David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka
An aspirant of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) in the Anambra governorship election scheduled for November this year, Mr. Godwin Ezeemo has decried poor voters’ sensitisation in Nigeria, saying it was the bane of democracy.
Ezeemo who was a guest at the Correspondents’ Forum, a platform of the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Anambra Chapter stated this while speaking on the topic; ‘Role of political parties in sustaining democracy, a case study of Anambra State’.
He lamented that upon his return to Nigeria and joining politics, he has found that most Nigeria electorates have no regard for the core values of any political party, and as such were ready to join any which showed financial prospect for them.
Ezeemo said the discovery was the reason his party has decided to put a financial tag to the membership of its party, with the hope that anyone coming in would be tutored on the beliefs and core values of the party.
“People just join any political party they see, without considering what their beliefs are, or what they stand for. Some people even belong to more than one political party, and for people like that, it is about the financial accruals.
“I have once used my phone to call a lot of people who are members of my party in remote areas, and without introducing myself, I asked them why they joined PPA. Many had a lot of reasons to give, but none knew exactly what the belief of the party was.
“It is for these reasons that our party charges intending members N100 for entry, and two passport photos, so that they will know that it is not a tea party. PPA is a serious political party which we are building to stand on a class of its own, and not like the usual Nigerian political party,†Ezeemo said.
He called for more sensitisation of the voting population, especially those in remote areas, to help strengthen the nations democracy.
