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.