By Wale Akinola
LAGOS—AS political parties in the country get set to conduct primaries for the 2011 general elections, they have been charged to ensure that they based such selections on three key factors: electability, integrity and track records.

Identifying these factors in Lagos, Chief Chris Asoluka, immediate past president, Aka-Ikenga, a socio-cultural organization of professionals, warned that parties which allowed anything short of these ideals to influence the selection of flag bearers, may end up short-changing themselves.

Asoluka said: “I think political parties should consider the electability of candidates jostling for the different offices before settling down for one.

“They should look for people who have integrity, people who can win elections for them, who can execute their manifesto and look at track records of the candidates.”

These are very important. It would be unfortunate for parties to select people who cannot win elections for them.”

He said that what would make a party retain its position or dominance in the coming elections would be how well it had functioned with any opportunity given to it, adding “if you have a set of people who cannot execute programmes, it means directly that party is digging its hole and preparing to fail in the next election.”

Commenting on the performance of the National Assembly so far, Asoluka, who is the managing consultant, FM & T Consulting, said the members could have achieved a lot more if they had attached the same seriousness with which they pursued constitutional amendments in the last six months to other issues.

He noted: “The zeal which they applied to the constitutional amendments shows that where there is a will, there will always be a way. For too long, a lot of excuses have been made as to why National Assembly members have not lived up to the expectation of the people they represent.”