Tobi Adebayo
A former Aviation Minister and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Osita Chidoka has called for the modernisation of political parties in the country.
Chidoka made the call during an interview on Arise News monitored by ThisNigeria.
He also dismissed reports that the PDP now had two factions due to the leadership issues between the two Deputy National Chairmen of the party, Yemi Akinwonmi (South) and Senator Suleiman Nazif (North).
“I think there are no two factions in the PDP. The party has the internal mechanism to overcome its challenges. Even though the party problems go beyond the current leadership tussle, PDP must apply its constitution to resolve the issues. Even the All Progressives Congress has its challenges. The political parties in Nigeria have not made any tangible progress,” he said.
The former minister also lamented that leadership tussles have become a norm in political parties whenever elections are approaching.
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“Political parties have not been at the vanguard of democratic behaviour for over 21 years. At this point, leadership should not be a problem for political parties in this country. Everything boils down to parties not obeying their constitutions, instead, they use courts to resolve their problems. It is very sad that issues like these always come up before every election in the country.
“There is an urgent need to modernise political parties in the country because their structures are weak, comatose. Times have changed and the bulk of those that would participate in the elections are the younger generation. We need to stop passing the wrong messages with the constant tussles in the parties,” Osita Chidoka stated.
