As Nigerian legislators are working to review and amend the Nigerian 1999 constitution, a UNDP consultant, Professor Sam Egwu, has advocated the inclusion of proportional representation in the constitution to cater for special interests of minorities, women and the disabled.
Delivering a paper, entitled “Proportional Representation Versus First Past the Post System, Appraisal of Nigeria’s Electoral System’’, at a two-day retreat on the review of the 1999 Constitution on Saturday in Calabar in south-eastern Nigeria, Egwu said if the system was adopted, it would encourage the formation of political parties with persons of similar ideologies coming together.
Egwu said there was a need for political parties in the country to be strengthened to become the driving force in the democratic processes and deepen democracy.
He identified the drift of everyone to large political parties as one of the weaknesses of the party system in the country and said such situation would give room to internal wrangling among members.
Egwu suggested the amendment of the Electoral Act to empower the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to monitor political party lists so as to strengthen representation in all its ramification.
Earlier, Dr Kabir Mato of the Department of Political Science, University of Abuja, attributed the low level of performance of government functionaries to lack of interest of Nigerians in the electoral system.
He blamed the leadership problem in Nigeria on lack of a transparent electoral system in which Nigerians would be directly involved in the election of their representatives.
Mato said that the review of the Constitution in respect of the electoral reform was critical to the success of democracy in Nigeria.
He said that if the National Assembly failed to amend the aspect of the Constitution that concerned electoral reform, there would be a complete loss of credibility in the political system.
The retreat was organized by the House of Representatives ad hoc Committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution.
Source African Press Agency
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