Human rights lawyer Femi Falana, SAN, and former House of Representatives member Usman Bugaje have blamed Nigeria’s political parties for hindering the nation’s progress 65 years after independence.
Both statesmen made the remarks during Channels Television’s special broadcast on Wednesday to mark Nigeria’s 65th independence anniversary.
Falana criticised what he described as the “winner-takes-all” approach of modern political parties, contrasting it with the more inclusive practices of the Second Republic.
“There is no way you can concentrate power in the hands of the ruling party. The ruling party must share power with other constituencies,” Falana said.
“There must be proportional representation. The winner-takes-all system is one of the major problems we face today. Without an ideological base or orientation for political parties, corruption, impunity, and recklessness will persist.”
Bugaje argued that Nigeria’s leadership recruitment crisis is rooted in the absence of ideological direction within political parties.
He described the parties as “empty entities” with no real differences, allowing politicians to switch affiliations frequently.
“I have said it several times: the political parties we have today have neither content nor conscience, they lack courage, and they are not good for anything,” Bugaje said.
“Look at what is happening today — what makes people move from APC to PDP or from PDP to APC? It is because they are all empty. What really differentiates them?”