The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 elections, Atiku Abubakar has commented that party members who defect to other parties while in power must vacate their seats as it is against party supremacy and rules.
He also commented that party members need to be encouraged to contribute to the development of their parties while developing their political choices.
He said this on Monday in Abuja, as a panellist at a national conference on strengthening democracy in Nigeria, organised by the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA), and the National Peace Committee (NPC).
According to him, there must be consequences for members who fail to comply with party rules, and electoral malpractice generally must be punished and not rewarded.
On coalition he explained that opposition parties must realise that it is extremely difficult to dislodge a governing party, however unpopular it may be and however fed up the people may be with it.
“Coalition-building and outright mergers are critical for building the capacity of the opposition to achieve that goal. Our own history and examples from other countries prove that,” he added.
He argued that democracy can not be sustained without strong political parties, especially opposition parties.
“Party supremacy is critical. But party supremacy can’t be achieved through the current funding model for our parties”
He said funding by governors and a few wealthy individuals is not a democratic model.
“As we know, he who pays the piper dictates the tune. Funding must be democratised. Members must invest in and co-own parties.
“When people start from the point of view that Tinubu is rich, or Peter Obi is rich, or Atiku is rich, so I don’t have to contribute, they surrender to the big man’s dominance of parties.
He urged citizens to invest in funding their political choices.
“When people invest in something, they tend to be more engaged with it. So, our people, especially party members, need to be enlightened.
“The transition to truly democratised parties won’t be easy but must be begun. Could we consider some public (government) funding of parties during the transition period? Perhaps proportionate to each party’s elected officials in the legislatures to avoid parties springing up just to collect public funds?”, he quizzed.
