Six Weeks to Elections: Where are the parties?

Mu’azu: PDP’s game changer

ABOUT 40 days to the 2015 general elections, most discourse on the exercise are fixated on the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, in a country of 26 registered political parties.

By Charles Kumolu

THE release of the names of presidential candidates and their running mates by the Independent National Electoral Commission,INEC, has for the umpteenth time raised questions on the visibility of other political parties in Nigeria.

Of the 26 registered parties, only 11 submitted names of candidates to run for the presidency.

The certified parties as obtained from INEC website include: Accord, A; Action Alliance, AA; Advanced Congress of Democrats, ACD; Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, ACPN; Alliance For Democracy, AD; African Democratic Congress, ADC; African Peoples Alliance, APA; All Progressives Congress, APC; All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA; Citizens Popular Party, CPP and Democratic Peoples Party,DPP.

Others are Independent Democrats, ID; Kowa Party, KP; Labour Party, LP; Mega Progressive Peoples Party,MPPP; National Conscience Party, NCP; New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP; People For Democratic Change, PDC; Peoples Democratic Movement, PDM; Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; Progressive Peoples Alliance, PPA; Peoples Party of Nigeria, PPN; Social Democratic Party, SDP; United Democratic Party, UDP; Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN and United Progressives Party, UPP.

The 11 parties that are fielding candidates for the polls are APC, PDP, KP, HDP, ACP, AD, UDP, ADC, NCP, AA and UPP.

The LP and APGA had already adopted President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP as their sole presidential candidate. That pegs the number of those without candidates for the office of the president and most elective positions at 15.

Parties appear and disappear

Though the country posses a political history where parties appeared and disappeared in various guises, the gradual amendments of the electoral law which led to an increase in the number of parties from three in 1999 to 63 and now 26, made expectations of a robust representation of the various parties in the 2015 general elections rife.

The October 2014 lifting of the ban on political campaigns by INEC increased anticipations.

But so far, the political landscape is largely dotted by the activities of the APC and ,PDP leading to concerns over other parties that were registered by the INEC to participate in the exercise.

Although, platforms like the SDP, APGA and LP, seem to be having some negligible level of representation at regional levels, the perceived parochial ideologies behind their formation, appear not to have done much to increase their visibility.

The SDP for instance, is a fallout of the alleged absence of inclusive representation in Ogun State chapter of the APC, which ultimately alienated the supporters of a former governor of the state, Chief Segun Osoba from the party.

PDP’s appendages

For APGA and LP, analysts are yet to be convinced that they are not appendages of the ruling PDP.

But for INEC, the perceptibility of a few others would have remained in the dark, given that they are not known to have commenced campaigns or embarked on other electioneering activities.

Investigations by Vanguard revealed that aside some dissatisfied governorship aspirants, who defected to APGA to actualize their aspirations, none of the presidential candidates have made serious moves beyond the purchase and submission of nomination forms.

Faced with this grim situation which contravens popular craving for a robust multi-party election, questions abound as to the rationale behind having such parties with little or no presence.

Speaking on the matter, Director General of Centre for Good Governance and Accountability, CGA, Dr. Aliyu Madugu told Vanguard that poor presence of the parties is not unconnected with the absence of ideologies behind their formation.

“When parties are not convened out of conviction and vision, what do you expect?’’ Madugu asked, ‘’these parties don’t exist for the common good of the society. Behind the reasons for these parties are selfish and pecuniary interests. I expect INEC to prune the number of these so called parties after now.”