An overview of political party primaries in Nigeria: A build-up to the 2023 general election Musa Awosanmi Esther1, Musa Shalangwa2 1Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola, Nigeria, Email: laraibayoawos1@gmail.com 2Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola, Nigeria, Email: mshalangwa@gmail.com Online published on 26 September, 2023. Abstract Elections are verifiable means of selecting leaders for various positions at all levels. The general elections are normally preceded by the primary election in order to select the flag bearer of different political parties. In Nigeria, the flag bearers of each political member are selected by a few members of the parties who are regarded as delegates. Therefore, this paper examined the political party primaries in Nigeria as a build-up to 2023 general elections with a keen interest in the presidential primaries of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and People's Democratic Party (PDP). A qualitative method of data collection was adopted in the study while the paper relied on secondary sources of data from journals, articles and reputable national dailies. This paper found out that the selection of candidates that will represent political parties in Nigeria especially the presidential candidates of All Progressive Congress (APC) and People's Democratic Party (PDP) were marred with all forms of irregularities ranging from imposition of candidates to grand-style bribing and buying of party delegates in thousands of US dollars. The study concludes that there is a need to make politics less lucrative, reduce the salaries and allowances of the executives to the barest minimum and place the legislators on sitting, transportation and accommodation allowances alone with respect to their mileage. This will reduce the monetization of the electoral process. Hence, the primary elections will produce reliable and accountable candidates. This has a high tendency of reducing electoral violence and improve governance. Top Keywords Election, Primary election, Delegates, Political party, Vote buying. Top |