Ahead of the upcoming political season, the National Chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Victor Oye, yesterday raised serious concerns over the challenge of poor funding of political parties which, he said was one of the major factors inhibiting their growth.
According to him, the unfavorable situation has not allowed political parties to live up to expectations as major stakeholders in the electoral process.
Oye made the assertion while speaking during an interactive session between the national chairmen of political parties in Nigeria and the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria held in Abuja on Wednesday.
He pointed out that there was no way political parties could function optimally without proper funding.
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‘There is no way we can develop as political parties if our leaders fail to imbibe these characteristics.
‘May I state without any equivocation that political parties in Nigeria have not been able to live up to their billing because of lack of funds.
‘There is no way political parties can function optimally without proper funding. There was a time the Nigerian government was funding the parties. But this was suddenly stopped for no explainable reason. Since the stoppage, the parties have been literally left in a lurch’, he said.
Oye pointed out that as a political party leaders, they would continue to do their best ‘to run our parties with utmost sense of responsibility and seriousness, not minding the enormous tasks facing us.’
While speaking on the Nigeria-Chinese relations, the APGA national chairman said that Nigeria and China share a lot of things in common and that it is not limited to diplomacy.