Party politics in Nigeria fragile – IPAC boss, Dantalle

The National Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, Yusuf Dantalle, has noted that party politics in Nigeria is fragile while the structures are weak and factionalized.

He noted that leadership disputes are frequent as political parties executives at ward, local government, state and national levels dissipate energy more in conspiring to remove their leaders than in building their parties’ structures that will further deepen the nation’s democracy.

“This is prevalent at ward level where officials will wake up one morning and announce the suspension of the party’s national chairman or whoever stands on their way,” the IPAC boss said.

Dantalle spoke at the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Democratic Summit, Arewa House, Kaduna, on Thursday, with the theme, solid political party structure is critical to the sustainability of the democratic process.

He pointed out the fact that political parties are central in modern democracy, adding that they are vital platforms or channels by which citizens aggregate their interests and hold the government accountable in electoral politics.

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According to him, in the first, second and third republics after independence in October 1960, there were formidable political parties’ structures with clear ideologies.

He said that citizens identified with their preferred political parties and that there was integrity in the democratic process.

“Leaders of these political parties were men of honour who considered national interest above personal aggrandizement,” he noted.

“Today, our party politics is fragile, the structures are weak and factionalised. Leadership disputes are frequent as political parties executives at ward, local government, state and national levels dissipate energy more in conspiring to remove their leaders than in building their parties’ structures that will further deepen the nation’s democracy.”

He, however, expressed the hope that going forward, all the political parties in Nigeria will see the need to build strong, solid, formidable structures that will attract more citizens to their parties in the quest for a virile, progressive, prosperous and equitable democratic nation.

He further announced that the current leadership of IPAC has developed a 4-Year Strategic Plan of Action from 2024–2027, which will strengthen political parties’ structures, foster capacity building of leaders of political parties, instill internal democracy in party management particularly, in nomination of candidates for elections and change of leaderships in accordance with the provisions of their constitutions.