APC CONSTITUTION AND CONDUCT OF PARTY PRIMARIES
The APC National Working Committee (NWC) is the central administrative organ of the party. Under the APC Constitution 2022 [as amended] and the party’s Electoral Guidelines, its role in primaries runs from planning to final declaration. Here’s the sequence:
1. Pre-primary planning and approval
- Approve the timetable and guidelines: The NWC sets the dates for sale of forms, screening, primaries, and appeals. It approves the Electoral Guidelines that govern how primaries are conducted.
- Appoint Electoral Committees: The NWC constitutes National Primary Election Committees, Appeal Committees, and Returning Officers for each state and FCT. These committees conduct the actual voting and collation on the ground.
- Approve modes of primary: The NWC decides whether a state will use direct, indirect, or consensus mode, subject to INEC regulations and party guidelines.
2. Oversight during the process
- Supervise and monitor: NWC-appointed committees supervise the primaries in states. They ensure compliance with the Electoral Act 2022, INEC regulations, and APC guidelines.
- Receive reports: District and State Returning Officers submit their collation sheets and reports to the State Primary Election Committee, which forwards them to the NWC-appointed National Committee.
- Handle pre-primary disputes: The NWC through its screening and appeal panels addresses petitions on eligibility, disqualification, and procedural complaints before voting occurs.
3. Post-primary review and declaration
- Receive and review results: The National Primary Election Committee submits the collated results to the NWC. The NWC reviews the reports, checks for compliance, and considers petitions/appeals filed after the exercise.
- Resolve discrepancies and petitions: If there are conflicts between district, state, and national collation figures, or allegations of irregularities, the NWC’s Appeal Committee investigates and makes recommendations.
- Ratify and declare winners: Only after this review does the NWC make the final declaration and authorize the submission of names to INEC. No state chapter or individual has the authority to make a binding declaration to INEC.
4. Submission to INEC
- Forward the final list: The NWC, through the National Chairman and National Secretary, signs and submits the final list of candidates to INEC within the window set by INEC. This is the only list INEC recognizes.
Conclusion
The NWC’s role is to standardize, supervise, review, and ratify. State chapters and returning officers conduct the voting and initial collation, but they do not have final authority. Their job ends with submitting reports to the National Committee. The NWC ensures uniformity across states, reconciles discrepancies, and shields the party from conflicting submissions to INEC.
This structure exists to prevent parallel declarations, manage disputes internally, and give the party one legally defensible position before INEC and the courts.
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