Following the judgement of the Federal High Court, Ilorin, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has recognised Barrister Issa Manzuma as the governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the 2023 general elections in Kwara State.
Mazuma had approached a court after Mr Ayo Joel, who is said not to have participated in any of the party primaries, but had the name submitted to the INEC as the governorship candidate of ADC for 2023 elections by the party.
He has promised to make transparency his watchword if elected as governor.
“May 2022, we had a governorship primary election at our state party secretariat and Alhaji Lawal Ibrahim, emerged as the winner but in August 2022, he indicated interest to withdraw his candidature and there was need under section 33 of the Electoral Act for the replacement of candidate.
again I participated in that primary that held on 6th of August, 2022, and to God be the glory I was unanimously nominated by all delegate present and voting as the candidate of the party.
“Three days thereafter, I was invited again by the party, that having been nominated as the candidate of the party, the party found one Ayo Joel, to further replace me as the governorship candidate for the 2023 general elections.
“I insisted no, having participated in the primary, I was not ready to withdraw and for whatever reason, I can not understand, but when INEC published the names of the gubernatorial candidates for the 2023 general elections in Kwara State, the name of Ayo Joel, who never participated in any of the primaries as required under section 33 and 84 of the Electoral Act was published by the INEC as the candidate of ADC.
“Being a loyal, faithful party member and responsible Nigerian citizen, I approached a court, perhaps because of my professional background too, because I have been fighting injustice for over thirty years now, and I doubt if I could also accommodate injustice because that could be a collapse of my ideological background.
“I went to court to challenge the decision of my party and INEC that published a name of person who never participated in any of the party primaries.
“On 1st of December, the federal high court, upon terms of settlement entered between me and my party entered consent judgement.
“Because even without my challenging of the party and INEC decision, if a person does not participate in the primary election, he is not eligible under the Electoral Act to contest the election.
“Even if I had not challenged the decision of my party and INEC, and he eventually win the governorship election, that is going to be an avenue for an election petition against the party and the candidate. I think is a favour that I also did my party.
The legal practitioner, however, made know that the judgement has been communicated to the electoral umpire (INEC) and believes that the commission will comply and put his name as the authentic governorship candidate of ADC for the 2023 general elections in the state.
Speaking on what informed his decision to seek for the governorship seat, Manzuma, who was also a governorship candidate of the same ADC in the 2019 election said “my decision is based on principle, those who refuse to participate in the political process would automatically fall victim of bad leadership.
“I think we have had enough of criticism of bad leadership in Nigeria and I believe that the countries that are doing well in the world today, America, Britain, and recently Malaysia, Singapore, it is the work of consummate and disciplined professionals that transformed those countries.
“When people that are disciplined and transparent and have fear of God refuse to participate in the leadership process, we would continue to fall victim to bad leadership.
“The important thing in leadership aside, I’m going to do infrastructure which is the campaign promise of all politicians over the years, is transparency, once leadership lack transparency there will be a total failure of governance.
“Transparency will be my watchword if I am elected as the next governor of the state come 2023 and with that governance would automatically fall in place,” he said.
