By:Sunny Anderson Osiebe.
Nigeria may emulate the
United States of America, USA, in the use of direct primaries for the emergence
of candidates of political parties in a renewed effort to strengthen the
nation’s electoral system.
The Deputy President of
the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, gave the indication in Abuja when he
received, on behalf of the President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, a
delegation of the House Partnership for Democracy, United States House of
Representatives, which was on a working visit to the Senate on Monday.
Ekweremadu said that
direct primaries by political parties had conferred enormous transparency and credibility
on the American electoral system, while also ensuring that the people remained
the true owners of the various political parties.
He, therefore, noted
that it was a key ingredient of the U.S democracy that could be explored by Nigeria
to improve her electoral system in the nearest future.
Senator Ekweremadu
observed that deep inter-parliamentary ties between both countries was
imperative for closer bilateral relations and the growth of Nigeria’s
democracy, which he said was inspired by that of the United States.
The Deputy President of
the Senate added: “I commend the House Democracy Partnership as a bipartisan
effort at deepening responsive, effective government and also strengthening
democratic institutions through assistance to legislatures in emerging democracies
around the world. We are willing to partner with you because it will not only
enrich our democracy, but also that of the entire West Africa sub-region and
Africa as a whole.
“I believe both
countries have a lot to benefit from shared parliamentary ties. Nigeria, in
particular stands to benefit from you in the area of electoral reforms, such as
direct primaries, which has conferred a lot of transparency and credibility on
the U.S electoral system.
“We also hope to
benefit from you in the area of capacity building for the parliament, Nigeria
being a young democracy.
“We are interested in
gaining from your experience in budgeting process, anti-corruption legal
frameworks to enhance what we already have, and indeed how the U.S Congress
impacts the society in general”.
Earlier in his remarks,
the leader of the delegation and Chairman of the House Democracy Partnership,
Representative Peter Roskam, who was also accompanied by the officials of
National Democratic Institute (NDI), extolled Nigeria’s efforts at sustaining her
democracy and pledged the support of his organisation towards strengthening it.
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