Politics
Don Seeks Political Parties’ Reform For Good Governance
Prof. Stephen Omodia of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Edo State University, Iyamho, has solicited reform in political parties to achieve credibility, accountability and good governance.
He made the call in his inaugural lecture of the institution entitled “Bourgeoisification of the Nigerian Political Process and the Search for Good Governance” on Thursday.
Omodia said that the call for reform of political parties in the country had become imperative, adding that political parties were characterised by ethnicisation, weak organisational network and poor democratic culture.
“If good governance is to be established and enhanced in the Nigeria political process, political elite recruitment must be reformed in such a way that allows for credibility, accountability and for people-centered governance.
“In order for political process to be transparent and credible, they have to reform the process of throwing-up candidates to make sure the best and most appealing candidates emerge.
“For Nigerian electoral body, the reform should focus on financial and administrative aspects.
“The financial aspect should be designed to make the body more financially autonomous through funding from consolidated revenue fund.
“The administrative should border on the appointment of the chairman of the body, I am of the conviction that the position should be advertised,” Omodia said.
However, Omodia said that the political process in the country was improving, but that good governance was still very far from the people and the culture.
The don attributed the poor state of Nigeria’s political process to divergent socio-economic and poor political leadership.
“Political parties are expected to be well structured to provide political mobilisation, education as well as aggregative functions, especially in a liberal democracy.
“The import of political parties to democratic governance could be best understood in their functional attributes in democratic system which includes political elite recruitment and political education and communication function.
“In order to have enduring and mature democratic process, there is need for electoral body to instill confidence in electoral system and provide a level-playing ground for stakeholders.
“This can be best achieved through reforms that are anchored on identifying the challenges of the present system and offering functional and practical solutions towards salvaging the identified challenges,” he said.
Mr Ojukwu, who recently returned to the interim National Working Committee led by Senator Esther Nenadi Usman, noted that the party had 34 elected members in the House of Representatives, eight Senators, and 80 members at the state Houses of Assembly after the 2023 general elections.
“Now we lost all of them,” he said. “I don’t think we have as many as five members in the National Assembly.”
The former national officer of the LP talked to journalists in Abuja and said he chose to join the caretaker committee led by Senator Nenadi-Usman because they are now the officially recognized leaders of the Party.
“I chose to work with the caretaker committee to help save the Labour Party, for the benefit of the party. I also want to use this chance to ask my colleagues at the national, state, and local government levels to come together and help rebuild our party.
“Another election is around the corner. We lost everything we have. They have left to other political parties. So I’ll reach out to all my friends in the other group to get together and work on making this party stronger again.
“The caretaker committee has formed a reconciliation committee. Let’s come together and talk so that we can restore the first opposition political party in Nigeria.”
Mr Ojukwu, who was part of the Julius Abure’s group, said there are no more factions in the LP.
He added, “There is a court ruling, and since it is valid, the right people are in the correct positions.”
He urged Barr Abure and others to drop the legal cases they have filed because they are not helping the party.
“Litigations are killing political parties”, he said. “They’ve seen many political parties disappear because of legal battles, and the Labor Party is losing support every day, which makes me feel sad.”
Mr Ojukwu said he did not think joining the Senator Nenadi-Usman’s NWC was a betrayal of the Abure group, describing himself as “the oxygen” of that faction.
“I’m with this group because of the verdict. But I never betrayed anybody. Rather, I was betrayed,” he added.
