BETWEEN PARTY SUPREMACY AND INTERNAL DEMOCRACY: THE APC AND PDP PARADIGM

By Tery'ila Ibn Apine

The wrestling between party supremacy and internal democracy has become a must watch in our political parties.

While proponents of party supremacy insist that members must respect and adhere to the decisions of the party advocates of internal democracy hold that the party rather should create a level playing ground that allow members to decide what they want and how they want to be led by the party.

While party supremacy is a remixed form of imposition, internal democracy is also a remixed form of arrogance, rascality and disobedience.

Any party that will stand the test of time must be able to manage the inter play of the two.

Party supremacy presupposes that a political party neither be frivolous nor perverse in its decision making. Where it does and thereby creates conflict, it must give way to a superior decision on the matter made by the judiciary which is the body legally recognized by the highest law of the land to settle disputes.

It means that if the judiciary rejects a point canvassed by a political party,neither the political party nor any of its members can on grounds of adhering to party supremacy stick to the over ruled issue.

On several occasions, over zealous party members have argued that party matters are internal issues of the party which should not be brought before a court thereby unilaterally ousting the jurisdiction of a court on such matters. Little do they know that even when a rule seeks to oust the jurisdiction of a court, the same is still empowered to examine the validity or merit of such purported oust clause.

I had written in an earlier write up sounding a word of caution to the APC. There I suggested that a comprehensive analysis of the pit falls of the PDP be carried out to avoid same by the ruling APC .

One of the greatest undoing of the PDP which represents Egypt to us was lack of internal democracy. Today, we are in the promised land of the APC as such we expect not to be reminded of our sufferings in Egypt.

I had also warned that if the current imbroglio over the Senate and House of Representative is handled the PDP way, when aggrived members were asked to go to hell, the APC might find it difficult to win some of the principal offices. Already some members have jetted to the courts asking it to disqualify the preferred candidate who emerged through the MOCK elections.

The resort to suspensions and later expulsions in my opinion is hasty and counter productive.

PDP lost IMO state because while Sen Ifeannyi Ararume won the primaries he was later replaced, he went to court and got justice, but supporters of the PDP worked against him in the general election all in the name of party supremacy.

We are well to familiar with the case of Ngunan Adingi and Hon Sekav Iortyom. While seeking redress in the courts, the party suspended and later expelled them. They later got justice to represent their constituencies.

The use of intimidation, arm twisting, suspension and expulsion by political parties to elicit loyalty in the name of party supremacy is undemocratic.

Let me repeat my assertion in an earlier write up. While the PDP held sway as the largest party in Africa, it encouraged impunity, it lack internal democracy, it felt it could survive without some members. This degenerated into the PDP feeling it could do without the masses thereby undermining and underestimated the will of the people.

Today where is the PDP?

For the APC to survive, keep its members and win the support of Nigerians, there must be internal democracy within the party before dishing the democracy to Nigerians.

Remember, you cannot give what you don't have..
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PDP shall rise again!!

President Buhari is to blame for this impeding downfall of APC...