A recognized politician and economist from the state of Gombe, Mohammed Jubrin Barde has said that the country's democratic and economic growth is being threatened by the lack of ideologies in political parties and the search for politicians to capture power.
Barde, who appeared in politics on Sunday on TVC, anchored by FEMI Akande, emphasized the need for elites and education to be actively involved in the political process to shape political parties so that it can benefit the country.
Reacting to the recently held national conference on the strengthening of democracy in Nigeria, organized by the African leadership center, strategy and development, he said that the meeting was timely, emphasizing the need for Nigerians to actively participate in politics.
“Democracy cannot prosper on its own, it requires an active participation of all Nigerians and, in particular, elites. We must enter the arena and the contest of influence positions to influence political decisions and also hold the leaders, that was exactly what happened in 2013 when the fusion of political parties took place to challenge the status quo.
“If you remember that the APC firmly believes and, in general, there was this consensus in the country that the PDP as a political party was known for manipulating elections, corruption and political intolerance, and therefore the APC joined, a combination of so many People from different political parties to challenge the government, that was a very decisive moment for the country.
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“Unfortunately, today, you can see that so many APC actors have also left the party and that the game itself is weakening under its own strength,” he said.
The former government candidate in the state of Gombe said that Nigeria needs to focus on elites that really participate genuinely for the good of the people of the country.
He argued that Nigeria's problem is that most of his political parties are not based on a solid ideology, on the other hand, people join political parties in order to obtain access to power.
“Therefore, the objective of the people who join the political parties, particularly has nothing to do with the construction of the party's policy or ensure that the political party is independent in itself, but wants to use it as a means to obtain access to political power.
“Unless the political class changes this attitude to ensure that we are going to build political parties that are very solid and strong with clear constitutional requirements, we are allowed to submit to the constitutional requirements of political parties and a clear manifesto for each political party, We will continue to wander around these issues and the challenges we face today in our democratic evolution in the country.
“The way and the way the candidates emerge in political parties is really in the center of the problem we are having. Unless we return to the base and make sure that we all participate in a process and formation of political parties and make sure that competent people administer our political parties, then they may be sure that the candidates that will arise will be deficient.
“And once you do not have quality leaders who emerge from political parties, you can really say that you do not expect to have a national quality leadership that has been the problem and that is why I said that we must encourage elites and educated to participate to participate Actively in politics and political parties they must raise the threshold for those who will participate in the selection of who will be the political leaders of the leaders and who will arise as the candidate of the political parties, ”he added.