the Indirect Primaries and National Convention of political parties to elect candidates for elections shall be those democratically elected for that purpose only.
Section 12.1 of the APC constitution says members of the national convention shall include members of the board of trustees, the national chairman and all members of the national executive committee, serving and past presidents, vice presidents, serving and past governors and deputy governors who are members of the party, serving and former members of the National Assembly, members of the state working committees, all local government chairmen along with three elected delegates from each of the 774 local government areas.
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With the Electoral Act Section 84(8), the law disenfranchised the elected President, Vice President, governors and their deputies, and National Assembly members.
Other statutory delegates that the electoral act screened out during the primaries, as applicable to all the 17 other political parties, including former president and former governors.
Others are the National Working Committee members, state party chairmen and secretaries, local government chairmen, their deputies, councillors and party chairmen in the 774 local government areas.
With the President’s refusal to sign the bill, the number of delegates has dropped from 7,800 to about 2,340. The 2,340 consists of three delegates from each of the 774 local governments in the country and six area councils in Abuja.
For instance, Lagos State, which has one of the largest numbers of statutory delegates due to its large number of APC public officials, will now be left with 60 delegates because it has just 20 local government areas.
Lagos State, which ideally should have 304 delegates, was in the top five only behind Kano, Katsina, Borno and Osun. However, with only 60 delegates, Lagos is now 19th.
Also, states that have a low APC membership or that are governed by the Peoples Democratic Party but have a large number of local governments will now have an advantage over Lagos.
For instance, Akwa Ibom which has 31 LGAs, Oyo which has 33 LGAs and Rivers and Sokoto which both have 23 LGAs each, will now have more delegates at the presidential primary than Lagos.
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Borno, which should have the third-highest number of delegates due to its large number of serving and former elected APC members, will now have a lower number of delegates than Akwa Ibom and Oyo because it has 27 LGAs. Essentially, Borno has also fallen from having the third-highest number of delegates to having the fifth highest.
However, Kano, Katsina and Osun states retained their lead by virtue of the large number of local government areas that they possess. Kano, which has 44 LGAs will have 132 delegates while Katsina with 34 LGAs will have 102 elected delegates. This also applies to Osun State which has 30 LGAs and will thus have 90 delegates.
Fifteen states combined have the total strength to determine the outcome of the presidential election. They are Kano (132), Katsina (102), Akwa Ibom (93), Oyo (99), Osun (90), Jigawa (81), Imo (81), Borno (81), Delta (75), Rivers (69), Sokoto (69), Benue (69), Kaduna (69), Anambra (63), Adamawa (63) and Kogi (63) with a combined 1,299 delegates.
The 36 states and FCT delegates include:
Abia State – 51
Adamawa – 63
Akwa Ibom – 93
Anambra – 63
Bauchi – 60
Bayelsa – 24
Benue – 69
Borno – 81
Cross River – 54
Delta – 75
Ebonyi – 39
Edo – 54
Ekiti – 48
Enugu – 51
Gombe – 33
Imo – 81
Jigawa – 81
Kaduna – 69
Kano – 132
Katsina – 102
Kebbi – 62
Kogi – 63
Kwara – 48
Lagos – 60
Nasarawa – 39
Niger – 75
Ogun – 60
Ondo – 54
Osun – 90
Oyo – 99
Plateau – 51
Rivers – 69
Sokoto – 69
Taraba – 48
Yobe – 51
Zamfara – 42
FCT – 18
Total = 2,340 delegates