ColumnsOpinionPoliticsOPINION: Anambra 2021: Nigerian Political Parties Keep Stumbling

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In 2021, which is exactly twenty-two years after democracy and partisan politics was reintroduced in Nigeria, political parties in Nigeria still lack internal functional mechanisms and certain rudiments of a working system. Partisan politics is still a do or die, fraught with confusing court injunctions, hooliganism, and brigandage. Political parties are still largely made up of men who can do anything for power; people who do not care one bit, about how to get the system running for public good. At best, Nigerian political parties, without any single exception are fraudulent enterprises whose entire and singular aim is to seize power by all means and then control the apparatuses of the state, for personal gains.

They start off deliberately monetizing in excess, the political process. Nomination and expression of interest forms are sold at extremely exorbitant rates, along with other ridiculous financial demands that are never accounted for and never refunded. Now, we must pointedly remark that by political parties, we are not talking in terms of the name or nature of these parties which primarily are the same; we are talking in terms of the people managing these parties, the membership of the parties. Without doubt, it is the same kind of human beings; those at the bottom of the moral, intellectual, spiritual, psychological rungs of human existence are the ones running the show. Those with no capacity beyond fraudulent manipulations are the ones in charge. At some point, at least, we must begin to say this truth so that we can begin a process of reclaiming our country from these marauders. It has nothing to do with the party. It is the people in those parties that are using the parties within the limits of their capabilities. The parties then are simply reflections of the people directing their affairs. All our political parties are managed in the same or similar manner. The leaders of political parties in Nigeria, irrespective of the name of the party, are all desperate for the same or similar things, with the singular objective of self-enrichment even to the death of the party or destruction of the entire system. Sadly, this also speaks to the relevance or perhaps, the usefulness of good, informed, exposed, and patriotic citizens who we cannot in all honesty say are lacking in Nigeria, but somehow allow the system to be effectively saturated and controlled by the kind of men and women who absolutely have nothing to offer.

For any democracy to work, the best people in that society must be in charge of that system. Beyond that, there are two things; political parties must be systemic, well structured, and institutionalized. Then also the populace must be informed to an appreciable degree to be able to make incisive contributions towards the sustainability of the system’s progress. These are responsible for the type of government a people have. In actual fact, the failure of any modern democracy is nothing short of the direct consequence of the failure of political parties and a section of citizens of that country that know better but did nothing. Conversely, the survival and value of any modern democracy are dependent on the nature of membership and leadership of political parties and informed citizens in that society. This is how defining and imperative political parties are in any quest for national development, which without doubt, is driven by political decisions. To be very clear, national development is a byproduct of political decisions. Both government and governance in any democratic arrangement derive from the contents of political parties. For that reason, if there is going to be good governance, or an unbiased, independent electoral body, it is dependent on the quality of people who manage and populate the ruling party. And also how effective and useful the informed, upward segment members of the society are to the advancement of the system. Simply put, to get democracy to function for the benefit of the people, then, fix the political parties and get the right people; the very best there is in the society to show interest, drive conversations and selflessly keep the system focused on the ultimate goal.

In Anambra state, all major political parties failed the rudimental tests, while jostling to position for the upcoming governorship election. As of now, there is no question about the intent of these political parties. They have by far affirmed that they are all predators. At first, it was the All Progressives Grand Alliance –APGA, with issues over the national leadership of the party. Jude Okeke on national television purported to have removed Victor Oye as national chairman of the party. This was shortly after some aspirants were disqualified from participating in the primaries, in what many saw and still see as a grand design by party leadership to favour a preferred aspirant. That this is even the reality, under which our politics is conducted as normal, is preposterous. To date, there are questions not answered about the leadership of APGA.  The suspicion is loud, yet nobody is asking salient questions to the party leaders.

Right now, there are about three people claiming the leadership of APGA. In Peoples’ Democratic Party -PDP, the party now has two factions in the state and two candidates for the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State. The PDP’s primary election on Saturday held in two different locations; Paul’s University and Dora Akunyili Women Development Centre, and at the end, Sen. Dr. Ugochukwu Uba emerged candidate in the former, while Valentine Ozigbo emerged as a candidate in the later. The All Progressives Congress – APC which was before now the most peaceful political party in Anambra state among the big three, produced a candidate miraculously, in the person of Sen. Andy Uba, despite that there was no primary election by APC Anambra State Election Committee led by Governor Abiodun of Ogun state anywhere in the state as attested to by Dr. Chris Ngige the leader of the party in Anambra as well as the publicity secretary of the party, Okelo Madukife in a press release, and eleven aspirants of the party who spoke through George Moughalu. What this means essentially is that these parties are managed in the same or similar manner and exactly populated by the same kind of membership. Party men and women, who do not care about building a formidable system that can stand the test of time, just want to have their way at all and at any cost.

Fundamentally, that is what this crisis is all about. The basic democratic attitude that “it must not be me” is totally lacking because people somehow believe that it must be them otherwise the whole system should collapse. At the end, after all said and done, it is the courts that will determine who is candidate for which party. This was the case in Imo state where a candidate that came fourth in the election was later declared winner of that election by the court. We must not forget that the sad and unfortunate development had root in political party crisis and tussle, where the outgoing governor insisted on having his way and having his son-in-law become the candidate of APC for that election so that he may succeed him as governor.

It does appear that every problem of governance in Nigeria is traceable to nature and modus operandi of Nigerian political parties. The political situation in Anambra now is tensed and confusing. APGA already has Prof. Chukwuma Soludo as its candidate, but it is likely the party may have two more candidates eventually. The PDP already has two candidates, while APC has Sen. Andy Uba who is claiming to have emerged from the primary election while eleven other aspirants and the leader of the party in Anambra say the election did not hold. In perspective, if anything, these political parties should be held accountable for causing confusion and destabilizing the system. And if there is anyone thing that must be changed for Nigerians to have a different feel of governance, then, it is these parties. Sadly, not the party because of the name or set of ideologies because they have none, but the quality of human beings that lead and populate these parties.

Nigerians must channel their energies towards upturning these fraudulent entities and their enablers; hijack and overwhelm these criminal elements in control of the country’s political machinery or possibly form new political fronts to put an end to the ceaseless assault and banditry on the destiny of the country and the people, by these plunderers.

 

Ebuka Onyekwelu (Staff Writer)
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