Following the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister some political parties in the country, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has called on the Federal Government to stop funding political parties.
The group in a statement on Tuesday also charged the National Assembly to initiate a bill that will enable Nigerians in the Diaspora to vote during elections in their fatherland.
It said that failure to do this was tantamount to disenfranchisement, saying, “Every Nigerian at home and abroad must be given a voice. Anything contrary to this rubbishes the principle of ‘one man one vote’. It reduces our democracy to a sham.”?????
It would be recalled that INEC recently axed 20 political parties, the move had generated unsavory comments from some quarters with some alleging an attempt to turn the country into a one-party dictatorship as well as an infringement on people’s right to freedom of association.
MURIC viewed INEC’s recent deregistration of the parties as a wake-up call on existing political parties to exhibit more seriousness.
“We believe that it is only a good doctor that will not hesitate to amputate a rotten limb in order to salvage the remaining parts of the anatomy.
“Nigeria has too many registered political parties and the situation sometimes becomes so ridiculous that some presidential candidates have been known to score only one vote. It is our strong suspicion that some of the political parties are only there because of the fund they receive from the government. Such proliferation of the political landscape is not only unnecessary but infantile and prodigal,” the group said.
It noted that the advanced democracies of the world have fewer political parties and asked “why must Nigeria be different? What exactly are we doing with forty or fifty political parties? It is an open invitation to chaos.”
MURIC ascertained that detoxification of the political scenario is sine qua non for the emergence of a focused and principled political culture, adding that INEC must be empowered to penalize candidates or political parties who spend beyond certain limits during electioneering campaigns
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