By EricJames Ochigbo
Panelists at the Political Party Watch Command Centre, a situation room, have decried low inclusion of People with Disability (PWD) women and youth as candidates in the 2023 general elections.
The command centre was convened by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) in collaboration with Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) in Abuja on Saturday.
Data made available by the institute put the total number of candidates in the 2023 election at 15,303 of which 13,686 are men, 1,557 are women, 4,374 are youths and only 40 are PWD.
Dr Samuel Ogwuche, a researcher in NILDS said that a look at the statistics showed that the new parties fielded more female candidates than the major parties in the country.
According to him, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fielded 70, All Progressives Congress (APC) fielded 101, Labour Party (LP) fielded 82 while Action Democratic Party (ADP) fielded 129.
“Until we begin to form a political process in which priority is not on the party but on the candidate then we will continue to experience this.
“These political parties are not even willing to accommodate and because of high competition in the major political parties, it becomes too difficult for women and PWD to compete.
“People should see that there are potential under every platform depending on the quality of candidates; see late Dr Dora Akunyili, Dr Ngozi-Okonjo Iwela among others that have done so well.
“We cannot go back to the traditional Africa when all attention was on the male child, we have come a long way and that should reflect in our political process,’’ he said.
Ogwuche said that political education should be a multi-stakeholder responsibility and not to be left for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) alone.
He said that there was need to educate the people that women and PWD had potential and they could deliver if given the opportunity.
Also, Dr Ajibike Oluwatimelehin, a gender advocate, said selection of candidates should be about the value they could bring on board and not the amount of money the person could spend.
She said a lot of candidates were not selected based on their values, educational background, expertise, passion or love for the country but based on how much they could spend or the number of vote they control.
“Because of that, the right people are not being brought on board; it should not be like that.
“Selection should be based on competence that can change society through good governance while those with the money bags should support them,’’ she said.
Another researcher in NILD, Dr Naeem Nasir, said that one of the challenges facing political party system in the country was proper membership registration.
He said that even the election of party executives were not often based on capacity but on the choices of who was financing the party
According to him, we are yet to have political parties, what we have are platforms people use to get power and have access to our resources.
Nasir said that if the political party system was properly defined, there should be prerequisite that defines who could become a member of the political party.
“Membership registration in political parties is still a serious challenge, the current practice is about the money bags, beyond that, nobody looks at capacity, experience or educational background.
“Because membership registration is not done properly, party financing becomes a problem; in the process, we exclude the major segment of the society.
“Until we get it right, have and stick to philosophies, all what we have are just platforms, after the elections today, you not likely to hear from the 18 political parties anymore until the next circle,’’ he said