John Adoyi, PBA Journalism MenteeIn other to beat the deadline set by the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) political parties that are not yet sure of their vice-presidential candidates, submitted a pseudo vice-presidential candidate nominees to INEC.
This pseudo candidate would be in place until the real candidate is decided. This pseudo candidate is called a place holder.
According to Wikipedia the New encyclopedia, in politics, a placeholder is an official appointed temporarily to a position, with the understanding that they will not seek office in their own right.
This situation often occurs in the United States when a serving senator dies in office or retire before the expiration of their tenure.
The All progressive congress (APC) and the Labour Party (LP) are on this table.
INEC has dismissed the concept, saying it is illegal and unknown to the Nigeria’s constitution.
The INEC’s commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Barr. Festus Okoye, said, “The constitution makes it very clear that you cannot run alone as a presidential candidate and must nominate an associate to run with you for that position, and as far as INEC is concerned, the presidential candidates have submitted their associates to run with them in the presidential election.
“As far as we are concerned, there’s no form
submitted by the presidential candidate where they said ‘we’re submitting this person’s name as a place or space holder.
It is understandable that some parties only did that so they would be able to beat the INEC deadline of June 17, for instance, the Labour party is still in the market, shopping for a coalition from the populated north, that could strengthen their contest for the presidency.
However, it is a move that is fraught with danger, for instance in situation where a vice-presidential candidate nominee refuses to relinquish position.
There is nothing the party can do. The power of withdrawal is in the hands of the pseudo candidate.
The electoral act of 2022 forbids the substitution of any candidate. There are only two permissions. It can only happen if a candidate dies or withdraw by his/herself.
Section 31 requires a candidate seeking to withdraw to do so in writing, and must deliver the withdrawal letter personally to the party.
However, the APC presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, through his media aid, Tunde Rahman said that he has picked his running mate which is Kabiru Masari.
According to his media aid, “And it is that Asíwájú Tinubu has duly completed his nomination forms, including giving the particulars of his running mate. He has returned the completed nomination forms to INEC. He even returned the forms two days ahead of schedule.
“I don’t know about a placeholder. This is the coinage of the media. I know he has picked a running mate.”
There are still speculations from the APC that Masari is a place holder and not the vice-presidential candidate. The joint ticket of Tinubu and Masari is a Muslim-Muslim ticket which is another topic for another day.
However, this place holder concept can come back to hunt the chances of the party.
It can create a rift between the political party and voters. Who would want to vote a party that is indecisive?
The situation in the country is very volatile, we need political parties that can make moves to be at the helm of affairs not parties that find it difficult to even come up with a vice-presidential candidate.
Under Buhari, Nigerians waited for about six months before we got names of people in the cabinet of the presidency. These people came in, apparently after thorough scrutiny but yet became snails riding sloths.
It led to a slow economy and the situation in the country became more unfavourable.
If you find it difficult to pick a vice-presidential candidate, who says it won’t be an echo when it comes to ministerial positions.
Party politics would come into play and quacks would become ministers.
Putting all this together, A fight might brew in parties if this issue persists. Defections, factions and mistrust, leading to litigations would become the order of the day and chances at presidency would become far-fetched.
Although we don’t want charlatans as vice-presidents, politicians need to thread carefully to avoid throwing their parties into turmoil.
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