The current Nigerian Senate ably led by Senator Ahmed Lawan is determined to convincingly tell Nigerians that it is in many respects distinct from previous Senates since the return to democracy in 1999, particularly the Senate led by Senator Bukola Saraki. Apart from conducting a most civilised and transparent election of its principal officers, Senate President Ahmed Lawan, has pledged to run the red chamber in the most democratic manner.
Importantly, Lawan with his fellow 108 senators have resolved to work with the executive arm led by President Muhammadu Buhari in giving Nigerians the full benefits of the dividends of democracy. This is obviously a complete departure for good from the retrogressive leadership of the Saraki-led senate that behaved not as an arm of the government but as an alternate executive branch of government. Worthy of note is the resolution of the Senate to cooperate with the executive in the overall interest of Nigeria and Nigerians.
Senator Kabiru Gaya’s disclosure during an interaction with INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmud Yakubu, to the effect of the Senate was kick starting an amendment of the 2010 Electoral act. Senator Gaya who is incidentally the Senate’s INEC Committee Chairman was full of hopes that the National Assembly plans to de-register at least 85 political parties before the 2013 general elections in Nigeria.
In line with the electoral reforms the National Assembly was embarking upon to sanitise the country’s electoral systems, the national assembly was not leaving any stone unturned in making the conditions for the registration of political parties very stringent.
One can vividly recall that during the first republic from 1963 to 1966, Nigeria had only 16 political parties. They were action group, AG; Borno Youth Movement, BYM; Democratic party of Nigeria and Cameroon, DPNC; Dynamic Party, DP; Igala Union, IU; Igbira Tribal Union, ITU; Mid West Democratic Front, MDF; National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons/National Convention of Nigerian citizens, NCNC; National independence party, NIP; Niger Delta Congress, NDC and Nigerian National Democratic Party, NNDP. Others were Northern Elements Progressive Union, NEPU; Northern People’s Congress, NPC; Northern Progressive Front, NPF.
The rest were Republican Party, RP; United Middle Belt Congress, UMBC; United National Independence Party, UNIP and Zamfara Commoners Party, ZCP.
The second republic which kicked off in 1978 and was abruptly terminated by a military take-over of government in December of 1983, had only 6 major political parties which made it very easy for voters to exercise their franchise of selecting a party of their choice as contained in the ballot paper. The parties were United Party of Nigeria, UPN; Nigeria Peoples Party, NPP; National Party of Nigeria, NPN; Peoples Redemption Party, PRP; Great Nigeria Peoples Party, GNPP and Nigeria Advance Party, NAP.
The fourth republic started from 1996. Nigeria’s political space at the beginning was dominated by less than 10 political parties. But today, we have almost 90 political parties which makes voters to go through harrowing experience to identify the party symbol of their choice during voting. The parties were Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; Peoples Redemption Party, PRP; All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP; Justice Party, JP; United Nigeria Congress Party, UNCP; National Centre Party of Nigeria, NCPN; National Democratic Coalition, NADECO; Committee for National Consensus, CNC; Democratic Party of Nigeria, DPN;
The attempt by the National Assembly to prune down the number of political parties in our space is not only timely but a necessary decision to save Nigerians from the horrors of voting a party of their choice. We therefore welcome this decision of NASS and prayed that it sees the light of the day before the 2023 general elections in the country.
Musa Ilallah,
Emeka Anyaoku Street,
Abuja
