Political Parties Lack Organisational Capabilities To Deepen Democracy

Political parties lack organisational capabilities to spur Nigerians into real political participation, Director-General of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Prof. Tijani Muhammed-Barde, has said.

Barde made the aseertion  in Jos on Wednesday at the opening session of a conference on political parties and democracy and the inauguration a Political Parties Leadership and Policy Development Centre, funded by the United Nations Development Programme.

He said the ability of political parties to deepen democracy depends on their proper organisation, lamenting that political parties have not created much political consciousness.

“What parties do is very important. I have political parties to do a lot of things, to drive policy that would enhance and deepen democracy in the country depends on how they organise themselves.

He said it was in realisation of this that the institute, with the assistance of the UNDP, decided to provide a platform to train leaders of political parties to assist them to develop policies that would drive the country's  development.

According to him, no other institution can provide such a partisan platform than NIPSS, to drive the exercise.

Director of Research, Prof. Olu Obafemi, whose efforts culminated in the establishment of the centre, said what Nigetia needed at this time of development were strong political parties to drive democracy in the country.

This, he said, was necessary because research had shown that political parties in Nigeria were weak, personalised and not inclusive.

Meanwhile, Vice President, Namadi Sambo, said political parties in Nigeria lacked capacity to develop into strong instruments for social engineering.

He said rather than developing strong political institutions to deepen the country’s democratic culture, more attention was being paid to the establishment of governmental bodies and civic organisations.

The vice president, who spoke at the inauguration of the Centre on Wednesday, said both institutions were important but added that without strong and dynamic political parties, democracy could not survive on the long run.

Sambo, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Political Matters, Senator Isaiah Ballat, said political parties, like any other institutions, should continuously seek to enhance their capacity in response to changing circumstances.