Political parties’ internal democracy in tatters as INEC says its hands are tied

Although every party talks so much about democracy, actions and inactions of many of them belie their commitment toward that system that guarantees government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Pundits have condemned the impunity with which some political leaders engage in activities that are totally at variance with the real tenets of democracy.
Today, most of the major political parties in the country are bleeding from the injuries sustained during their primaries at various levels. There are feelings of injustice arising from manipulations of the results of such primaries. While some of the aggrieved members who felt strongly about the outcomes of the primaries have left their parties in anger, some others are licking their wounds; yet, some others have decided to hang in, in their parties.
From the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), and from Labour Party (LP), to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), there are serious complaints of flight of internal democracy.
Ordinarily, in a democratic setting, every individual can aspire to the highest office in the land, provided the person meets the basic qualifications to do so. But the adoption of President Jonathan by the PDP as its sole aspirant and eventual candidate of the party, pundits say, did not fit the bill of internal democracy. It would be recalled that two other aspirants were allegedly brow-beaten to drop their aspirations.
While Abdul Jelil Tafawa Balewa, the son of Nigeria’s First Republic Prime Minister, agreed to step down for Jonathan after obtaining the N22million nomination and expression of interest forms, Akasoba Duke Abiola, another presidential aspirant and wife of the late business mogul, MKO Abiola, continues to fight on.
She insisted a day to the convention where Jonathan’s adoption was ratified – that she would not abide by the decision of the party to endorse Jonathan as its sole candidate.
Although she has gone to court to challenge the decision of the party, she claimed that even after paying her N2 million nomination form and also being the first aspirant to pay for the presidential form, the party denied her the form.
She described the action of the party against her and millions of voters as discriminatory and a coup d’état against democracy.
Accusing Jonathan of being in possession of her presidential form, she said: “It is my submission that the party should give me my form. Someone got my nomination form and that person is in Aso Rock and he should give me my form.”
“If there is any ratification at the convention for any person that person will be standing in for me. The President is intimidating us; let Nigeria tell that person, the President to give me my nomination form. I am not scared of them and nobody will settle me, I am not for settling. Jonathan should give me my form and if he does not, he is depriving me of my right. If there is any ratification at the convention, Jonathan is poaching my delegates,” she insisted.
Also in the PDP, many aggrieved members who lost out in a not-too transparent manner at the primaries have dumped the party.
Martin Elechi, governor of Ebonyi State, who failed in his bid to see the emergence of Onyebuchi Chukwu, immediate past minister, as the PDP gubernatorial candidate, got so pissed off by the role of the national secretariat of the party in the entire episode that he decided to engage in alleged anti-party. He is said to have encouraged some of the aggrieved to seek refuge in another party. Pundits say the governor is aiming at paying his party in its own coin by flaunting his rebellion and by determining to work against the interest of the party in 2015.
A pundit said: “PDP is overdoing things. How do you treat a sitting governor as if he were an ordinary member of the party? I can’t understand why the national secretariat of PDP will be dealing with the Sam Egwu-led faction against a sitting governor.”
Jolted by the recent massive defection of PDP members, particularly, members of the National Assembly, to other parties following the result of the party’s primaries, President Goodluck Jonathan the other day appealed to aggrieved members not to dump the party, saying that the leadership of the party was working to resolve all outstanding issues in the congresses and primaries.
“We all appreciate that throughout the congresses where primary elections were conducted there have been some outstanding issues. The party is working to resolve these issues; definitely, in such situation all may not be resolved to the satisfaction of everybody,” he said.
“But my plea to party members is to remain committed to the party; stay with the party. I know other parties are wooing some of you to contest elections on their platforms, but if you believe in democracy then you will contribute to strengthen it. The only way you can strengthen democracy is for you to stay in your party,” the President further said.
BD SUNDAY gathered that despite the assurances from the seat of power, many more members are still defecting.
By the same token, the dust raised during the APC primaries in many states is yet to settle. For instance, some of the aspirants for the governorship slot in Lagos State are still kicking against what they termed as lack of transparency in the conduct of the primaries.
In Benue State, Samuel Ortom, a former minister who failed in his bid to pick PDP ticket has since dumped the party for the Labour Party, same also for Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala, a former governor of Oyo State.
While the aggrieved were hoping to turn to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to address the issue, Attahiru Jega, chairman of the Commission dashed their hope.
Jega had attributed the penchant of political parties to engage in irregularities during conduct of primaries at various levels to lack of clear-cut constitutional mandate on the commission to monitor parties during primaries.
He particularly blamed Section 31 of the Electoral Act, 2011, as amended, saying the section made the commission’s hands tight, by asking it not to interfere in pre-primary matters of political parties.
According to him, political parties were relying on the section of the act to perpetrate irregularities during conduct of their primaries without regard to internal democracy.
He regretted that parties sometimes, without genuine reasons, replace candidates who won at the primaries with politicians who did not really participate and forward same to INEC as their candidates, insisting that since the provision of the Electoral Act did not mandate it to insist on the names of the real winners, it could not act on any list forwarded to it.
To arrest the ugly trend, he disclosed that the commission had made recommendations to the National Assembly to amend the provision of the act. He called on the legislature to expedite action towards making amendment before February 14, 2015.
Jega, while also accusing politicians of violating the code of conduct, advised traditional rulers to act fast by calling them to order since, according to him, they were their subjects.