As Nigeria prepares for the 2019 general elections, an Anglican priest in the Diocese of Sapele, Ven. Dr. Theophilus Usikaro has charged the nation scrapped multiple parties and return to a two-party system of government, citing the United States as a good example of this.
TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Dr. Usikaro made this known as the Anglican Communion, the Church of Nigeria set to hold its yearly Divine Commonwealth Conference (DIVCCON) programme in Abuja.
Two-party system, is political system in which the electorate gives its votes largely to only two major parties and in which one or the other party can win a majority in the legislature, and whoever has the majority controls the direction of governance.
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The Anglican cleric stressed that “Multiple parties facilitate a spread of loyalists and votes to too many corners thereby making a party to be so powerful when it gains majority. But when all votes go to only two parties, the margins will begin to come close that any party in power will no longer sleep on duty”.
Usikaro said when the political parties in Nigeria are just two, “Everyone who wants to belong to a party will have to join one of the two and that decamping from a party to another will be largely reduced, just as joining a party will be based on interest and what they stand for.
He further stated that the parties will sit up as there will not be one party so big that cannot be challenged, because the other party will equally be big and strong, and power across the nation will be shared by votes of electorates.
“One single party will not gain prominence across the country. When one is strong somewhere, the other will be prominent somewhere else. Political parties will then know the importance of maintaining strong political policies and manifesto. They will know that people are after them for their uniqueness.
“Any of the two in power at Federal, State or Local Govt will sit up and do the right thing according to the rule of law, since they know the people are not afraid of voting them out if they mess up.
“Houses of Assemblies and Senate at all levels will then know how to do proper check and balances, as buying everyone over will be difficult. And the bills will also be passed based on merit, not sentiment.
“Pleasing the electorate will translate into general welfare and infrastructural development. No time wasting will be condoned,” he said.
While Usikaro acknowledged the frailties of a two-party system, he said “it will certainly engender a better implementation of infrastructural development and balanced politicking”.