Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, took a swipe at political parties in Nigeria, saying many have no manifestoes to operate with. He also charged Nigerians to hold political office holders accountable to their party manifestoes.
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Speaking at a Roundtable Conference on Party Politics in Nigeria and Lobbying the Lobbyist and the Legislature, organised by the National Institute for Legislative Studies, NILS, in Abuja, Obasanjo said party manifestoes had suddenly become mere instruments for political campaign in Nigeria.
Obasanjo, who noted that these were normally thrown away by elected political leaders soon after they were elected, asked why political parties or elected officers should not be held accountable to their promises by the public.
He said: “I want to say that there are some areas where political parties need improvement. I am sure and I hope that the discussants and speakers would lay emphasis on these areas. One of them is the issue of manifestoes. What I have come to see and understand in Nigeria is that manifestoes are prepared for campaigns and after wards, they are thrown away.
“How then can we hold parties and their elected leaders to their promises and manifestoes? Or if they have no manifestoes, what do we hold them for?”
Discipline among political parties
Obasanjo stressed the need for discipline among political parties but warned that no human institution endured for long without discipline and urged politicians to acquire basic ingredients of party politics geared towards ensuring free, fair and transparent elections.
He said: “One point I would want to make is about service. We really see service in party politics. Senator David Mark has said that the only means of going into election in this country is through a political party.
“Political parties are vehicle through which one can participate in elections. What are the ingredients that must be there for political parties to participate the way they should and make elections what they should be— free, fair and transparent in such a way that the outcome would be fairly, generally accepted?”
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It is only in Nigeria that the likes of Obasanjo, after dragging us back to the Paleolithic age, can moralize us on leadership. The greatest mistake was bringing him out of jail where he should now be a permanent resident.
ReplyDeleteAgba iya (Shameless old man) your case is like that of a pot calling kettle black, what about you? god father of do or die politics, what did Nigerians benefit during your 8 years of mis rule, what about haliburton scandal just to mention a few of your attrocities. Honestly na you OBJ be the real useless ploitician even the way you massively rigged 2003 and 2007 elections in favour of PDP is even enough to crucify you. shameless old man!!!!
ReplyDeleteHow can someone like OBJ be invited to give a talk on good leadership when he performed woefully in power? I guess it's like asking an armed robber to lecture on how to keep your property safe. Maybe he is just the best person in that regard
ReplyDeleteI agree with you anonymous 1 & 2 .
ReplyDeleteThis man is Agba Iya ( Shameless Old Man ).
However , i admit that you said something meaningful but your antecedent is not worth of emulation thus make the whole speech useless.
Baba , dont try to be good to us after you kill our future.
God will Judge you and me one day.
Don't try to undo the evils you did un your time, has Saotomi/Precipe Paid back the money we loaned them? We must all die one day but remember the evil that men do live with them
ReplyDeletewe should start with you.
ReplyDeleteI dont see anything wrong in Obasanjo cautioning against an obvious disaster. If we are to engage in party politics, then the political parties must have agendas/manifestoes which distinguishes between their ideologies. Obasanjo may not have done excellently, but in his time there was order and Nigeria was not a laughing stock in the international community. Nigeria commanded much more respect than she does now. I remember where a case of coup was reported in an African country and all that Obasanjo had to do was to fly to the country and, as would a real leader, collect the presidential crown from the military dictator handing over same to the democratically elected. It may seem a scene from a movie but its true. The present administration cannot do anything close to that if the coup were to be in one of the states of Nigeria. Its rudiculous how people only count on peoples wrongs to judge them forgetting everything good they might have done.
ReplyDeleteJust thanks @Adoke.
ReplyDelete