Politician and entrepreneur Atiku Abubakar has stated that elected officials who defect to other political parties must resign from their positions and that party members cannot disregard party supremacy and regulations.
He was a panelist at a national conference on bolstering Nigerian democracy held Monday in Abuja by the National Peace Committee (NPC), the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), and the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA).
Members who disregard party norms must face repercussions, he said.
“That shouldn’t be up for discussion or debate when it occurs,” he stated, adding that electoral malpractice should typically be penalized rather than facilitated.
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“Political integrity requires these.” He said.
According to him, opposition parties need to understand that it is very hard to overthrow a ruling party, regardless of how unpopular it is or how tired the populace is of it.
To increase the opposition’s ability to accomplish that, coalition building and outright mergers are essential. Both our own history and other nations’ examples demonstrate that,” he continued.
Without powerful political parties, particularly opposition parties, he maintained, democracy could not be maintained.
Parties must be robust and democratic in order to carry out their mandates. The antithesis of democracy is the ownership of parties by or their subjugation to individual powerful men.
It is essential to have party domination. However, the current mechanism of party funding does not allow for party supremacy.
According to him, funding by a small group of affluent people and governors is not a democratic approach.
We are aware that the person who pays the piper controls the melody. Democracy in funding is required. Parties must be co-owned and funded by members.
“When individuals begin with the mindset that “Tinubu, Peter Obi, or Atiku are wealthy, so I don’t have to contribute,” they give in to the power of the big man in politics.
“In more successful democracies, the large number of members and supporters helps parties and candidates raise money.”
He advised people to spend money on their political decisions.
People tend to be more involved with something when they invest in it. Therefore, we must educate our people, especially those in the party.
It won’t be simple, but the shift to fully democratic parties must start. Is it possible to think about providing parties with some public (government) support throughout the transition? To prevent parties from forming solely to raise money for the government, is it perhaps proportionate to each party’s elected representatives in the legislatures?” he said.
