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Oath taking, partisan politics in Nigeria
OKENWA .R. NWOSU
NIGERIA’S
political and intellectual elite are firmly fixated on political precedents of
the nation’s founding fathers and appear committed to pursuing respective
visions of the trio of Azikiwe, Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, in
contrast to the Sardauna of Sokoto and Pa Awo, stands out as a nationalist whose
political career and vision for Nigeria transcended direct parochial interests
of his ancestral Igbo ethnic nationality. Immediate successors of Nigeria’s
founding politicians sought relevance based on public avowal of loyalty to
political movements that became the legacies of their respective regional
champions.
Until official imposition of a two-party
system by former military president, Ibrahim B. Babangida, during political
transition to the abortive Third Republic, partisan formations approximated the
regional power bases of the post-independence era. Truly national political
patties have now become the norm since the final exit of military rule even
though the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)
still have their regional bases in the Southwest and Southeast zones
respectively. Present Nigerian political parties, across the board, differ only
in name and the personnel that run their affairs. They are ideologically
indistinguishable otherwise.
With the creation of 36 state governments
to replace the defunct four-region structure of pre-Civil War era, Nigerian
political discourse is slowly moving away from blatant ethnic and parochial
jingoes as potent instruments for partisan mobilisation. Money and personality
cult have subsequently assumed greater significance in current battle for
survival and supremacy amongst the 30 registered political parties in Nigeria.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), since its impressive victories in two
successive national elections, has emerged as the colossus of Nigerian political
landscape while the less known parties are slowly fading away from public
consciousness. Within the PDP, the battle for control and domination of the
party political machinery has become quite intense.
Again, in a party that is virtually devoid
of discernible ideological leanings, money and personality of key players are
the two important instruments for orchestrating intra-party struggles for
supremacy. PDP political conventions, for example, particularly the ones that
select presidential candidates, are bazaars where partisan support of delegates
is openly traded and acquired by the highest bidder.
Political godfatherism is basically a
euphemism for an affluent partisan who has the financial resources and the will
to deploy same for influencing politics in one’s domain of control. The PDP, to
a greater extent and other opposition parties, to a lesser extent, are awash
with godfathers at all levels of governance throughout the country. Anambra’s
Chief Chris Uba has become the poster child of Nigerian political godfatherism
because the mechanism of control that he put in place to secure his home state
for PDP during 2003 general elections malfunctioned and unexpectedly blew up in
everyone’s face. The crises that followed inevitably led to revelations of
complex underhand deals that took place amongst PDP stakeholders in the state in
run up to the April 2003 general elections. It has now been revealed that the
incumbent governor lacked his own personal resources to successfully compete for
PDP nomination to contest for the State House, Awka. To get over the impediment,
he went to a great extent to secure the favours and sponsorship of Chief Uba who
ended up financing a long list of aspirants, including Governor Chris Ngige. As
one would expect, the godfather’s generosity was not without conditionality.
Political godfathers are not intrinsically
evil men nor are their roles in the polity. Based on the prevailing
socio-economic environment in which Nigerian democracy is constrained to
function, one could boldly assert that the role of political godfathers is
inevitable. Partisan politics demands the time, sweat and money of its key
players in an ongoing basis to meet its many logistical, organisational and
operational needs. Electioneering politics multiplies the needs of a given
political of party several folds. The rank and file party membership can hardly
muster what it takes to fulfill the needs of a ruling party like the PDP in
running a state in which it is determined to stay in control. The average
citizen has been made to understand that political parties are veritable
conduits for acquiring power and wealth. Regular party members join Nigerian
political parties with great anticipation of getting something substantive out
of it. There is hardly anything done for the party voluntarily, thus requiring
that routine errands and sundry logistics are usually all paid for in cash by
whoever is perceived to be the local boss in charge. Political parties, as
presently organised and run in Nigeria, cannot function at grassroots level
without the largesse of partisan godfathers.
How do we go about obviating the need for
political godfathers and their penchant for using oath taking to retain loyalty
of those who rely on their patronage to be relevant partisans or aspirants for
elective posts? There are two options. First alternative is to let a neutral
entity fund the party and allow political parties to be organsied on the
principle of "equal owners and equal joiners". The second option is to build
political parties out of grassroots movements from where they should derive
their legitimacy and power. The first option we experimented upon during the
Babangida administration’s transition programme in the ill-fated Third Republic.
The two official political parties, National Republican Convention (NRC) and
Social Democratic Party (SDP), were funded by the federal government. This
experiment cost billions of naira in taxpayers’ money annually to remotely
manage only two parties. It boggles the mind to imagine the cost for sustaining
30 distinct political parties that are officially registered today in Nigeria.
While the idea of floating grassroots-based political parties sounds sensible,
the notion of egalitarianism in a laissez-faire democratic system of
government is oxymoronic.
Nigerian democracy shall remain stunted if
the evolution of national political parties at grassroots level is left in the
hands of godfathers and their unorthodox ways of using wealth and personality
cultism to ensure the loyalty of mostly uninformed and impoverished partisan
followers. Fundamental change in the status quo shall require an
ideological reorientation in Nigerian political discourse and practice.
Political parties must be revamped and restructured to reflect visions and
principles that resonate well with needs and values of the average citizen. In
the absence of these, a big philosophical void shall continue to overshadow the
political landscape of Nigeria. Nigeria has the manpower and resource base to
lead in the socio-economic and cultural advancement of the African continent and
the Black World. The vision to fulfil this role should inspire Nigerian
intellectuals and political elite to embark on a novel popular movement to clean
up the mess that currently frustrates all efforts to bring many benefits of the
21st Century global environment within reach of the average citizen.
• Concluded.
• Nwosu, M.D., lives in Upper Marlboro,
Maryland, U.S.A.
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