Ahead the 2027 general elections, the Kukah Centre has designed a Political Party Management Toolkit (PPMT) that will provide a guideline for the management of existing and emerging political parties in the country.

The governance and elections administration short term expert of the centre, Wilson Manji, said the essence of PPMT was to also provide guidelines on how political parties are formed and how they transform from an association to a fullfleged political parties.

Wilson who stated this Tuesday in Abuja at the validation workshop with stakeholders on the PPMT, organised by The Kukah Centre and supported by the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) Component III: Support to Political Parties.

Manji said, “When it comes to managing a political party, having a well-defined framework, it can help in streamlining operations, improve efficiency, and ensure effective decision-making mechanisms.

“This framework is designed to serve as a barest irreducible standard for setting up and effectively managing political parties and associations”, he said.

He further explained that PPMT would also ensure that they complied with regulatory or legal framework and how they managed their membership drive and ideology in which they have been formed and is better promoted in the Nigerian society. 

The Executive Director, The Kukah Centre, Fr Atta Barkindo said the reforms to democracy was a little bit strange to people because it was not a natural form of governance in Nigeria. 

He said there is the need to understand our social, economic and traditional context of Nigeria and the need to see how they can adopt to PPMT to every political party. 

While reacting, the Inter- Party Advisory Council (IPAC) National Organising Secretary and Team Lead, Technical Working Group, Egbeola Wale Martins said certain things need to be addressed that will expect a radical change . 

He said there is need to address transparency processes in political parties because they deliberately leave the loopholes in the system, so that it can be manipulated .

He said the best that can be done going forward is to embark on advocacy and see how political parties can be supported in pushing electoral bills.

“Transmission of electronic results should be made compulsory and encourage Nigerians to come out to vote and strengthen political parties .

“We must ensure that we think with critical components to strengthen institutions,” he said. 

Also, an Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) official, Nkechi Abuh, said a lot needed to be done inwardly to verify political parties in the country.