Political parties in the country have been advised to respect the will of the people and promote internal democracy within their parties especially by accepting the result of congress elections at the wards, state and national levels of leadership structures.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Comrade Zaka D. Sunday, who gave the advice Wednesday, stated that democracy cannot grow when political party leaders insist on the supremacy of parties and impose candidates on the electorate rather than accept the people’s choice during elections.
Comrade Sunday told Blueprint in Abuja that democracy has been perverted and has suffered so much harm in Nigeria under the All Progressives Congress’s adminstration more than at any other period in the history of the country.
He described the celebration of Democracy Day as a mere cosmetic symbolism under the present administration and wondered how the APC can justify its idea of governance when it has operated care-taker executives in wards and at the state and national levels for a long time.
“The importance of internal peace and unity cannot be over-emphasised in a democratic system. In politics, there must be agreements and disagreements but the party should allow the will of the people to prevail. This has not been so with the ruling APC. The will of the people should supercede the supremacy of the party,” he said.
Zaka continued by adding, “Since the present administration came into office, the celebration of democracy has become a joke and observed like children’s dramas where everything is caricatured or turned into a play matter.
“How can you celebrate democracy as a party when you have operated ward executives throughout the federation starting from the wards up to the national levels? This is a huge joke.
“Democracy has been bastardized by the leadership of the APC in the party and in the country in general. It is surprising that the President cannot direct the APC to conduct credible congresses across the six geopolitical zones and the party is contented with caretaker committees from the national down to the wards.
Seriously, something is wrong with that notion of democracy where party leaders dictate who gets what,” Sunday Zaka said.
He stated that the PDP has reaped sufficient benefits from the crisis in the APC since the last congresses in the FCT adding, “We have continued to receive thousands of decampees from the ruling party and more will join us before the February 2022 FCT area council chairmanship elections.”
The chairman said the PDP will not run into the same mistakes like the APC and will conduct its affairs according to the wishes of the electorate even as he expressed the hope that Nigeria will witness peace again before long.
