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The Conference of Nigeria Political parties (CNPP) on Tuesday urged all de-registered parties to join the merger plan of the ACN, CPC and ANPP .

CNPP’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Osita Okechukwu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the conference supported the merger proposal.

''CNPP is in support of the three political parties that are trying to merge and calls on those de-registered to join the merger plan.

''We applaud the CPC, ACN and ANPP for trying to come together, this will enable them to form a united front," he said.

Okechukwu urged the INEC's National Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, to ''pay more attention to those things that can bring to bear, free and fair election in Nigeria".

''Government has stopped funding parties and if it has stopped funding parties, they would find ways to sustain themselves,'' he said.

Okechukwu urged the INEC boss to pay more attention to the Uwais Electoral Reform since he (Jega) was a member of the committee.

''He should pay attention to advance those courses recommended by the committee.

''We need free and fair election; if there is free and fair election, the political parties on their own will do their own internal censorship,'' he said.  

Sen. Ita Enang (PDP-Akwa Ibom), Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, has called on the Federal Government to implement the Steve Oronsaye Committee report to reduce recurrent expenditure.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that President Goodluck Jonathan set up a committee headed by Oronsaye, former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, to restructure and rationalise Federal Government's agencies.

This was with a view to identifying overlap or duplication of functions and make appropriate recommendations to the government.

Enang told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday that if the report was implemented, the cost of governance would be drastically reduced and more funds would be available for capital expenditure.

He said: ``I am urging the President and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to take courage and implement the recommendations made by the Oronsaye Committee.

``Ministries and Departments with duplicating functions should be merged and officers transferred to the main service and dealt with according to civil service regulations.’’

Enang also noted the need to reduce the increasing funds budgeted for fuelling of generators in public offices by exploring the option of solar energy.

He added that the recurring demand for the purchase of computers by ministries and agencies should be discouraged so as to have more funds for visible projects.

"We need to reduce the demand for diesel and computers as this would reduce the cost of governance; there will be huge savings which will increase the capital budget and attract development.’’

The lawmaker advised the Ministry of Finance to always ensure early release of funds to enable Ministries, Departments and Agencies to fully implement the budget for the benefit of the people.

Mr Ishmael Igbani, INEC Commissioner in-charge of Election Monitoring, has said that too many political parties are unwieldy for elections in a developing country like Nigeria.

Igbani, who said this in Abuja on Tuesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), noted that ''For election purposes Nigeria doesn’t need too many political parties.

''Even though having too many political parties is not a crime, all of them cannot be participating in one election.

''Looking at the ballot with over 65 candidates having their names on a ballot paper would be confusing to the electorate, and the worse scenario is when there is more than one election in a day, it becomes more confusing.''

The INEC commissioner advised politicians to come together and set criteria on how names would be placed on the ballot papers.

He said it was time for politicians to stop tying their existence to elections; rather they should focus more on issues that would engender socio-economic growth of the nation.

''The smaller parties instead of fighting for a place on the ballot papers can exploit various avenues with focus on different areas that include gender, environment, health, social issues and other areas of development.’’

On de-registration of some political parties by INEC, Igbani said the exercise was done in accordance with the law.

He explained that the Electoral Act 2010, as amended, declared that: ''Any political party which contests elections and does not win any electoral seat shall be deregistered.

''Our constitution allows for a multi-party system, but INEC has the power to de-register parties and it has started and it is a continuous process as the commission will continue to de-register parties that do not meet requirements.’’