Veteran Journalist Wants Reduction Of Political Parties

A veteran journalist, Mr Mahmud Jega, has called for national consensus to reduce number of political parties in Nigeria before the 2023 general election.
Jega made the call while delivering a paper at “Media Coverage of the 2019 General Election”, organised by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in collaboration with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said something has to be done about the high number of political parties.
“It is not true that we need 91 political parties in order to liberalise the political space,” he said.
He said during the second republic there were just five parties and there was no choice that could not be found within the number.
“Some of the registered parties now are just briefcase parties,” he said.
He said the high number is responsible for confusion of electorate, resulting in large number of invalid votes recorded during 2019 elections.
“All kind of problems are created and really there should be a kind of national consensus before the next general elections to reduce the number of political parties.
“Simply by strengthening the registration rules. We are not saying that INEC is responsible for all these things,” he said.
Jega also stressed the need to cut the cost of conducting elections in Nigeria, saying the real cost of 2019 poll was more than the N185 billion spent by INEC as other stakeholders such as security agencies, media and Civil Society Organisations also had their expenses.
“There is no doubt that something has to be done about the cost of elections in Nigeria.
“It is outrageous to spend N185 billion when Nigeria has the highest number of people living in extreme poverty, we want light, our roads are not secured and our trains now have to be guided by helicopters.
“Is it the best thing to do now to spend so much money on elections? Unfortunately, we don’t even get value for money,” he said.
Jega also said that the partisanship of the security agencies is very alarming. “Honestly if we don’t find a solution to that we will always fall short of having credible elections in Nigeria.”
He also said the most notorious case that came in the 2019 general elections is the issue of inconclusive elections majorly caused by INEC.