EU Cautions APC Against Absence Of A Strong Opposition

The European Union (EU) has cautioned the All Progressives Congress (APC) against the absence of a credible opposition in the country.
Michel Arrion, the head of the EU delegation to Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), gave the admonition at a media luncheon on May 5 in
Abuja, Daily Sun reports.
According to Arrion, the presence of a strong opposition will be in the APC’s best interests. He explained that if there is no strong opposition outside the party, the APC may suffer the same fate as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by having an internal opposition.
Speaking on the wave of defections following the outcome of the general elections, the head of the delegation said that many politicians were wise enough to understand the importance of a well-organised opposition. However, he further noted that Nigeria has a long tradition of political cross-carpeting.
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“On the defections from the PDP well, that is human nature and I don’t want to comment on those people. There is a long tradition of those things in Nigeria, which is important. It is important that the institutional and the political system give room for a strong opposition and we hope that the body politics of Nigeria will be able to form a strong, active opposition.
“And I will say that it is even in the interest of the APC because if there is no opposition, there is then an internal opposition. And then, APC could go through the same difficult moment that PDP went through.
“So, I think it is quite important. I think many politicians in Nigeria are clever enough to understand those things much better than I do. This question of having quite cohesive group of opponents and well-organised, is important,” he said.
According to Arrion, a legal framework can easily guard against indiscriminate defection in Nigeria.
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“You can always impose rules through legal framework when people are changing and swapping from a party to another party, like losing their seats at the Assembly and things like that. I mean, those questions should be treated at political level rather than legal level,” he noted.
Meanwhile, the Senate president, David Mark, also called on PDP members  to stop bickering over the loss of the general elections and concentrate on building a strong and united party, ready to offer credible opposition.
READ MORE: http://davisconews.blogspot.ae/2015/05/probe-of-jonathans-defeat-suffers-huge.html