THE European Union has budgeted about 2.7 million Euro to help strengthen the capacity of political parties ahead of the 2019 general elections under its Support for Democracy and Governance in Nigeria project, the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) has said.
Director of Research of the Institute and Chief Operating Officer of the Political Parties Leadership and Policy Development Centre Prof. Habu Galadima, who stated this at a training and capacity building for CSOs said the centre has started utilising the funds for the purpose it was meant for.
Galadima said the centre was established to intervene in the political process and strengthen the capacity of political parties, which he described as bedrock of democracy, hence the need to strengthen their capacity.
He said the training of political parties is the most difficult endeviour to undertake and has become more difficult with the parties increasing to 91.
He howeverexpressed satisfaction that changes are beginning to emerge from the administration of political parties in the country.
He said the centre was fulfilling its mandate and was able to get the parties to sign an agreement to ensure a violent-free conduct of the 2019 general election, noting that the training being conducted for the political parties has begun to pay off.
He said 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.
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 in 2015, the institute used technology to report election and violence it came across . He added that such training would help harness early warning signals.
He said the nation has witnessed series of violence since the return to democracy in 1999 and that they were likely to increase in the forthcoming election.
According to him, the time