In its bid to tackle the insecuurity challenges in the country, the presidency have invited leaders of registered political parties to a summit in Abuja on June 12.
The Special Adviser to the President on Inter-Party Affairs, Senator Obi disclosed this at a media briefing in Abuja on Monday.
Former Military Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd) is expected to chair discussions at the summit.
Obi added that the summit, which would be declared open by President Goodluck Jonathan, would also attract the civil society organisations, the diplomatic community and other political stakeholders.
He said: ?At the heart of the inter-party conversation is the building of inter-party consensus through institutional and informal collaboration.
? If the collaboration between existing political parties is sufficiently reinforced, the national political climate will wear a positive outlook, social stability will be guaranteed, national security will be deepened and democratic consolidation will be effectuated.
?However, the current national political outlook with regard to inter-party collaboration is less than salutary. Indeed, the conduct, behaviour and utterances of leading politicians, at home and abroad, are rapidly spreading unnecessary tension in the country, stoking the embers of discord, bitterness and rancour, and obviously playing into the hands of extremist elements that are waging a vicious terror war against the Nigerian state.
?If these enemies perceive the political class to be in disarray, it will further embolden them in the crimes they are daily committing against the Nigerian people?.
The President?s Adviser lamented that while the current dispensation has
witnessed unbroken political transitions and power successions from 1999 to date, there were still very powerful anti-democratic forces operating in the political system.
These anti-democratic forces, he observed, were ever ready to exploit lapses in the management of the political and electoral processes to wage a bitter struggle against the Nigerian state.
Describing the Boko Haram insurgency as a detestable force, Obi said political parties play a key role in the evolution and consolidation of the country?s democratic enterprise.
He stressed that by their acts and conducts, political parties could either advance the cause and course of the democratic system, or endanger it.
Senator Obi further stated that the idea of the summit was informed by the recognition of what he described as the ?great historic challenge? facing the nation?s political parties.
This, according to him, has necessitated the need to close ranks to safeguard the country?s democratic infrastructure, even as the parties pursue their separate governance vision and compete for power in a healthy, decent and civilised manner.
?The road to overcoming this challenge is by strengthening and deepening inter-party collaboration at all levels, and re-committing the political class to the code of conduct to which all the political parties subscribed.
?It is also necessary to place Nigerian politicians at the centre stage of the national struggle for social stability, national security and democratic consolidation through a just struggle against extremist conducts and divisive national tendencies?, Obi said.
He expressed the optimism that the summit would help to determine and strengthen the institutional and other bases of collaboration among Nigerian political parties and politicians.
Obi said the envisioned summit would also reinforce the key ingredients in the code of conduct of political behaviour and re-commit Nigerian political parties to its salient norms.
?In addition, it will help to emphasise the role of political parties in enabling the condition for social stability, national security and democratic consolidation while highlighting the negative consequences of the politics of bitterness, rancour, mud-slinging and unnecessary bellicosity to the political, economic and social well-being of the nation.
?The summit intends to mainstream the idea that Nigerian political parties are key national patriotic stakeholders, either in government or in opposition, who are genuinely committed to the success of the Nigerian project, and to serve as a platform for wide deliberation on an action plan that will lead to free, fair, transparent and violence-free general elections in 2015?, Obi stated.
