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Organisation
of money bags!
By Isioma J. Madike
Political parties exist in order to
control the process of government. To achieve this, they must make sure that in
an election, more of their candidates win against the opposition. The number of
political parties varies widely from country to country, but all are rooted in
the historical evolution of the particular country. In Nigeria, the military in
a vain attempt to simplify a complex matter have sought to impose parties on
our people. This practice has everything wrong with it, for it seeks to create
a herd mentality. Such imposition, apart from being clearly undemocratic, is
rooted in nothing as it lacks ideology. A political party without an ideology
is like a mere social club.
The evolution of political parties in Nigeria can be
said to have started out well and finishing off badly, if present trends are
not arrested. At independence, well-established political parties with known
ideologies fought the election. Great emphasis was placed on men and women of
integrity who would take over from the British. The result was that many of the
leaders of the first Republic were practical people with reputation and
experience. Most had no money. For instance, the Prime Minister Alhaji Sir
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was a School Teacher. We now know that they served the
country with the fear of God, that they maintained proportionality and that
they did not loot the treasury as much.
Years of military rule were to lead to the emergence
of new classes in Nigeria, so that by 1979, in the wake of the politics of
twelve two-thirds of 19 states, the stage was set for the use of money as the
vehicle to power in Nigeria. The Shagari government was weak mostly because it
was held hostage by the rich and over-bearing members of the National Party of
Nigeria (NPN) who saw the organization not as a political party but as the
government itself. It was hoped that Shagari's second term would lead to some
curtailment in the excesses of the money class in the NPN. We would never know,
as that government was soon overthrown in another military madness-(COUP), this
time by then Major-Gen. Mohammadu Buhari.
The Babangida years will be remembered as years of
wild political experimentation. For eight years, the General engineered his own
brand of politics. He decreed that there should be only two parties, one a
little to the left and the other a little to the right. He wrote two similar
constitutions for them, built their secretariats for them, and asked Nigerians
to get on with it. At the end of the process, Chief M.K.0 Abiola emerged as the
winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential contest but he was not allowed to
rule. Because of the artificiality of the parties, governors and legislators
produced by that system could not stand up to defend Chief Abiola who won in a
free and fair election. The aftermath of this contempt for the electorate was
that the entire nation was plunged into a continuing crisis that is only now
being resolved.
General Sani Abacha had another method. He decided on
five political parties that only he knew to be one. The five parties, like
court jesters, had already endorsed 'Abacha' for president when the man died.
Nigeria was thus saved from the enthronement of false-hood.
The Abubakar regime again embarked on the
registration of political parties, settling for three eventually. However,
unlike his predecessors, he did not strive to unduly influence the conduct of
the parties. Indeed, some persons feel that he should have shown more interest
in the kind of persons that were elected into the various houses. Nevertheless,
the elections have come and gone and it is hoped that we would learn from our
mistakes. But are we now learning? The present political arrangements with no
clearly defined opposition to the controlling party speak for itself.
Since the incursion of militarism into Nigerian
affairs, we have witnessed a gradual erosion of standards. The rampant
corruption and disdain for morality that have engulfed the nation is nowhere
more evident than in the political parties. Politics in Nigeria today means
money-a lot of it. As a result, many competent Nigerians with the capacity to
do a good job just have become disenfranchised owing to lack of money. The
electorate in many countries serves as a counterweight to political corruption.
In some other countries, a pre-election debate with a clear grasp of both the
country's affairs and the global agenda is all the electorate needs to equip
himself/herself for the election. Why can't Nigerian politicians emulate the
American example?
Unfortunately, in our case, with so much poverty in
hand, our political arena is littered with ethnic strife, state sponsored
assassinations and youth restiveness. The Nigerian voter on the other hand is
more interested in a cup of rice today than a promise of full employment by the
year 2010. The result is that the political terrain, with a few exceptions, now
belong to those who have enriched themselves before at our expense or to their
nouveau riche cousins dressed in assorted colours of '419'.
It is hoped that a future government of Nigeria would
look into the character and organization of political parties. It is clear that
the hurried nature of the Abubakar transition has not given room for proper
political parties to be formed. Despite their victory at the polls, perceptive
observers know that they are not properly set up.
Madike,
a public affairs commentator, writes in from Ogba-Lagos.
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