Sunday Dare, minister of youth and sport development, says democracy cannot flourish the way it should be without strong and viable political parties.
According to Dare, political parties are strong pillars of democracy, adding that apart from being the vehicle for political participation, parties are critical to deepening democratic process and sustainable development through the propagation of their manifestos and public education on programmes and policies of government for or against.
Dare said this while delivering a keynote address at the 5th annual Abiola Ajimobi Foundation Roundtable, organised by the Abiola Ajimobi Foundation and the Institute for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ibadan, and 73rd Posthumous birthday of the former governor of Oyo State, which took place at the University of Ibadan.
He said, “but unfortunately our political parties have not lived up to expectations, parties must remain a public trust and organise properly as such.
“There can be no sustainable development if the party structure is built on fraud and indiscipline. Virtually all the major parties in Oyo State, APC, PDP, Accord Party have many internal tensions and contentions to contend with. For the party, APC which I belong to, we certainly miss the leadership and political sagacity of late Abiola Ajimobi. If the late Ajmobi were to here with us today, APC in Oyo State would have been more vibrant, cohesive and a more viable political party.
At the event were the gubernatorial candidate of Accord, Bayo Adelabu; that of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Teslim Folarin, and the Oluwo of Iwo, Abdulrasheed Akanbi, among others.
Speaking further, Dare said the government must also continue to invest in education and public enlightenment so that the mass of the people can know their roles, rights, duties and obligations in a democratic society.
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“There should be continuous improvement of our electoral laws to protect the ballot and make votes count. President Muhammadu Buhari gave us our most advanced and most-all-encompassing electoral law 2022 which has instilled more confidence into the electoral process. We must continue on this path and the National Assembly in future must continue to improve on the laws to strengthen our electoral process and INEC as an institution.
“Since we have established the nexus between democracy and sustainable development, to deepen this in Nigeria, we need the criminal justice system to be more alive to its responsibility. The judiciary and law enforcement agencies, police in particular, must do better to stamp out violence and intimidation from our body polity.
“Electoral offenders must be punished. A case has been made for the Election Offences Tribunal to prosecute electoral offenders. I support this and we must continue to ask for this to ensure the sanctity of the ballot since we have chosen democracy as a way we want to be governed.”
The minister, however, said that the lessons from the life of Ajimobi “is that we need to have leaders that truly love the people and will serve the people with honesty of purpose and determination to make a positive impact.”
In his remarks, the Oluwo of Iwo, Abdulrosheed Akanbi advocated that traditional rulers should be allowed to nominate credible citizens for political positions.
The monarch, who said that each country has its style of democracy, said Nigeria can learn from what is happening in China and Saudi Arabia.
“They say we are growing our democracy. Let us grow with the penalties. In China, if you steal, they will kill you. In Saudi Arabia, if you steal, they kill you. But we just want to jump to matured democracy,” the monarch said.
