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Ekweremadu Calls On Civil Servants To Join Political Parties

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Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu

The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has called on civil servants to register with the political parties in order to protect their interests in the country.

Ekweremadu said this on Tuesday night at the inauguration of the ‘Responsive Political Party Programme in Nigeria’ by the International Republican Institute in Abuja.

He said, “The notion that civil servants cannot be members of political parties in Nigeria is unfounded. For the avoidance of doubt, the Supreme Court is clear on this in the case of INEC versus Musa and others (2003). In a judgment delivered by His Lordship, the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mohammed Uwais (retd.), the apex court declared that any guidelines, be it Independent National Electoral Commission’s electoral guidelines, civil service rule or the Electoral Act, that bars civil servants from belonging to political parties is inconsistent with Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution.

“This section clearly provides that ‘every person shall be entitled to assemble freely and associate with other persons, and in particular he may form or belong to any political party, trade union or any other association for the protection of his interests.’ By belonging to a political party, civil servants will also be in a position to block the nomination of leaders, who do not care about their welfare.”

Ekweremadu also called for the use of electronic voting for party primaries to enhance more transparent and credible elections, maintaining that the credibility of any electoral process begins with a free and fair primary election.

He said the National Assembly was working to ensure that the restrictions on electronic voting is removed from electoral laws to enable the creation of more credible and transparent electoral process which would reduce election petitions.

“Unfortunately, our political parties still operate manual membership registers that are largely unreliable and obsolete.

“To get their primaries right, political parties should upgrade to both electronic register and electronic voting systems. This will substantially reduce pre-election disputes,” he said.