Atiku Abubakar
Former Vice President. Atiku Abubakar has warned against use of public funds for partisan purposes.
Delivering a paper as part of the public lecture series of the Department of Political Science at the University of Ibadan on Wednesday, the former Vice President called for electoral reforms that would addressed the issue of incumbent officials, using money meant for developmental projects instead of their own resources.
The Turakin Adamawa also recommended a change in the process of appointment and tenure of the chairman and commissioners of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
On funding, he said INEC should be less dependent on the government in power. Instead, he recommended that the funding should come from a consolidated revenue fund to protect its independence.
The former Vice President called for effective monitoring of political parties by the electoral umpire to ensure they conform with the provisions of the electoral acts.
Atiku also reiterated his previous position that anyone, whose election is being challenged in courts, should not be allowed to assume office until those litigation are decisively resolved by the courts. This, he said, would be a safeguard against fraud by those being challenged in court.
To achieve free and fair election, he advised that security agencies should be reformed to make them neutral.
Atiku criticized Nigeria’s existing political parties for paying lip service to internal democracy, which he described as a major component of democratic practice.
He regretted that, despite the hard struggle to push the military out of power in 1999, Nigeria is still confronted by dictatorship in democratic guise.
The Adamawa-born politician said In a true democratic practice, the people should be governed by laws rather than the whims and caprices of those in power.
He wondered why Nigeria’s political parties are either afraid or allergic to internal democratic practices which offered members the full freedom to elect their leaders.
The former Vice President said the culture of the imposition of candidates and the impunity that goes with it was a hang-over from the military mentality., saying those who benefited from the culture of imposition are less likely to fight against such undemocratic practice.
Relying on article 16 of the 1999 PDP Constitution, which recommended election as the basis of producing leaders, the former Vice President said this article appeared to have been abandoned in the election of officers of the party.
According to Atiku, “consensus”, “affirmation” or such other “election – avoiding contraption” contradict Section 223 of the Nigerian Constitution, which insists on the election of party leaders on democratic basis.
He pressed further that even where the courts affirmed the provisions of the constitution in this regard, party leaders conveniently ignored such court orders in favor of “affirmation or consensus” at the party conventions.
He expressed concern at a situation where a political party is left at the mercy of a sitting President who enslaves every member to his will and removes any chairman who is not ready to yield to his will.
The Turaki Adamawa said while there was nothing wrong for political parties to field candidates for offices, such candidates should be allowed to emerge through transparent elective process, instead of letting the interest of the man with executive power to browbeat members into submission.
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