By Jimitota Onoyume
PORT HARCOURT —   SENATOR representing Rivers South East  Senatorial district in Rivers State, Senator Lee Maeba, has described the bill before the National Assembly, seeking to make members of the Assembly enjoy automatic membership of the National Executive Committee of their various political parties as an act intended to tackle the absence of internal democracies in various  parties in the country.

Senator Maeba in an exclusive interview with Vanguard, yesterday, in Port Harcourt, said some Governors had transformed themselves into dictators in their various parties by determining who and who should occupy elective positions, a situation he said the bill was intended to redress.

Arguing further, he said, if Governors could be automatic members of their NEC,  why then should  Senators, who  come next  in the order of hierarchy after Presidency  not enjoy the same privilege.

He expressed the hope that the bill when it becomes law, would help reduce tension arising from lack of internal democracies in various parties.

“After the Presidency, the next tier of ruler ship in the country is the Senate. Right now, Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and others all have their members in the Senate as members of their NEC, this is why their conventions are peaceful. “What should make a Senator not to be a member of his party’s NEC? No party should be too big to play to convention.

From National Party of Nigeria’s, NPN, time to National Republican Convention, NRC, among others,  Senators were qualified to be members of their party’s NEC. It is like saying the President should not be a member of his party’s NEC,” he said.

“What makes a Senator less than the governor who is part of the NEC yet  the Senator has wider jurisdiction than the governor. The Senators should go to their NEC whether their absence is what is causing the problem of internal democracy in their parties.

“Nobody thought of this until governors started dictating to Senators, they put up dictatorial tendencies. You hear governors pointing at Senators and House of Representative members that will not go back to the House when there has been no election. This is unhealthy.

“This amendment is a reaction to the dictatorship of the governors. It is intended to solve the problem of internal democracy in the party where the governor feels he is everything. I am convinced that there is nothing unusual in the amendment. Like I said earlier it was there during the NPN, NRC days and even ACN now”.