Why youths should participate actively in political activities – Prof Suleiman, DG NILDS

The Director General, National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Nigeria, Prof. Abubakar Suleiman, has expressed the need for youths in the West African Sib-region to be actively involved in the activities of political parties.

Prof Abubakar gave the admonition during the three-day high-level parliamentary seminar organised by the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States in Winneba, Ghana.

The theme of the seminar was, “Challenges Of Unconstitutional Regime Change And Presidential Term Limits In West Africa – The Role Of ECOWAS Parliament.”

In his presentation titled, “Promoting the role of political parties in the democratic consolidation of the West African sub-region”, the Prof said there was need to strengthen the role of political parties as it has become difficult to identify and differentiate opposition parties from the ruling party.

Prof. Suleiman also called for support of the process of internal democracy in political parties while play down the influence of money bags hijacking political parties.

He said: “Internal democracy has been an issue, most of the litigation arising from election has to do with pre-election matters. How you ensure internal democracy, how do you make sure that no single person or group of people weakens the political structure in a way that hijacks the entire political party.

“The opposition parties in Africa or West Africa have desecrated them on daily basis. They are no where to be found to the extent that you cannot even identify the opposition party from the ruling party.

“The populace must be able to distinguish between competing political parties and not be left feeling that they are all the same, that is the perception today in most African countries.
“Electorates are losing interest, feelings and affection in the entire political process. They believe that all political parties are the same and as such, there is a lot of apathy.

“Party reforms should be encouraged from time to time to create room for the inclusion, there must be reform from time to time of party structure. This I believe are the panacea toward ensuring that political parties play their roles in deepening and consolidating democracy in West Africa.”
He further called for a look into the challenges faced by political parties and democracy in the sub-region and the continent at large.

According to him, if all these are not looked into, then it is an invitation for military coups.
“Yes, there are challenges facing political parties that have threatened democracy in Africa. If all these challenges are not addressed , then while we believe we are having our ways as ruling party, we should know that we are not having our way because anytime the military structure responds, the electorates have to jubilate.

“That tells us that something fundamental is wrong with the politicians. As the ruling party, we have what it takes to do anything we like.
“We need to look at the challenges. One, there is suspicion by the people of the political parties based on the behaviours of politicians, abuse of political process, election rigging and the hijacking of the whole process by politicians.

“There is also lack of internal democracy, non-performance of West African economies under democratic parties and the increasing wave of insecurity. All these are threats to party formation and democracy in Africa.”
Adding: “The only panacea towards getting our democracy right is for our politicians to look into all these and see how we can really reform our political parties in a way that they are able to perform the role they are supposed to perform in line with the founders of political parties in a democracy”, Prof. Suleiman added.

A Human Rights Lawyer from Sierra Leone, Mr. Emmanuel Abdulai, believed that it was necessary for collaborative efforts among various stakeholders to promote democratic consolidation.

According to Abdulai, West African has made progress with democracy but it was faced with difficult challenges like corruption and electoral fraud.
He said Political parties as formal organisations seeking political powers through elections and governance participation, have various roles, including representation of mobilisation, honesty crafting, providing voter choices as to what policies are on the table, governance participation and legislative criticism.

He said: “Parties serve as agents for the government by ensuring political stability, facilitating governance and promoting social cohesion among others.
“Political parties in West Africa face challenges such as weak institutions, limited internal democracy and insufficient resources.”
Abdulai cautioned that to overcome the struggles, “Firstly, political parties must ensure that there is transparency in disclosure within their political parties, there should be rules and regulations, campaign financing should be reformed and regulated both at national and intra-party level, electoral reforms should also take place at the country level which ensures that the processes are transparent and we must strengthen oversight mechanisms and ensure that public funding of political parties is introduced based on the strength of these political parties.

“It is important to learn from these institutions and it is very crucial for us to tighten the legal and regulatory framework that ensures transparency and accountability for free and fair elections, encourage political parties to engage in constructive dialogue consensus and negotiations, promoting engagement and collaboration with civil society organizations and fostering the culture of inclusively public participation and accountability in decision making.

“There are a number of challenges that undermine the performance of political parties and therefore the viability of democracy in the region. The challenges faced by political parties include adequate legal framework in the region, weak enforcement of the available legal documents and in provisions limited internal democracy within political parties. Funding challenges are the issues as well as matters concerning ethnic and regional issues, organisational and capacity challenges and weak grassroot engagements as part of the factors that are undermining the growth of political parties and democracy within the region.”

Also speaking, former Attorney General, Ministry of justice, Liberia, Benedict Sannoh, in a presentation titled, “Ensuring the demilitarisation of political power and the subordination of the military to legal civilian rule”, said that military coups will remain an option for the restless youths in the sub-region and Africa unless the root causes of failure within the government is dealt with outside the traditional methods of handling them.

“The sub-region is changing not only in terms of population but also in the calibre of its citizenry, the bulk of the population is young and restless, many are traveling more extensively within and without the subregion, have seen the development in other countries many of which have used their natural resources, they want change. Many of the young are restless, without jobs and skills, they are watching, therefore it’s incumbent upon the ECOWAS and all of us to see the moment and facilitate a change, otherwise change will be imposed the way they will consider as not democratic. Military intervention has so far, remained an attractive instrumentality for change.

“ECOWAS therefore must not delude itself to believing that sanctions and choice of intervention will reverse this trend amidst its being undemocratic. Military coups and military rule remains a viable option for the young and restless unless we deal with the underlying causes of the failures within our government by departing from traditional ways.”