ROTATIONAL PRESIDENCY THAT WILL ACCOMMODATE ALL PARTS OF THE COUNTRY ADVOCATED

Some Political Scientists in the South East have called on political parties to sustain rotational Presidency to ensure that all parts of the country are accommodated to strengthen the nation’s democracy.

They also want various Governments to promote democratic values that will stimulate government structures for social transformation.

These were part of the recommendations by the academics who converged on Enugu to evaluate the 2019 general election and proffer solutions to the myriad of problems in the nation’s political system.

The members of the Academia who came from various Universities in the five South East states were at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT for the 7th Annual Conference of the Nigeria Political Science Association, NPSA.

The National President of the Association, Prof Aloysius Okolie who decried the erosion of Democratic principles in the country, said true democracy could only be entrenched when the wishes of the people were respected.

In an address, the South East President of NPSA, Prof Eugene Nweke noted that every successful election in the country had its challenges, resulting in litigation, cancellation of results, post electoral violence, and reruns signifying inefficiency in the system.

He called for the unbundling of INEC, establishment of Political Party Commission and an Electoral Offences Tribunal to check the prevalence of violence during elections.

Presenting a Lead paper on Intra party Conflicts and Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria, by Prof. Godwin Onu, Prof Chukwuemeka Jaja Nwanegbo of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, blamed lack of internal democracy, God fatherism and Money politics as major promoters of intra party crisis.

He advocated open and direct party primaries to control the obscure process of selection and imposition of candidates on party members.

The Vice Chancellor of ESUT, represented by his Deputy, Prof Charles Eze described the theme as appropriate in view of the political situation in the country.

Earlier, the Chairman, Local Organizing Committee of the conference, Prof Sam Ugwu and the Secretary, Dr. Banko Okibe lamented that elections in the country had been characterized by anarchy which portend grave danger to the political system.

Participants in the forum expressed the hope that they would come up with solutions to numerous problems threatening the nation’s democracy.

NNEKA UGWUANYI