Govt to Review Party Registration Process
From Chuks Okocha in Abuja
President Olusegun Oba-sanjo yesterday hinted of the possibility of constitutional review to streamline the requirements for the formation and registration of political parties in the country.
Obasanjo who spoke at the launching of a book entitled Party Politics and Power Struggle in Nigeria written by former national deputy chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Iro Dan Musa, said the review was necessary for consolidating the nation's nascent democratic experience.
The President said the political parties registration process reforms "should include processes for ensuring transparency, accountability, opportunity, equity and justice within and between political parties."
"I am sure that only very few of you here can recall the names and leaders of ten political parties in Nigeria much less where they have their state offices," he said.
Although the president expressed support for plurality of parties as good for democracy and providing legitimacy for the democratic process, he said, "it is also important that as a developing nation we do not dissipate our meager resources, energies, and efforts in nurturing structures that only create a nuisance value in the system."
"I believe that an individual who cannot find accommodation within few political parties must have a different understanding of party politics in a democratic society, more so when such political parties have no ideological differentiation," he said.
Obasanjo added that the expected party reform, "is to ensure corporate ownership, management and financing of parties at all levels and to maintain party supremacy and discipline."
"We must learn from the errors of the past. Our experiences since the 1950s provide us with a rich menu on how to avoid political rascality, contain opportunism, check party gatekeepers, contain corruption, and ensure credibility with the electorate," he said.
Obasanjo called on politicians to find ways to identify, contain, or eliminate political treachery and indiscipline, "There must be values to which we all subscribe and which must guide our interactions within and beyond the party. As you all know, indiscipline and ignorance even of party rules and constitutions have been the bane of our party political history," he said.
According to him, "political parties must see themselves as formidable bastions for research and analyses. They must establish research units where they cannot establish full sub-institutions on policy and research to look into comparative politics and draw lessons from other cultures and societies. Political parties must be reservoirs of information on history of parties, politics, the economy, constitutions, leadership, foreign policy, and other data that empower students, workers, researchers, investors, policy makers and politicians. In the contemporary world of globalization and high technology, political parties would become moribund or irrelevant if they do not take these issues seriously," he said.
"Political parties must, without distinction commit to the sustenance of the democratic process and to building democratic values. They must be seen as proponents of reform, inclusion, gender equality, development, equal opportunity, and democracy. When they fail in the role, they sacrifice democratic consolidation and progress for political expediency and opportunism," the President said.
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