By Simon Ebegbulem & Gabriel Enogholase
BENIN—AHEAD the 2011 general elections, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, yesterday, predicted dangers, following  what he described as the alleged attempt by the National Assembly to turn the nation into a one party state,  by dictating to political parties  how they should run their primaries, in addition to  usurping the powers of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, by fixing election time table for the nation.

The Governor, who spoke while delivering a lecture to mark Nigeria’s Golden Jubilee organized by Correspondents Chapel of the Edo State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, said that the actions of the federal lawmakers so far posed grave dangers to democracy in Nigeria and urged Nigerians to rise up against it.

“The attempt by the National Assembly to put in the Electoral Act, matters that ought to be within the discretion of political parties as well as matters that ought to be within the discretion of INEC and because the National Assembly is dominated by the ruling party, its decisions are bound to be seen as decisions of the ruling party that is going to be a key competitor in next general elections.

“The first is the attempt through an Act of Parliament to dictate to parties how they should conduct their primaries. Coming from the trade union movement, I know that when the state   uses state legislation to regulate the internal matters of a party, they reduce the party to an agency of government and if it becomes an agency of government, it ceases to be a free and voluntary political party.

Therefore, to the extent that the National Assembly has evolved rules, which seem to dictate to parties how they should run their internal affairs, they are reducing the party to an agency of government and if they are an agency of government, it is not a fit and proper association to call a political party,” he said.

“The second danger signal is the attempt by the National Assembly, through legislation, to interfere with the independence of INEC, its right to decide which election should be held before the other. In deciding that Nigeria should climb the tree from the top and not from the bottom, they have already put the logic on its head. And Nigerians should condemn it and rise against it,” he said.

Because you do not have to wait for the final rigging to take place before you begin to fight.

“So we must begin to comment on some of these things that points to some level of desperation on the part of the ruling class by using the law to dictate that senatorial elections and the senatorial election must be held before the state House of Assembly election and the governorship election. That is clearly an attempt to rig the next election.