By Rabiu Garba Sufyan

It is no longer a news that registered political parties in Nigeria have concluded arrangements for primary elections to produce “credible” party flag bearers in 2019 general elections.
Party faithfuls, Pretenders, Political merchants and Sponsored Spoilers in various political parties have obtained forms to express their interests for various political offices at various levels.
As campaign gather momentum, it is increasingly becoming clearer by the day that some of those who obtained the forms are either game spoilers or political merchants,whose aims are not far away from pulling down the party to satisfy the desires of their sponsors and their merchants. on the other hand some are just out for bargaining for immediate material benefits which in most cases goes to the highest bidder.
In between the game spoilers and political merchants however there is the issue of anointment of candidates. Anointment of candidates by all measurement is anti democratic which all so called godfathers must avoid. However, it is unthinkable and tantamount to disrespect and disregard for the electorate conscience for any incumbent political office holder(s) to single handedly pick and present to the citizenry an anointed candidate.
Anointment is immoral, detestable and an act of travesty to say the least. One is tempted to ask, why then do we have political structures and processes in place if someone can just wake up and anoint candidate in flagrant disregard to party procedures.
Anointment has the potential for uncontrollable grudges with resultant protest votes in general election or pre-election defection from one party to the other.
Experience has shown that preponderance of anointed candidates never won elections even when the platforms with which they vyed for were popular. Furthermore, where anointed candidates won elections, level of performance will be low, because, time and resources of the given political entity (ies) are subjected to the dictate of the god-father who may not want the elected officer to perform more than him or the elected officer may decide to turn his back on his god-father, hence perpetual conflict of interest and the electorate will not get the desired dividend of democracy.
Electorate, especially delegates must this time get it right by avoiding mortgaging their future because of temporary “gains”.