The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara says the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and other political parties in the country were weak, unstable and lack the needed apparatus for internal democracy.

Represented by Yakubu Umar Barde, the Minority Whip of the House, Hon. Dogara stated this while delivering an address at a retreat with the theme ‘Dynamics of Managing Political Parties’ organized by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Abuja.

The Speaker said in attempts to either capture or cling on to power, some political parties sometimes embellished their manifestos with unrealistic promises which he said amounted to malpractice.

“It is political malpractice for an elected government to govern without reference to the manifesto that was placed before the voters which essentially formed the basis of their election,” Dogara said.

He maintained that for political parties to effectively play central roles in democratic representation, they must be managed and operated in such a manner as to establish trust in the electorate.

He added that political parties in the country also suffered from low organizational capacity and as such cannot support democracy as they were expected to among other functions, mobilize the citizenry, aggregate interests, formulate public – oriented policies as well as organize and direct the government.

He therefore underlined the need for reforms and professionalism in the core running of parties to salvage the apparent weaknesses of the political parties in the country