Such parties are expected to have resolved their differences and put their houses in order before getting the nod of the national electoral body, which has the mandate to recognise only united parties.
The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, told reporters yesterday in Ilorin at the Second National Conference of the INEC and the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) that election matters in all contemporary democracies remained a germane issue to stabilising the polity.
“In INEC we do not recognise factions, we recognise legitimately, properly and legally registered political parties. We have already communicated that to the parties. So I don’t need to start mentioning names.
“As far as we are concerned we have looked at the ‘quarrels’ and we have advised those that we know are wrong to go and look at the constitution and take appropriate measures. We deal with the party properly registered under the law,” he said.
Worried about the haphazard organisation and conduct of some polls by SIECs during the councils’ polls in some states of the Federation, Jega told the participants from the 36 states of the Federation and Abuja that it was time for the two electoral bodies to come together with a view to learning from one another towards securing the future of the country’s political terrain.
As a first step to the realisation of the ideal electoral body at the state level, he believed that there must be financial autonomy and flawless legal frameworks to guarantee the independence of the SIECs.
But the Consumers’ Rights Project (CRP) has called for the abolition of state electoral commissions, saying that the agencies had become willing tools through which state governors manipulate the electoral process in favour of their political parties.
Addressing a press conference yesterday in Lagos on the state of the nation, the convener of the group, Mr. Uche Onu, noted that there was an urgent need for the constitution to be amended so as to abolish the agencies.
According to Onu, the political space is still enmeshed in deep-seated anomalies like godfatherism, non-equal playing ground, and non-adherence to electoral and constitutional provisions by the political class.
These lapses, Onu stressed, must be urgently addressed so as to significantly and positively change the modus operandi of the electoral process.
He added that recent experience had shown that the state electoral commissions were always willing to dance to the tune of the state governors even without prompting.
On the economy, the CRP convener noted that worldwide, the yardstick for measuring performance of any economy included the physical wellbeing, infrastructure base, the welfare and security of the citizenry, but that Nigeria had not fared well in these areas since 1999.
“There is joblessness, non-functional health and education facilities, collapse of the transportation sector, total collapse of every critical sector of the economy.
“Also, there is high infant and mortality rates, lack of access to good medicare - all pointing to the fact that the country’s angling to meet Millennium Development Goal targets are just but a mirage,” Onu lamented.
On the way forward, Onu advocated less reliance on oil and much attention on other critical sectors of the economy like agriculture.
He added that government must now be serious about the fight against corruption.
Onu insisted that those found to be culpable in the mismanagement of petroleum support fund otherwise known as petrol subsidy must be dealt with in accordance with the law and that the case already in court must be made to end at a logical conclusion.
He said it was more worrisome that those indicted in the petrol subsidy fraud were children and relatives of influential Nigerians and chieftains of the ruling party.
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