By Tordue Salem
ABUJA—Former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Austin Opara,  described opponents of the new proposal by the National Assembly to include lawmakers on the National Executive Committees of political parties in Nigeria as “insincere and myopic.”

The ex-deputy speaker said the legislation was the only solution to the regressive autocracy in political parties.

Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Ghali Umar NaAbba, had earlier thrown his weight behind the controversial proposal to expand the NECs of parties in the country.

“Those who are opposing the amendment are not sincere, they are simply myopic. There have argued that the Bill is self-serving, but it is not so.

“It is at the NEC that major decisions of the party is taken. It is not where tickets and party positions are shared,” Okpara argued.

He said those opposed to the proposal “are missing the issues, we have seen where NEC members had lost their re-election bid. It will not in anyway perpetuate political office holders.”

Opara, while condemning the dictatorial manner in which parties are run in Nigeria,  said the rule in virtually all the parties in Nigeria today was a situation where about 36 persons determine the fate of every other member of the party.

His words: “What we have today is where 36 persons or so, 36 governors decide who becomes councilor, local government chairman, state legislators, members of the National Assembly and even the president.

“I believe that is not good for our party system and indeed our democracy. It is democracy by governors and for the governors. Now juxtapose this against a situation where about 400 persons sit at NEC of the party. So allowing National Assembly members to participate in NEC will broaden the decision making organ of the parties.”

On the allegations that the federal lawmakers were meddling in the internal affairs of the parties by introducing the amendment, Opara said Section 4 of the constitution empowered the National Assembly to make laws for good governance and peace in the country.

He added that the amendment was also intended to ensure peace during party primaries, besides other important to other important objectives of the Bill.

Opara also supported his position by citing Item 56 of the exclusive legislative list which also gives the National Assembly the legal muscles to legislate for conduct of party affairs.

He described the Bill as a “major input” to rscue political parties from “powerful persons’, as he expressed optimism that the amendment if eventually passed into law would entrench internal democracy in Nigerian political parties.