Tony John, Port Harcourt
The Movement for the Advancement of Internal Democracy (MAID) has called for the entrenchment of internal democracy in political parties in Nigeria.
MAID Coordinator Livingstone Wechie, during the inauguration of the group in Port Harcourt, decried a lack of internal democracy in political parties in the country.
Wechie lamented that the dearth of internal democracy in political party politics has led to the hijacking of the political system by the wrong people who seat back to impose their decisions without recourse to stakeholders and party members.
He stated that party supremacy would lose its esteem if ordinary members are not given the opportunity for popular participation.
Wechie, a political activist, warned that if the excesses of certain powerful interests who have privatised political parties are not curtailed, Nigerian politics would be anything but people-oriented.
Wechie cited Rivers State as a major victim of the trend he decried, singling out the All Progressives Congress (APC) and others parties in various states where stakeholders and aggrieved members have been involved in endless legal battles.
“Hence, the political destinies of many people were destroyed just because of the failure to allow the will of the people to prevail,” he noted.
The MAID Coordinator recommended a roundtable mechanism as the right tool to resolve party conflicts.
He charged the political class to give peace a chance in their parties and stop the culture of imposition because it would only lead to political implosion and mass resistance.