Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Wednesday expressed his displeasure with the emergence of candidates for elective positions in Nigeria via consensus.
Abubakar, who spoke in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, said the emergence of candidates through consensus was not a democratic practice.
He chided not only his own party, the Peoples Democratic Party, for adopting such a method for picking candidates for elections but also the opposition parties.
Abubakar spoke as a guest lecturer of the Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan, at a lecture titled: “Thoughts on internal democracy in Nigerian political parties: Challenges and strategies.”
The lecture, which was held to mark the 50th anniversary of the department, had several political associates of the former vice president in attendance.
Abubakar called for a law banning incumbents from using state resources for partisan purposes, including electioneering.
Although he affirmed his membership of the PDP, the former vice president endorsed the emergence of the newly-formed All Progressive Congress, saying it may be the catalyst towards ensuring a two-party system in Nigeria.
He said: “This is because a two-party system is the best way to have parties that cut across our various regional, ethnic and religious fault-lines.”
The former vice president, who noted that the nation’s political process was fraught with many flaws, blamed the absence of internal democracy in political parties on the military mindset inherited by Nigerian politicians.
He also attributed the problem to the ownership structure of the parties, which, according to him, are largely owned by godfathers and run as personal fiefdoms or sole proprietorships.
Abubakar lamented that constitutional provisions and court decisions affirming periodic election of officers in Nigerian political parties have been ignored by party leaders in favour of “affirmation or consensus convention.”
He said, “For example, the PDP has changed its national chairman frequently just because the sitting presidents wanted it that way.
“If the changes took place in accordance with democratic principles, it would not be such a problem.
“Usually, the existing chairman is literally forced to resign and a new one imposed through the strange contraption called ‘consensus.’
“Thus we have had eight party chairmen since 1999.”
The former vice president recalled his experiences of internal democracy deficit in the PDP and when he ran as presidential candidate of the then Action Congress, saying such experiences were shocking.
Abubakar maintained that it was only Chief Barnabas Gemade, who contested against late Chief Sunday Awoniyi, that emerged through democratic means as national chairman of PDP.
Other former chairmen of the ruling party, he maintained, were chosen through imposition.
He also narrated his experience in the AC, saying the attempt by Chief Shuaib Oyedokun to contest as the party’s national chairman was scuttled by certain forces who preferred a former Osun State Governor, Chief Bisi Akande, to emerge unopposed.
Abubakar pointed out that the resultant effects of imposition or consensus in the emergence of party candidates include election rigging, corruption and economic underdevelopment.
As a way to check electoral fraud, Abubakar suggested that anyone whose electoral victory is being challenged should be barred from assuming office until such disputations have been resolved.
The former vice president decried the misuse of security agents by the political class to intimidate opponents, saying security operatives should always be neutral and apolitical.
Earlier in his remarks, the Head of Department of Political Science, Prof. O. B. C. Nwolise, lamented the absence of ideological orientation in the country’s political parties.
Nwolise observed that the absence of internal democracy in parties had been responsible for the “poor quality of candidates and leaders on Nigeria’s political terrain.”
Nwolise said the department organised the lecture to place the issue of lack of internal democracy in the front burner of national discourse ahead of the 2015 poll.
He said: “INEC should be empowered to ensure that our political parties are democratic, if not, they can’t deliver democracy.
“Our political parties must be democratic institutions for our politics, governance and nation to be democratic.”
Dignitaries at the event included Governor Abiola Ajimobi, who was represented by the Secretary to the Oyo State Government, Alhaji Akin Olajide; former presidential adviser, Chief Titilayo Ajanaku; Chief Dosu Oladipo; former Speaker, Oyo State House of Assembly, Alhaji Mikail Alarape; President of Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes, Chief Bayo Oyero; Alhaji Diti Oladapo; and the university’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Isaac Adewole, who was represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics), Prof. I Olayinka.
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