BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, on Monday declared that it is a political malpractice for an elected government to govern without reference to the manifesto that was placed before the voters which essentially formed the basis of their election.
The Speaker, who stated these while making remarks at a retreat on ‘Dynamics of Managing Political Parties, organised by the National Institute for Policy & Strategic Studies in Abuja, also said that any political party that fails to embrace and implement reforms to institute internal democracy risk extinction.
Dogara further said; “It amounts to political malpractice for political parties to rule without manifesto at any level. In an attempt to either capture or hold on to power, some political parties have sometimes embellished their manifestoes with unrealistic promises which according to him.
“For political parties to effectively play central role in democratic representation, they must be managed and operated in such a manner as to establish trust among the electorate.
“Regrettably, in Africa, and Nigeria in particular, political parties are weak, lacking not only a stable and functioning party apparatus, but also a clear programmatic appeal.
“They also suffer from low organisational capacity and a lack of internal democracy. Such weak political parties cannot support democracy as parties are expected to serve many important functions, including citizen mobilisation, interest aggregation, public policy formulation, leadership recruitment, and government organisation.”
The Speaker insisted that the apparent weaknesses of political parties in Nigeria underline the need for reform and professionalization.
“By professionalisation we mean ‘an institutional process by which professionalisation become more central to the running of our parties. “Currently our parties in Nigeria could do with better professional organisation of their operations,” Dogara enthused.
