Following the prevailing situation in the country, genuine electoral reforms have become necessary to rescue the country from maladministration and mismanagement.
This was the submission of the Director, Abuja School of Social and Political Thought, Dr Sam Amadi at a capacity building workshop organised by Political Commission of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for leaders of political thought in the country.
Delivering his keynote address, Amadi said there was an extreme urgency to get Nigeria out of intensive care unit and into a general hospital ward “where recovery, revival and regeneration can commence.
“The country is terminally sick. The only difference between Nigeria and a person in intensive care is that Nigeria is presently not receiving any care.” He said.
Amadi explained that the threat against the country was evident during the last national protest, where northern youths marched in Kano, Kaduna and other states without fear of their lives, adding that, “It tells us the recklessness that could become Nigeria’s revolution if the current hunger and hopelessness continue.”
He therefore called for electoral reform and “real and radical party restructuring,” saying “it is difficult to conceive a working democracy without a working political party system.”
He decried the absence of ideology among the political parties, noting that although the nation’s “first republic ended in a civil war and the second republic ended with military coups, the quality of democracy in those periods are far better than today.
Acting Chairman of the NLC Political Commission Prof. Theo Ndubuaku, blamed Nigeria’s developmental challenges on what he called broken politics.
Ndubuaku called for political reconstruction and committed political leadership hoisted on ideological and pragmatic persuasions to remedy the ill of the successive years of bad governance.
“As a Political Commission, we are committed to changing the narrative not by mere polemics or sloganeering but by active engagement with the political process.
“This is the reason the NLC Political Commission developed and disseminated a Workers’ Charter of Demands in the run up to the 2023 general election,” he explained.
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