BARRING any last-minute hitch, the much-anticipated elective national convention of the All Progressives Congress, APC, will take place in Abuja on Saturday, March 26, 2022.

The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had already elected its party leaders at the convention of October 30, 2021.

For the APC, this convention which is for the election of its party functionaries, will be a dress rehearsal for the more contentious and momentous convention later in the year in which its presidential candidate for the 2023 election will be determined.

As a political party made up of several opposition outfits that came together in a coalition to end 16 years of PDP’s dominance of our renascent democracy, the APC has not found it easy to forge a common front.

Its tempestuous convention of 2018 which threw up Comrade Adams Oshiomhole had to end in a “consensus” arrangement forced through by the party leadership. The three co-contestants – Oserheimen Osunbor, Ibrahim Emokpae and Clement Ebri – did not even show up in what ended up as an “affirmative” convention.

From the look of things, we might witness a re-enactment of the same scenario on Saturday as the micro-zoning of the party’s chairmanship to President Muhammadu Buhari’s choice – Senator Abdullahi Adamu – might see his opponents frozen out before the main event at the Eagle Square, Abuja.

For the internal stability of the various political parties, there is a need for party members to be allowed to freely contest for positions and vote for candidates of their choice. This gives the generality of party members the chance to choose game-changing candidates who can win credible elections and also bring Nigeria back from the fringes of disaster as from 2023.

“Consensus” is another word for imposition of the preferred candidates of the incumbent leadership which may not augur well for the party at the polls or the nation after the polls.

It should also be borne in mind that imposition tends to result in defections to rival parties.

Serial defections have not allowed our democracy to take shape. For instance, the “New PDP” faction in 2014 moved to the APC. Then in 2018, it moved back to the PDP after the convention that threw up Oshiomhole.

Politicians must learn to establish due processes in their internal party democracy and accept the outcomes of elections in order for the ideological directions of their parties to take shape.

Without this, our 24-year-old democracy will continue to wander in the wilderness, still encrusted with the military mentality and orientation which keep us tied to poor leadership. National conventions should offer political parties the chance to improve the quality of leadership which they offer to Nigerians for election.

Vanguard News Nigeria