Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party’s Peter Obi have opposed a bill proposing the creation of the Political Parties Registration and Regulation Commission (PPRRC), which aims to take over political party registration and regulation from INEC.
Atiku acknowledged INEC is overburdened but argued that setting up a new commission is unnecessary and costly. Instead, he suggested empowering existing agencies like the National Identity Management Commission to handle such tasks.
Obi, through the Obidient Movement’s Tanko Yunusa, insisted that registering political parties is a core responsibility of INEC. He advocated for reforms based on the Justice Uwais Report, which proposed separate commissions for monitoring, enforcement, and delineation.
The bill, co-sponsored by House Speaker Tajudeen Abbas and Rep. Marcus Onobun, seeks constitutional amendments to establish the PPRRC. It is currently under review by the House Committee on Constitution Review.
PDP chieftain Segun Sowunmi also criticized the move, saying Nigeria’s problem isn’t the absence of laws or institutions but the failure to follow them.