Political parties are defining institutions in a democracy. They provide the platforms for engaging the electorate on the different perspectives of politics and governance. They serve as the channels for citizen participation in choosing those that govern them.
Today in Nigeria, there are about 40 registered political parties, but of the lot, only the People's Democratic Party (PDP), the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) control all the elective offices in the three tiers of government. The APC (the ruling party) and the PDP (the main opposition and former ruling party) dominate the political landscape.
It is, however, regrettable that none of the major parties is in sound health. All are in one form of crisis or the other.
While the PDP remains factionalised at the national level, the bulk of the party at the states and the local governments remain united behind the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led group. However, the crisis in Abuja has affected some states as is evident in the unfolding developments in Ondo State.
The APC, while sustaining a united national executive is challenged, with its failure to hold regular National Executive Committee (NEC) meetings as stipulated in its constitution. Even though it is the ruling party, its national officials have been acting at cross-purposes. Pathetically for a party in power, it has for the past year, not been able to produce a substantive national spokesperson since the appointment of Alhaji Lai Mohammed as a minister.
APGA is also mired in factionalisation with stories of uprisings against its national officers now commonplace.
The main reason for the lack of cohesion in our political parties is that our politicians place more emphasis on the struggle for positions and power than on building virile institutions. The jostling for power overshadows the need to evolve strategies for sound governance and making the country a better place for its citizens.
This also accounts for the near-uniformity in their manifestos, constitutions, organisational processes, attitudes to elections and approach to governance when they find themselves in power. This does not provide the electorate with any credible choice.
We expect the political parties to seize the remaining period before the next general elections to reassess their modus operandi, close ranks or realign properly to give Nigerians worthy political platforms to choose from.
It is only when people of political like-minds come together that they can build great political parties based on Grand National ideals which can stand the test of political turbulence.
The cheap shallow mentality of our politicians has made our seventeen years of renascent democracy not to count in terms of making our political parties veritable vehicles for national development. Rather, they remain the instruments for personal aggrandisement
