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Committee for a Workers' International

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Socialist Democracy Nov - Dec 2002

Political Violence, Election Rigging ...

A Major Victory For NCP

On Friday, November 8, 2002, the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision dismissed the appeal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against the Federal Court of Appeal judgement of 26th July, 2002 which had declared as illegal and unconstitutional the guidelines used by INEC for the registration of political parties.

It will be recalled that it was these obnoxious guidelines that INEC used to disqualify the National Conscience Party (NCP) and many other political parties during the last registration exercise. NCP and four of the parties took INEC to court to challenge the guidelines. The Supreme Court ruled, in agreement with the Court of Appeal, that while INEC has the power to publish guidelines, it cannot issue guidelines that violate sections of the 1999 constitution which deal with party registration.

The judgement is no doubt a big victory for the National Conscience Party (NCP) and the other parties which jointly institute the court case. It is indeed a victory for the Nigerian working people who for long had been denied an independent political platform and voice of their own by the capitalist ruling class. The major lesson from this victory is that it pays to struggle consistently and persistently, and that if we fight we can win.

THE CHALLENGES BEFORE THE NCP

But this victory also poses a lot of challenges for the NCP. In a sense, this is the real beginning for the building of the party. While the party has a lot of potential support and the national chairman, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, is very popular among the downtrodden working masses, a lot of political and organisational work still needs to be done.

Continued ...