From Mohammed Muktar Umar, Bauchi

A lecturer with the Abubakar Tafaea Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi, , Professor Mansur Usman Malumfashi has admonished politicians to allow internal democracy in the parties, saying that promotion of internal democracy within the parties will strengthen the country’s democracy.

Speaking against the backdrop of internal crises being experienced by political parties, including the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Professor Malumfashi, who is of the Faculty of Education, noted that godfatherism was a major reason internal democracy was lacking within parties.

“If you want to entrench democracy the starting point is to allow primary elections within the party and that is what we call internal democracy.

“But more often than not, you will find many politicians not allowing the primary elections to take place, instead they appoint their own candidate. So the issue of godfatherism in politics is there and that is the beginning of the problem,” Malumshafi told newsmen in Bauchi in an interview.

He submitted that contrary to the tenet of allowing the people to air their views, some politicians in some states would not allow internal democracy in their parties, saying that such politicians would impose their preferred aspirants on the parties by hook or crook.

The effect of this imposition, according to Malumfashi, was that such imposed candidate to eventually lose at the polls because of that single action.

“One of the dividends of democracy is to allow people to air their views, to allow people elect people of their choice. If you do that, you are allowing the political culture to flourish and entrench liberal democracy.

“But where you impose a candidate and you ask party faithful to elect him that is where the problem comes in,” he submitted.

He lamented that the electorate who collect money from political before performing their civil responsibility are only sacrificing their mandate, declaring that Nigerians need political education.

“On the other side, unfortunately, our people just because of a packet of spaghetti, a packet of salt or N500 wouldn’t mind sacrificing their mandate.

“If you do that, at the end of it all, you will never see the politician  until after four years. So on this also our citizens need sound political education because people are just giving out their mandate for just a piece of cloth,” he declared.

Malumfashi warned that once the electorate sell their mandate, politicians would not be accountable to them again, noting that, that is one consequence what is being seeing between the elected and electorate.

“So this is the problem. Once you sell your mandate, you don’t expect the politician to be accountable to you any longer.

“This is the repercussions; this is the consequences of what is happening between the politicians and the electorate,” he asserted.