Guardian How NIPSS plans to boost Nigeria’s democracy, by DG Thursday, 20 June 2013 00:00 From Martins Oloja, Washington D.C News - National • Sambo to commission centre June 26 • UNDP backs institute in developing parties SPURRED by the need to strengthen the nation’s democracy, the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) has set up a centre for developing political parties in Kuru, Plateau State, according to the Director-General of the institute. The “Political Party Leadership and Policy Development Centre” is being facilitated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It will be commissioned by Vice President Namadi Sambo on June 26 in Kuru, Plateau State. The Director-General of the NIPSS, Prof. Tijjani Muhammadu-Bande, who leads an eighth-man team comprising six officials from the institute, one civil society chief executive and a senior journalist on a study tour of the United States (U.S.), told The Guardian in the U.S. why the institute was setting up a centre for the development of political parties in Nigeria. The former Vice Chancellor of the Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto, said the need to assist the development of policy for political parties had become urgent as part of the transformation of the democratic processes in Nigeria. His words: “We are persuaded that (political) party system is one of the weakest links we have to strengthen in a structured manner in our country. Despite Nigeria’s progress in electoral democracy since 1999, with four successive elections and peaceful transfer of the reins of power from one civilian regime to another, there are challenges to the consolidation of democracy. “Among several other factors, the weak institutionalisation of political parties and their dysfunctional character remain key deficits of Nigeria’s democracy, and this is coupled with the behaviour of the members of the political class who appear to be reducing the political parties to mere electoral machines. So, there is an urgent need to consciously respond to the inherent weaknesses in Nigeria’s party system to ensure that political parties are institutionalised, functional, organizationally-viable, and, more importantly, perform their basic functions in a democracy…” The political scientist continued: “It is well known that modern representative democracy needs strong and sustainable parties with the capacity to represent citizens and provide policy choices that demonstrate their ability to govern for the public good. “The basic and routine functions of political parties are encapsulated in their linkage functions as follows: a campaign linkage: parties recruit candidates and set the parameters of the electoral process; participatory linkage through mobilisation of candidates to vote during elections; ideological linkage through informing voters about policy choices and policy alternatives; representative linkage through congruence between citizen policy preferences and the policies of the parties represented in government and parliament and policy linkage as parties try to deliver on the policies they advocate in the election and serve as agencies for ensuring that government officials are responsive to the rank and file voters. “The inability of political parties to adequately perform these functions in both advanced and struggling democracies is the basis of the standard lament regarding the behaviour of political parties. “Political parties in Nigeria face formidable challenges, especially as they presently lack the capacity to play their traditional roles effectively and efficiently. A major challenge to political parties in the country is their weak capacity to respond to and articulate the views of both members and the voters. “Ideally, political parties aim to capture state power and control the public policy-making process in accordance with their worldviews expressed in manifestos. They hardly articulate and express the views of their members through their manifestos, which are expected to influence their campaign process. “In government, the political parties scarcely play the representation function of directing public policy-making in line with the interests of the electorate. Again, in opposition, parties hardly aim to act as watchdogs over the government policy-making and implementation process, and presenting the electorate with the alternative policy choice. “It is this basic lacuna in leadership and policy development that has remained one of the challenges to address in the long-term interest of building a viable democratic system. “Evidence of weaknesses in Nigeria’s party system includes the recurring incidents of violence and manipulation, leading to distortion in electoral outcomes and further engendering public discontent about the quality and credibility of elections in Nigeria. “The reason for this phenomenon has been political parties’ lack of commitment to democracy and accountability, both within their own structures and in the manner they engage with the electoral process. High levels of ‘monetisation of politics’ based on the practices of ‘god-fatherism’ and the patriarchal system continue to weaken the role of women and other vulnerable groups in politics and elections. “So, the proposed ‘Political Party Leadership and Policy Development Centre’ is conceived as a capacity-building and resource centre to address issues of capacity development for political parties, strengthen their capacity for policy dialogue, conflict management, media outreach and democratic initiatives on women and youth issues with the overall goal of enhancing the democratic quality of political parties and their engagement with the wider political process. “It will target party leadership, and critical sections of the membership such as women and youths and will draw from international best practices in party support programmes and curricula development around the world building on the convening power of NIPSS and its national and global networks in matters relating to policy development and dialogue over the years.” NIPSS is Nigeria’s apex policy research and leadership training institute. It was established in 1979 to serve as “a high level centre of reflection, research and dialogue” where senior cadre policy formulators, practitioners and scholars could deliberate on topical issues. Meanwhile, some officials who would not like to be named told the delegates in Washington during a session in their office that for political parties to be functional and result-oriented, they must be run as organisations set up not just to win elections, they must be run to organise parliamentary issues too. Besides, one other official in NDI noted that the opposition parties must be nurtured in this mix to nurture democracy as according to him, “any democracy without a strong opposition is as dangerous as one party states. That is why some observers feel that the South African example of one strong party is as suspicious as Nigeria’s where there is one very strong ruling party. That is why there is a lot of passing interest in the coalition called APC in Nigeria, which seeks to put the ruling on its toes. That is democracy in action…”
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 07:57:06 +0000
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