From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
A Professor of Political Science and Public Administration, Michael Oni, has posited that Nigeria does not need more than two political parties with six years single term for governor and president.
Prof Oni of Babcock University, Ilisan-Remo, Ogun State, spoke as a guest speaker at the intellectual discussion organized by the Osun State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), in Osogbo, and also recommended power rotation within the geo-political zones.
Speaking on “2023 General Election, retrogression or progression in Nigeria political journey,” said that the election can be adjudged better by comparing it with the past elections.
Noting that he had once voted 50 times in one election as a polling clerk in the second republic, Prof Oni submitted that there has not been democracy in an election until 2015.
He stressed that ethnicity and religious bigotry reared their ugly heads into the 2023 election, noting that “we’ve had secret polling unit, multiple registrations, non-numbering of voter registers, malpractice, ballot box stuffing, underage voters, multiple voting, the doctored result between the polling unit and collation center, and party members impersonating electoral officers, among others.
Prof Oni posited that people should be able to conclude whether the 2023 election was retrogression or progression if compared with the listed happenings in the past that also occurred in the recently conducted election.
In his recommendation, he submitted that Nigeria does not need more than two political parties, saying there should be cross-tabulated power rotation and six years of one single term for governors and president.
The chairman of the occlusion, Dr. Femi Adefila, maintained that technology did wonders in the 2023 election, saying that “states that hitherto turn in millions of notes struggled to get hundreds of votes while five governors as powerful as they are, lost in the election.
The Olororuwo of Ororuwo, Oba Kamaldeen Adeyemi, advised politicians to remove the word ‘I must win’, saying “whenever a human being is conducting an election, we should not expect total perfection.”
Other discussants, Sunday Akere, Goke Omigbodun, Sonny Ajayi, and Ayodeji Ologun, agreed that Nigeria has witnessed tremendous progress.
The NUJ chairman, Wasiu Ajadosu, said the programme was organized to review the last general elections and discuss the way for improving the electoral process in Nigeria.