Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of the House of Representatives said that it is not fashionable to expect the Federal Government (FG) to fund political parties at this critical juncture in Nigeria’s democratic advancement.
Using government funds to run political parties, he believes, is an indirect invitation for the government to take control of the political parties by dictating choices and policies that may be contrary to democratic principles.
Gbajabiamila, who argued that self-funding was the international best practice, added that using government funds would lead to the proliferation of political parties.
He made the remarks while receiving a delegation from the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) at the National Assembly in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to the speaker, people would simply abuse the process by registering hundreds of political parties in the hope of profiting from free government money.
“I am not sure how many countries fund their political parties; we will have to do research and to be sure that it’s international best practice …Government is an interested party if it will be providing the funds,” he was quoted as saying in a statement by his media aide, Lanre Lasisi.
“That will also mean they can compromise the system.
“There is also proliferation (of parties) that will become a problem if the government begins to fund the parties since there will be free money.”
