When, in 2002, the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi successfully challenged the decision of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) at the time to refuse registration to his political party, the National Conscience Party (NCP) and many others on the grounds that they did not meet the pre-requisite set by the electoral body to be licensed as political parties, we all rejoiced that the decision of the courts to throw open the door for anyone or any group to register political parties to contest elections as a big victory for democracy and the freedom of association. It did not occur to us that multi-party systems work best in a parliamentary system with proportional representation in place and is not particularly suited to presidential systems, with an inbuilt winner-takes-all arrangement.
Regardless, and as a consequence of the ruling, INEC, on December 3, 2002, registered twenty-two (22) new political parties, prominent among which are the National Conscience Party (NCP) of Gani Fawehimni, Movement for Democracy and Justice (MDJ) led by former Inspector General of Police, M.D. Yusuf, the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) led by former Kaduna state governor, Balarebe Musa and the Green Party led by human rights activists, Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) to contest the 2003 general elections.
One of the consequences of the ruling was that the door was thrown open to just anyone to register a political parties to contest elections without meeting any set threshold. But just like the opponents of the decision had argued then, none of the twenty-two registered political parties had grown or evolved into a national party. In fact, less than three of the 22 political parties still exist today, and even then, as shells rather than vibrant political parties truly fulfilling the functions of a political party to aggregate interests, educate the populace politically and serve as a veritable vehicle for capturing power.
The unintended consequences of having an unregulated space for political parties is that there are, at present, over 91 political parties dotting the landscape of the country, majority of which, it is clear, were set up mainly for transactional purposes, for selling endorsements, and for hobnobbing with politicians of the main parties in search of connections and filthy lucre. Sadly, this figure may even rise to 131 if INEC were to register the over 40 so-called political parties who have submitted applications seeking registration.
Take for instance the last presidential election. As much as 71 presidential candidates contested the elections but it was clear only two candidates stood any realistic chances of winning. The others were in it not to win but may even have been formed as shells of the major parties to confuse, distract and even balkanise votes of either of the major parties. First, many of them have just a single office or a few offices and branches and do not boast of branches and structures around the country – a prerequisite for any party that is serious and desirous of winning a national election. Secondly, many of them just sprang up so close to the elections and had not mobilised across all nooks and crannies of the country. Unsurprisingly, they began revealing their true intent so close to the elections as they jettisoned their pretentious candidates and began adopting or selling their endorsements for either the candidates of the APC and the PDP. Thirdly, on the day of the presidential elections, none of the parties deployed agents to the over 120, 000 polling booths except the two dominant parties, an indication they were not really contesting to win.
However, INEC was bound, by law, to take them seriously, increasing the logistic difficulties and the costs of the elections. Most voters didn’t find the long and unwieldy ballot paper funny as they had to search on end for the parties of their choice and run the risk of their votes being voided because the space allowed for thumb-printing had shrunk significantly.
It got so bad that international media made fun of Nigeria’s motley of candidates contesting the presidential election, comparing them to the sizes of the entire parliament of some countries.
Clearly the courts did not foresee the abuse that the opening up of the political space will engender. We have a responsibility to clean up the political space and prevent mercantilist and transactional parties as we have them today. We expect the incoming National Assembly to make a law to limit registration of political parties and set real criteria or thresholds for intending political parties to meet before registration.
