The National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) has said that the European Union (EU) has budgeted about €2.7m to help strenghten the capacity of political parties ahead of the 2019 general elections under its support for Democracy and Governance in Nigeria project.
The Director of Research of the Institute and Chief Operating Officer of the Political Parties Leadership and Policy Development Centre (PPLPDC), Prof. Habu Galadima, said this in Abuja on Monday at a training and capacity building for CSOs.
He said the centre has started utilising the funds for the purpose it was meant for.
According to him, the centre was established to intervene in the political process and strengthen the capacity of political parties as they are the bedrock of democracy.
He said the training of political parties is the most difficult endeavour to undertake and has become more difficult with the parties increasing to 91.
He however expressed satisfaction that changes are beginning to emerge from the administration of political parties in the country.
He said the centre was fulfilling it’s mandate and was able to get the parties to sign an agreement to ensure a violent-free conduct of the 2019 general election, pointing out that the training being conducted for the political parties has began to pay off.
“Even though the recently conducted party primaries were rowdy and full of complain by aspirants, they were relatively peaceful in line with the signed agreement by the parties,” Galadima said.
Also, the Acting Director General of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Dr. Bakut T. Bakut, said since the inception of democracy in 1999, there has been a process of identifying early warning signals that can serve as potential threat to democracy in the country.
Dr. Bakut said the institute in 2015, used technology to report election and violence it came across, saying that such training will help harness early warning signals.
He said the nation has witnessed series of violence since the return to democracy in 1999 and which may increase in the forth coming elections, hence the need to develop strategy to monitor and report political conflict.
