From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives has introduced a bill to bar serving officials of political parties from contesting for elective offices.
The proposed legislation is titled, ‘A bill for an Act to alter the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) to provide for compulsory resignation of national and state executive members of political parties seeking elective government positions and for related matters,” HB 1381.
The bill, sponsored by Mansur Soro, according to the explanatory memorandum, is intended to enhance ‘transparency and fairness in the activities of political parties relating to primary election.’
Specifically, the proposed legislation is seeking to alter Section 223 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to introduce a sub section c, which stipulates that “any member of the national or state executive committee of a political party contesting for elective government position shall resign his membership of the executive committee of such party at least 30 days before the primary election.”
Already, Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, 2022, bars political appointees at every level from seeking the nomination of their political parties for any elective office.
Soro told Daily Sun that the key objective was to ensure a level playing field for everyone seeking the nomination of a political party for elective office. The lawmaker explained that when serving party officials contest for primaries while retaining their positions, it gives them undue advantage.
The lawmaker said: “The objective is simply to ensure a level playing ground for all. Some party executives contest the primary election while occupying their seats and that gives them unfair advantage.”
However, efforts to get the reactions of the spokesman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Felix Morka, and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Debo Ologunagba, was unsuccessful as they failed to respond to phone calls and WhatsApp messages to their mobile phone lines.
Nevertheless, a member of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC), told Daily Sun that the proposed legislation, if passed into law, would amount to meddling in the internal affairs of political parties.
According to him, “I think, because they are elective positions, if that law is enacted, it should apply to the National Assembly too. They (NWC) are elected for a term. That should be an issue of the party management. It is an elected position for a term. If you now say people must resign, given the way party organs are structured, deputies are not members of the NWC.
“Let’s assume the organising secretary, the publicity secretary and some key officers like legal advisers decide to resign; you have the critical organs.
“It is like going to the internal affairs of the party and regulating it. Let the party on their own say yes, for this purpose, we need to do this.”