he Alliance for
Democracy (AD) has scheduled a unity convention for today, September 29, to
resolve the internal logjam occasioned by last year’s factional conventions.
This is a welcome development. AD has been in turmoil for many months and its
crisis does not help the stabilization of democracy in the country in any sense.
Prior to the two conventions that took place in Abuja and
Lagos, which produced parallel executive councils headed by Chief Bisi Akande
and Senator Mojiseoluwa Akinfenwa respectively, the AD was a vibrant political
party, even if with a smaller foothold on the national political scene. Despite
its loss in the 2003 elections of five of its hitherto six state governments,
the party was still a force to be reckoned with, especially in the South West
geo-political zone.
The crisis within the party has been a source of concern to
many followers of political development, beyond the party fold. The prospect
that AD could lose its registration with the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) if it did not resolve its dispute before the October 31
deadline given to it by the electoral body was considered grave in many
quarters. Such a development would be a blow, not only to AD and its adherents,
but also to party politics in the country. Any such de-registration of the party
by INEC will be the first of such development in the political history of
Nigeria. One of the major fall outs of last year’s parallel conventions by
separate groups within the party was the non-recognition of any of the factions
by INEC.
Good enough,INEC has reportedly given indication that this
time, it would monitor the unity convention, slated for Onikan
Stadium,Lagos.With such monitoring from the highest supervisory body, the
national executive that would emerge from the convention would hopefully be
acceptable to both INEC and all the factions within the party. Given the hard
line toed by the different sides in the dispute, the unity convention holds out
a great opportunity for AD to be salvaged. Members of the party should not throw
away this opportunity.
AD is not entirely new to convention crisis. Indeed it has
lived with the disability since the bitter exercise in selecting its
presidential candidate for the 1999 general elections. Since then, there had
been mutual suspicion between the older elements in the party who are tied to
the leadership of the leading Yoruba socio-cultural group and younger elements
within the party who identified with the late Chief Bola Ige.
In more ways than one, the core issue in the crisis within AD
is the question of whether it should effectively make itself a national party or
whether it should remain to all practical purposes, a party of the
Yorubas.Whereas a faction in the dispute holds that there is no real difference
between the Yoruba socio-cultural organization and AD, the pro-Ige faction
contends that there must be a clear distinction between the two associations,
especially as there are members of AD from other parts of the country outside
the South-West zone.
The disagreement between the two persuasions is partly
responsible for the party’s woeful performance at the 2003 election, where it
lost all but one of its six state governments.
The same division was reinforced last year when the party
found itself holding two conventions; one in Lagos backing Akinfenwa and another
in Lagos backing Akande.A recent move by the Afenifere again to endorse
Akinfenwa as the authentic AD chairman in a meeting in Akure, Ondo State did not
help the matter. All this while, the members of the party outside of the
South-west zone have been more of onlookers.
The inability of the AD to choose an accepted leader through
a proper democratic means is an indicator of the still low level of appreciation
of the real nature of democracy in the land. The choice of who emerges a leader
or a candidate in a true democratic system is determined through the ballot box
not through the anointing by some elders somewhere.
Fortunately now, the different groups that came together to
form AD in the first place;Afenifere members, elements from the Eastern Mandate
Union, and some radical groups from both the North and the South-South zones,
have expressed support for the unity convention. This convention points the way
to peace in AD and those within the party who are not well disposed to this way
forward should have a rethink.
In an era when most other parties outside the ruling party
are seized with crisis to the point of fizzling out and fears are rife that the
country is drifting towards a one party state, the prospect that AD can be
salvaged is exciting. Everything possible should be done to ensure that those
political parties with some potentials for contributing meaningfully to the
development of our political system are not allowed to die, more so due to
squabble that may be borne of ego clashes.
The unity convention of the AD should be helped by all the
parties involved to be exactly that. Efforts should be made to carry all the
factions along and the outcome of the election should be accepted on the
principle of no victor, no vanquished among the erstwhile contending factions.
Whatever limited space it presently occupies in the country’s political
landscape, AD surely has a role to play in our political developemt.Interest
groups within the party’s fold have a duty to save it from disintegration.
