- says court-picked leaders, party-hopping politicians are wrecking public trust; calls for end to partisan presidency
By Queen Kunde
Former Director General of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Professor Tonnie Iredia, has described Nigerian politicians defecting from one party to the other as behaving like herdsmen that move about randomly in search of food.
This was just as he said that we have an end to collaborative federalism which does not in any way translate to defection, stressing that since it is political parties voters vote for, it amount to stealing if a politician takes the votes of a particular party to another without the approval of the people.
Prof Iredia, who stated these while presenting a paper as the Guest Speaker at the National Association of Political Correspondents maiden Annual Lecture Series (NALS), which held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, said that in a democracy, there is respect for the will of the people as against elected public office holders that are becoming more powerful than the people.
He said there is the need to instil the policy that would make it mandatory for elected Presidents and Governors to become non-partisan or leaders of their parties once they get elected, emphasising that political parties should be separate from elected officials particularly the president and governors who presently serve as leaders of their parties.
Prof Iredia also stressed the need for stronger institutions and not strong individuals.
He also spoke on the need for the judiciary to be accountable by ensuring that the choice of the people should be the decider and not the courts.
In his words; “It has reached a level where the judiciary need to be accountable. The court should have no business in deciding who is the winner of an election. It can adjudicate and nullify an election, but should not declare who is the winner. Let the people decide who they want”.
In his own remarks, former Governor of Imo State, Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha, who was Chairman of the occasion, said that there is no doubt that the nation’s democracy is sick and in total mess, stressing that it is now being covered by hypocrisy.
Ihedioha said that Option A4 remains a more credible form of election as it eliminated rigging, unlike today that the incidence of glitches, result sheet mutilation and other forms of rigging have taken the centre stage in the conduct of election.
The former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, noted that NAPOC members in the 1990s spoke truth to power, stressing that it was painful that the legacy laid by journalists that reported politics in the aborted 3rd Republic and early years of present democracy are being eroded.
Earlier in his address of welcome, Mr Deba Uwadiae, who is the Chairman, Coordinating Committee of NAPOC, said the theme of the lecture— “Legacy of Option A-4 and the June 12 Election”, invites Nigerians to reflect not only on a pivotal moment in Nigeria’s political history, but also on a blueprint for transparency and participatory democracy that still resonates three decades later.
Wadiae, who is the Publisher of New Americans Magazine based in the United States, said he returned home, not just the geographically to Nigeria, but emotionally and intellectually to a subject that shaped our national conscience and continues to inspire global democratic ideals.
He noted that Option A-4 was more than a voting method, saying that it was a democratic innovation that emphasized openness, accountability, and courage.
In his words; “On June 12, 1993, millions of Nigerians voted not just for a candidate, but for a future one rooted in fairness, justice, and collective will. That election, widely considered the freest and fairest in our nation’s history, was a referendum on unity and hope”.
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