2019: ‘Political parties not interested in governance’

Participants at the Nigerian Political Parties Discussion Series (NPPDS) organised by the Centre for Democracy Development (CDD) said Nigeria’s political parties were more interested in power than in good governance.

Mrs Kadaria Ahmed, speaking at the series themed “Internal Party Democracy: Who Fares Better among Political Parties in Nigeria?” yesterday in Abuja, said political parties needed to imbibe the tenets of democracy and define what they stand for to be able to convince people to follow them ideologically.

She said it was time for parties to set clear goals on how to develop the nation ahead of the 2019 elections and ensure dividends of democracy were delivered to the people.

“Nigeria needs political parties that know what they are doing and not just getting into power and then forgetting about the people whose mandate they claimed they were representing,” she said.

A Deputy Director at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr Shehu Wahab, said lack of internal democracy among the political parties remained a major setback faced by the commission with regards to elections.

He said, “Ensuring that Nigeria has a credible election is not the work of INEC alone, the truth is that people are not willing to play their own part and there is little INEC can do in that regard.”

The Director of CDD Ms Idayat Hassan said the event was organised to start a discussion ahead of the 2019 elections on what political parties had to offer to the masses.