INEC urged to reconsider proliferation of political parties

THE Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano, on Media for Grassroots Mobilisation, Hon Egbuna Amuta, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to be wary of unending registration of political parties in Nigeria.

In a statement made available to Tribune Newspaper in Awka, Hon Amuta said the recent registration of twenty one new political parties by INEC is counterproductive to the growth of democracy in the
country.

He argued that it is ridiculous that there are sixty-seven official political parties in Nigeria today, pointing out that over multiplicity of political parties is a source of confusion and unnecessary distractions to voters during elections as was the case in the last gubernatorial election in Anambra state, when voters had to battle with the unwieldy length of the ballot papers which had the symbols of thirty-seven political parties.

Amuta, however, recommended the existence of only five political parties in the country as was the case in the Second Republic, adding that serious minded politicians can easily find accommodation in the five parties, and on their own, structure the parties into their preferred ideological inclinations.

The governor’s media aides  also observed that unwieldy number of political parties is invariably encouraging corruption in the country, pointing out that some criminally minded persons merely establish fake political parties in order to perpetrate Advance Fee Fraud, generally referred to as 419, in order to defraud unsuspecting persons and corporate organisations within and outside Nigeria.