C'River Seeks Reduction In Number Of Political Parties

The Deputy Governor of Cross River State,
Prof. Ivara Esu, on Wednesday, sought a
reduction in the number of the existing
political parties in the country.
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Esu said this in Calabar during the public
hearing of the South-South states by the
Presidential Committee on Electoral
Reforms led by Senator Ken Nnamani.
The public hearing, which had inputs from
political stakeholders in states across the
South-South region, was dominated by
stakeholders from the host state, Cross
River.
The deputy governor, who stood in for
Governor Ben Ayade, wondered why only a
few parties made impacts during elections
despite the availability of many parties in
the country.
He said, “Why do we have a long list of
political parties, whereas when elections
are held you only have two or three
political parties making impacts?”
Esu, however, listed the areas to be
amended in the ongoing electoral reforms
to include a reduction in the number of
political parties, stiff penalties for
politicians defecting from one party to
another and an amendment of the
electronic voting system, among others.
“There is also the issue of defection. To
me, that is electoral fraud. You cannot win
an election on one platform and choose to
defect to another platform,” he said.
Etu also said that Nigeria was better in
terms of democratic developments when
compared with Cameroon, Gabon,
Equatorial Guinea and other Third World
nations where their leaders had remained
in office for too long.
He said that under the present democratic
dispensation in Nigeria, no president
could cling on to power for more than the
stipulated number of years.
He lambasted the presidents of Cameroon,
Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, among
others, for clinging to power for too long,
saying that the phenomenon was a blot
on the countries’ democratic development.
He said, “If we look at Nigeria, we would
say we have done well compared with
other Third World nations. We are not like
Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and
others, where we have leaders that will
cling to power. What kind of countries are
those?”
Various stakeholders, including the
representatives of political parties and
election monitors called for stiffer
penalties for electoral offenders.
Also speaking, the Senior Special
Assistant to the President on Prosecution,
Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, who represented
the Minister of Justice and Attorney
General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar
Malami, said the committee was
inaugurated to address the grey areas in
the electoral process.
He said, “We have seen conflicting
judgments by appellate courts on electoral
matters. This committee is meant to sort
out such areas.”