Collaboration between political parties is a veritable instrument for democratic consolidation and national stability, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Attahiru Jega has said.
Jega made the assertion at the All Nigeria Political Parties and Political Stakeholders Summit on Thursday at held at the International Conference Centre (ICC) Abuja.
In a keynote address titled “Interparty Collaboration, National Stability and Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria,” Jega said the repeated negative experience of Nigerian political parties as stabilising agents of democracy has been partly due to their inability to create common grounds and partner each other and other stakeholders for the growth and consolidation of democracy.
He expressed belief that through interparty collaboration, it is possible to get all political parties to function effectively as system maintenance agencies, thereby ensuring national stability and democratic consolidation.
“This is particularly important for us here in Nigeria where democratic institutions are yet to mature,” Jega said.
He condemned excessive, immoderate and cutthroat competition among political parties saying such manifestations are very dysfunctional.
“When political parties and candidates have a high propensity to invest in winning political power at all cost, the level of instability in the system rises tremendously,” He added. “Interparty collaboration provides that mediating and moderating function necessary for stability.”
Jega highlighted four ends achievable by interparty collaboration.
“First, in interest aggregation, a political party aggregates interests from within by listening to various groups, and uses the information to create policy alternatives and then build support for such policies. A political party also aggregates the interests of the electorate as a basis for mobilizing support for these policies. Interparty collaboration ensures that these processes of interest aggregation and mobilization are conducted in a civic manner, in which disagreements are essentially policy based, rather than couched in entrenched group cleavages such as ethnicity, religion and wealth,” he started.
“Secondly, interparty collaboration ensures that in political education parties educate their members and the electorate on their role as citizens in the electoral process and their rights and obligations to participate in democratic activities in a responsible manner. They also enlighten their members and the citizens on their responsibilities to constructively engage the government and its officials.
“Thirdly, in political recruitment interparty collaboration could provide a framework for educating prospective political leaders, nurturing them into moderate leaders that uphold the highest standards of democratic governance. Finally, political parties as agents of political socialization could be a veritable force for socializing the wider populace into political roles based on democratic culture. Interparty collaboration could provide a platform for defining the character of political socialisation.”
He suggested that the principal framework for interparty collaboration in Nigeria today is the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), an idea that was first developed in Ghana in the early 1990s.
“The Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) of Ghana is a loose, non-statutory and voluntary body comprising the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana and all political parties,” he explained.
“It was established as a forum for representatives of political parties and officials of the Electoral Commission of Ghana to come together and discuss challenges to the electoral process and how they can collectively contribute to overcoming those challenges and thereby enhancing transparency and credibility in the electoral process.”
He explained that prior to the establishment of the IPAC especially after the 1992 general elections, the EC was seriously criticized by opposition parties for the way it handled the elections which raised suspicion. So the EC came up with the idea of IPAC to improve communication with political parties to remove suspicion and build trust.
“Although the IPAC in Ghana has had to contend with a number of challenges since its inception, it has over the years, been able to surmount most of these challenges and has been able to bring together the political parties to address some of the most pressing challenges affecting the electoral process,” he pointed out.
“Under the auspices of the IPAC, a number of symposia have been organized for political parties to discuss national issues and they also consented to the organization of debates for parliamentary and presidential candidates, launched a code of conduct for political parties to regulate their conduct in the political arena not only for the elections but for every year of the political calendar.”
He explained that In Nigeria, the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) was a collaborative venture between INEC and political parties, designed to be a common platform for all political parties to periodically meet, dialogue and make inputs into diverse aspects of election management.
He explained that through the IPAC, the Commission hoped to promote inter-party dialogue and provide a viable alternative platform for settling disagreements or grievances between political parties or their supporters if or when they occur.
He concluded that interparty collaboration is a veritable instrument for achieving a stable and consolidated democracy. It is the central function of political parties to pursue these ends.
He said that as an election management body, INEC has worked closely with political parties in the past four years in pursuit of national stability and democratic consolidation, particularly through the IPAC and regular meetings with Chairmen and Secretaries of all registered political parties.
“To be sure, there is always a paradox in interparty collaboration, namely, the fact that political parties, which are essentially competitive, must collaborate in order to preserve the system. Yet there is no alternative to interparty collaboration in achieving political stability and democratic consolidation,” he said.
“Clearly, INEC and the political parties have made giant strides in pursuit of stability and democratic consolidation. However, several challenges persist. I hope that as we move into the final lap of preparations for the 2015 general elections, we can continue to work together to address these residual challenges. We have little option than to continue to work at using interparty collaboration to achieve democratic stability and consolidation.”
