By Angela Atabo
Abuja – A group of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) under the auspices of “The Situation Room’’ on Monday, expressed concern over participation of weak political parties in the country’s electoral process.
Convener of the body, Mr Clement Nwankwo, said that the preponderance of weak political parties had resulted in slow pace of growth of democracy in the country.
“Political parties need to be restructured to address the needs of Nigerians; presently, those available, including the ruling party are not responding adequately to the demands and expectations of Nigerians.
“We are concerned that the ruling party even though it is in power, has remained very weak.
“The opposition party has also not been able to work to keep the ruling party focused and respond to the needs of Nigerians.
“When Nigerians voted in the party in 2015, they had a lot of expectations, but unfortunately those expectations have not been met.
“This is largely because the ruling party has not been able to guide the government to deliver on expectations that Nigerians have of it.
“So, we are very worried about the events building up to the 2019 elections and the weak political parties we have in Nigeria today,’’ he said.
Nwankwo said that the hope of the group was that the elections and the political parties would understand the need to strengthen the political process as 2019 approached.
This, he said, was what would strengthen the electoral process and bring what would make for meaningful development and deepening of democracy.
According to him, this will be achieved, especially through the role civil society and other stakeholders play through constant monitoring of the activities of political parties, as watchdogs.
The leader of the group also said that mileage could be gained through study previous elections in the country to identify their flaws and correct them ahead of the 2019 elections.
He decried the attitude of legislatures not wanting to swear in persons who had been declared winners of elections by the courts.
“We have specific cases where the tribunal has given judgment and annulled elections of persons who have already been sworn in and asked the Senate or House of Representatives to swear in new persons but they refused.
“The National Assembly is not swearing in these persons on the ostensible reason that they are waiting for the final court to reach a decision,’’ he said.
Nwankwo said that no fewer than four of such cases were currently ongoing, with the persons who the tribunal had declared winner not able to replace the loser because they refused to swear him in.
He said that civil society groups believed that the right thing for the national assembly to do was to swear in the person the court or tribunal declared winner.
According to him, the legislature is not being diligent by allowing a person appealing a decision that had sacked him to remain on seat.
Nwankwo, therefore, urged the leadership of the senate or the House of Representatives to respond to prevailing situations and swear in the winners as declared by the courts. (NAN)
