Daniel Kanu
The proliferation of political parties, which to most Nigerians has become a mockery of the nation’s multi-party system, has continued to dominate public discourse.
What is even worrisome to political observers is the present alarming status of the parties under-performance or outright non-performance.
For instance, evidence on ground shows that of the 91 political parties that appeared on the ballot papers in the 2019 general elections, the presidency was won by one of the two main parties; the governorship positions were also shared by the two major parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). None of the new associations won any gubernatorial election.
Besides the two dominant parties, only five others namely Labour Party (LP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Young Progressive Party (YPP), People’s Redemption Party (PRP), and Action Alliance (AA) won one or more seats in the federal legislature.
Also, looking at the behaviour of registered parties in recent times, not a few people believe that many of the extant political parties are not registered for any altruistic reason, but for the personal glorification of their promoters.
Already, there are serious allegations that many of the political parties and indeed candidates that contested in the just concluded elections did so in order to cut deals.
Looking at what played out during the last presidential election, most of the 73 presidential candidates curiously chickened out as they announced their withdrawal from the race much after the 45 days to election window given for that purpose by Section 35 the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).
The withdrawal of these candidates to pave way for their endorsement of the APC and PDP presidential candidates is widely believed to have been borne out of some pecuniary motives.
Many political thinkers are already contending that the present political parties if not resourcefully managed by the INEC stand the danger of complicating the country’s political recruitment process and by extension, a mess of the entire democratic practice.
Currently, Nigeria, a multi-party liberal democracy, has 91 political parties registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission and there are reports that even more groups have pending applications seeking official recognition to contest in future elections.
When Nigeria started its presidential democratic experiment in 1979, it was with five political parties: National Party of Nigeria (NPN), Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP), Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP) and National Advance Party (NAP).
In 1999, the Fourth Republic began with just three political parties. The number rose to 30 in 2003, 50 in 2007, 60 in 2011 and fell to 28 in 2015 as a result of the deregistration exercise which Prof Attahiru Jega, the then INEC chairman, carried out.
With the court pronouncing Section 78 (7)(i) and (ii) as being ultra vires to constitutional provisions, INEC had to restore the license of some of the already deregistered political parties and registered more, thus arriving at the present 91 political parties that contested in the 2019 elections.
Reports abound after the elections that most of the parties were not able to pool up to 1,000 votes in the last national elections just as they lack presence in most parts of the country.
Expectedly, INEC has continued to face a lot of criticism from the public who are seriously opposed to the continued existence of fringe and mushroom political parties.
Keen political observers are already suggesting that the performance of all the registered political parties in the country, as a matter of public interest, be reviewed and a decision taken on their continued existence after the conclusion of all election matters by the INEC.
Unarguably, political parties are necessary in any democratic form of government to the extent that, in Nigeria, for instance, no person can aspire to elected public office unless ‘he or she is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that party’, as provided by Section 65 (2) (b) in the 1999 constitution.
Also, the activities of a political party as stipulated in the same 1999 Constitution in section 229 ‘‘include canvassing votes in support of a candidate for election to the office of President, Vice-President, Governor, Deputy Governor, or membership of a legislative house or of a local government council.’’
Whereas Section 40 of the constitution guarantees that ‘every person shall be entitled to assemble freely and associate with other persons, and in particular he may form or belong to any political party, trade union, or any other association for the protection of his interests’, nevertheless, both the constitution and the Electoral Act, 2010 stipulate the terms and conditions to qualify as a political party and be so deemed.
The constitution extensively spelt out not only the criteria for their valid existence, but also the supervisory and investigatory role that INEC exercises on the conduct of the affairs of political parties. The referee’s role (INEC) includes oversight over revenue and expenditure.
However, there seems to be heated controversy on whether INEC has the legal backing to deregister political parties.
Legal luminary, Femi Falana said that there is relevant legislation in place empowering INEC to deregister political parties based on certain conditions.
He said the unprincipled proliferation of political parties has become a mockery to our multi-party system.
“The Supreme Court ruling, 2003, in the case between INEC and Second Republic former governor of Kaduna State, Balarabe Musa, paved the way for the liberalisation of the party system in Nigeria,
“But the expansion of the democratic space was exploited by people of ill-motivated agenda who set up all kinds of political associations and proceeded to register them as political parties,” Falana observed.
He disclosed that “the National Assembly took advantage of the 2017 constitutional review to reduce the number of registered political parties in the country.
“Thus, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (Fourth Alteration, No 9) Act, 2017 enacted on May 4, 2017, has amended Section 225 of the 1999 Constitution to empower the Independent National Electoral Commission to de-register political parties on grounds of:
“(a) breach of any of the requirements for registration;(b) failure to win at least 25 per cent of votes cast in-(i) one state of the Federation in a Presidential election; or(ii) one Local Government of the state in a governorship election; (c) failure to win at least- (i) one ward in the chairmanship election; (ii) one seat in the National or State House of Assembly election; or (iii) one seat in the councillorship election.”
Moving forward, Falana made some reform proposals in terms of political party administration in the country.
According to him, “first, there is no need to coerce all political parties to be national. Just like the deregulation exercise in Nigeria’s banking and financial sectors have permitted, INEC should be allowed to license political parties who want to operate at national and sub-national levels, including the six area councils of FCT.
“Political parties who want to operate at local government levels should be registered by the respective State Independent Electoral Commissions.
“Mere registration of a party should not be sufficient to get the party on the ballot at elections. There must be conditions precedent to getting enlisted on the ballot.
“Some of these conditions should include a minimum number of registered members across the area of operations; functional offices in at least two-thirds of areas of operations; refundable deposit by contestants. Depending on the post being contested for, candidates should be made to pay a refundable deposit which will be paid back to them if they scored a percentage of valid votes cast in such elections”.
A certain political analyst told Sunday Sun that “the assessment of the performance of a political party cannot be based only on winning an election because there is every tendency that a political party that performed poorly in the last election may do well in the coming election.
“The proliferation of political parties should not worry anybody; some of them will naturally die off and if you are talking of engaging a vibrant democracy, there should be an opportunity where people of like minds can form political associations of their choice and allowed to grow over time.
“It is not the duty of INEC or any other body to de-register any party because it is regarded as a mushroom party. There should rather be opportunities for better mass participation in political activities rather than stifling a party because of its poor electoral performance”.
There seems also to be a position by some observers that the political space should be reconfigured to allow parties to start small and local. This is because, in their argument, it was how Nigeria’s democracy began when democracy nurtured development agenda – before 1966 when ‘soldiers of fortune’ struck it down and destroyed federalism.
Their stance is that political parties that meet the felt needs of their local constituents can ensure stability and prosperity better than some with national spread based in a distant capital and insensitive to the aspirations of small communities.
Akin Osuntokun, former Special Adviser to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo on Political Matters, said that INEC should de-register parties that fall below expectation in performance, as well as in minimum standard expected for political party recognition.
Osuntokun said: “I think the INEC should retain the power to de-register political parties because we have some parties whose membership is not more than that of a small family.
“Many of these so-called political parties don’t win elections anywhere in the country. I think there are certain conditions that must be met before INEC can continue to recognise them as political parties”.
President Emeritus, Aka-Ikenga, Igbo intellectual Think-tank, Dr Sylvan Ebigwei, said that Nigeria would be better off with two or three political parties, insisting that the majority of the parties are mere mushrooms that appear to distract and destroy rather than grow the political system.
He told Sunday Sun that INEC should de-register all non-performing political parties as some have constituted a political nuisance.
Many commentators say the challenge Nigeria’s political leaders have been struggling with is in their inability to properly harness the nation’s unique diversity to national political advantage.
This is because in their opinion, where equity, respect, and justice rule, there is not a single reason that nation’s plurality – ethnic, religious, and values – cannot be translated into national strength by a patriotic, mature and creative political elite determined to deepen and elevate democratic governance.