INEC AND POLITICAL PARTIES INDUCED INSECURITY IN NIGERIA

By Comr Lucky Futughe

The present state of insecurity in Nigeria has taken a dangerous turn because militia groups have ramped up the state of attacks on citizens of the country.

This near helpless situation is shaking the very foundation of Nigeria. Stakeholders, pundits and international Communities are evaluating and reevaluating the situation for strategic alliances.

Intelligence analysts are continually shunning out intelligence report for policymakers to enable them make informed decisions.

The African continent had witnessed several political unrest due to weak electoral and party systems. Nigeria has seen mainly three dominant political parties, with the numbers rising into an astronomical figures after the running of democracy in 1999.

 The weak constitution and military orientation that was introduced into the internal democracy of political parties encouraged despotic appetite to supposed leaders of these parties.

The party structures are completely hijacked by the elites, there by swinging decisions in favour of any preferred aspirants. The lack of internal democracy has unwittingly undermined the electioneering process of the country.

This process in most cases, produce unpopular candidates which eventually brings about disenchantments within the party structure.

The constitution which has been widely criticized as a military document rather than a Democratic one; concentrated too much powers on the president to appointment an umpire that will conduct elections.

 How independent is Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)? The emergence of unpopular candidates from faulty primaries and subsequent shady electoral processes were the recipes foreign Governments require to undermine the sovereignty of any Nation.  INEC in the past has displayed gross incompetencies in the conduct of elections.

Most African countries have experienced post election violence which eventually spill into widespread protest. These protests were hijacked in a cladestine manner just like in Venezuela to undermine the internal security of that country. In the course of these protests, all sorts of local sentiments are introduced in a convert manner to further escalate the violence. It is a widely known fact that for any protest staged, somebody with vested interest is paying somewhere.

These vested interest includes foreign Govt.  This is exactly how lack of internal democracy in our political parties and weak electoral institution induced insecurity.
The solution to the problem is quite elementary but requires patriotism from all stakeholders in the Nigerian State. The three arms of Government must ensure total independence in the conduct of their constitutional functions.  A credible electoral process is  stability on its own. Therefore, failure to establish a credible electoral process is a recipe for insecurity in Nigeria.

Consequently, the entire electoral processes must ensure that the will of the Nigerian masses prevail else foreign interest will hijacked the process in a cladestine way to install preferred leaders of their choice that will guarantee their anarchinomics agenda.