Nigeria’s political parties were put on the slammer last week and ironically its major players took turns to upbraid it. At the heart of the matter is absence of internal democracy, discipline and lack of any ideological bent. UCHENNA AWOM writes that what happened was a fitting postmortem of a system that has rather become a drawback.
What an irony that former President Olusegun Obasanjo will talk about lack of internal democracy and discipline in political parties. The chicken has indeed come home to roost. That notwithstanding, his ‘repentance’ and instant postulation signposts the emerging reality and that is to say that the political class is gradually positioning for self-appraisal. Most political commentators today would readily accuse Obasanjo of being part and parcel of the rot in not only the political parties, but also in the entire political system. The example is the nauseating culture of imposition, supplanting and even cloning of candidates irrespective of the crass injustice that is associated with it. Did Obasanjo encourage it? If he did not, he at least presided over the period and may have looked the other way while such was being entrenched. The near consensus in any case was that he mostly provided the muscle for those who superintended over the now thriving political heist. The truth anyway is that the political parties in Nigeria are down and they need a surgical operation.?????
Obasanjo’s admonition came barely twenty-four hours after he was quoted to have warned in faraway Senegal that revolution in Nigeria is imminent. Though he has debunked that report specifically on the issue of calling for revolution, but nonetheless he admitted expressing fears over some certain negative development in the country. Analysts previewed his statement and warned that when a general says he is afraid, then the authorities should listen and address the issues of worry especially, such things like unemployment, corruption, mindless looting of the treasury, then political parties that are anything but democratic.??
He was not alone, President of the Senate, David Mark, former Vice President, Alex Ekwueme, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega and so many other key players in the political circle also bemoaned lack of discipline and internal democracy in political parties.??
Obasanjo in particular lampooned political parties for lack of any ideological bent and service and consequently warned that no institution will endure for too long without discipline.??
But Mark succinctly recounted that intra party squabble combined with inter-party conflicts lead to the 1966 and 1983 coups, which scuttled the democratic experiment in Nigeria. “In the most extreme of cases, as we had in the First and Second Republics, intra party squabbles combined with inter-party conflicts to scuttle the democratic experiment. Two vivid examples are the events leading to both the January 15, 1966 coup, and that of December, 1983”.
Jega pointedly accused political parties of even working against smooth democratic advancement, particularly the electoral process. He disclosed that all the political parties have failed to exhibit core democratic tendencies and have in the process put the INEC in very difficult position with regards to candidates that emerge from party primaries.?
They all spoke at the opening of the two-day round table conference on Political Parties in Nigeria, Lobbying, the lobbyist and the Legislature’, organized by the National Institute for Legislative Studies at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja last week Monday.??
The former President who chaired the first session of the event said there are areas where the political parties need improvement among which includes manifesto, discipline and service. According to him, the political parties only draft manifestoes for the sole purpose of campaigning and dumps same after the campaigns.??
“What I have come to realize is that manifestoes are drafted for campaigns and after that it is thrown away. So we must hold political parties accountable based on what they espoused on their manifestoes”, he said.??
Obasanjo also decried lack of discipline in the political parties saying what happens in the parties are in sharp contrast to what obtains in the military institutions, this was as he hit the parties for not showing willingness to provide service; “we really need service in party politics”, he said.????
However, the President of the Senate, speaking on political parties said all political parties can hardly able stand on their feet adding that they are often riven by internal convulsions, lack of cohesion, indiscipline and a glaring absence of internal democracy.??
“We know that in reality most of our political parties are fledgling and hardly able to stand on their feet. Many exist mainly on paper, and were floated to attract the financial subventions which the 1999 Constitution hitherto guaranteed them, before it was amended. Even the big ones, which control various executive and legislative arms of government, are often riven by internal convulsions, lack of cohesion, indiscipline and a glaring absence of internal democracy. These problems have been the bane of party politics in Nigeria, and have been with us since the Clifford’s Constitution introduced the elective principle in 1922 and Sir Herbert Macaulay formed his Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), in 1923”, he said.??
Intra party squabbles he stated arise mainly because political party affiliation in Nigeria is rarely anchored on ideology or any uniting and defined philosophy, but rather largely on crass opportunism.? “This undermines the capacity of the political party to govern effectively, even after gaining political power. The internal contradictions sired by the coming together of strange bedfellows breed convulsions, strife and upheavals which hamper the machinery of governance. In the most extreme of cases, as we had in the First and Second Republics, intra party squabbles combined with inter-party conflicts to scuttle the democratic experiment. Two vivid examples are the events leading to both the January 15, 1966 coup, and that of December, 1983.??
“Modern representative democracy requires viable, ideology based political parties capable of providing clear policy options as evidence of a demonstrable capacity to govern. Political parties ought not to be corrupt self-centered organizations dominated by power hungry elites who serve only their own interests, and those of their cronies. Political parties must serve the interest of the ordinary citizen”, he added.??
“A political party must clearly stand for something. In our fragile democracy in which destabilizing demons have suddenly found their voices and have been let loose in the new air of freedom, each political party has a duty to preach restraint, caution and political moderation. The political class as a whole also has the solemn duty of ensuring that Nigerians develop sustainable confidence in our electoral and justice systems. That is the only way that robust democratic institutions can be nurtured.??
Speaking on lobbying, Mark said it is a legitimate and necessary complement of democratic process. “Let me state one point clearly – Lobbying is a legitimate and necessary complement of the democratic process. It is natural for individuals and organizations to want to influence decisions that affect them, or their environment.? Legislation is enriched in many ways by the knowledge, views and expertise that lobbying brings. The problem however is that the line between ethical and unethical lobbying is a very thin one. In this connection, both the lobbyist and the legislator who is being lobbied, bear a very heavy moral burden”.
To the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, the management of the nation’s political parties gives much cause for concern. The political parties are key players and critical institutions of democracy. Their philosophies and manifestoes are the fulcrums around which politicking and governance should ordinarily revolve. Besides, since parties are the vehicles by which elected leaders, including the legislators get to office, they can be rightly be described as the spring source. Thus, unless the spring source is impartial, discipline, ardent in observing its own rules and the rule of law in general, buoyant with ideas, populated with visionary leadership, and in fact free of impurities, then the water channels can hardly themselves be free of pollutants. Governance will atrophy, and could in fact ultimately suffer fatal setback if the processes of political recruitment and galvanization become diseased. If the management of political parties degenerates to rowdy engagement, certainly, the falcon will no longer hear the falconer”, he said.??
For Prof. Jega, the party leadership or what he called “owners” of the parties obstruct the nurturing of democracy within the political parties. Delivering a paper “Party Politics and Elections in Nigeria”, Jega declared “While the leadership (‘owners’) of these parties strove to get their parties to complete in democratic elections, they denied or obstructed the nurturing of democracy within the parties. In many parties, financial and procedural accountability is deficient. Many hardly obey their own constitutions and look for shortcuts in complying with electoral laws. Many are factionalized and conflict-ridden”.??
According to him; “throughout our post-independence history, our political parties have muddled through politics and elections. They have essentially undermined rather than added-value to the reformation of our electoral politics. Since the 2011 elections, we have relative improvements in a few areas but, still, many needs to be desired. As we move towards the 2015 general elections and beyond, our political parties need new thinking, new orientation and new organizing principles of engagement in democratic politics and elections”, he said.
Jegas advice is apt and that is also to say that it is a clarion call for the political parties to brace up ahead of 2015 aside the usual wishful boast that is laced with subterfuge and selfish intrigues.
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