Onu: Why Ruling Parties Emasculate Opposition, Institutions

Dele Ogbodo in Abuja

The Minister of Science and Technology, Mr. Ogbonnaya Onu, has said ruling political parties in Africa stop at nothing to emasculate opposition parties and institutions, describing them of being to fundamental human rights.

The Minister who spoke at the fourth convocation lecture of the Nigerian Turkish Nile University, in Abuja, weekend with the theme: ‘The effect of the emergence of All Progressives Congress (APC) on the promotion of world peace’, said African leaders will stop at nothing to strangulate the opposition.

He said: “This is so even in multi-party democracy where there are many political parties, the opposition political parties are so weakened that one political party, the governing party, is so dominant as to produce virtually all the leaders in the country

“In other to achieve this, they move very quickly to weakened and emasculate all other institution of state. With weak institutions they find it easier to deny their citizens the protection of their fundamental human right.
“They then manipulate elections such that votes no longer counts and the voters no longer matter as citizens can no longer exercise their basic rights to select who governs them.”

According to him, African leaders can only realise their full potential when they commit themselves to serving the interest of their nation and make the people the epicenter of development.

When this is done, he said it would be easy to seamlessly develop the continent and uplift it to enviable position among the continents of the world.
Onu lamented that Africa is so rich that virtually all important minerals resources are found in commercial quantities on the continent, yet the continent is so poor that many of them risk their lives and forgo their human dignity as they desperately struggle to leave their homeland for foreign lands in search of better life.

The minister noted that while people from other continents come to Africa, in large number, to take out resources to help develop their various nations and yet Africans cannot use the same resources in their various homes to develop their own countries for the happiness and prosperity of Africans.

He expressed pain and discomfort on the tragedy that has befallen able bodied and promising young Africans who perish in the Mediterranean sea in the quest to seek a for better life in Europe.

According to him, the sea of Europe has been painted red by the red blood of these Africans who are escaping from the effect of poor leadership in their countries, seeking to escape what is perceived a hopeless life for a rosy existence in European countries.

He however said all hope is not lost taking a cue from the emergence of the President Muhamamadu Buhari following the coalescing of major opposition parties which led to the emergence of the APC and subsequent winning and peaceful hand-over of power from a ruling party to end opposition party.

He said: “This is standard for the continent of Africa and the world at large” and evidence that if Nigeria can do it, other countries in Africa have the potential to imbibe and adopt such peaceful process to national integration and development.”
In a remark, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Huseyi Sert, hinted that the university has made impressive stride in ensuring that it brings out the best quality of education in the country.

The Executive Secretary of National University Commission (NUC) Prof. Julius Okojie called for a policy that makes it mandatory for all private universities and secondary schools to provide accommodation for their students