10 Apr 2009 |
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Mega parties and the PDP By Reuben Abati THOROUGHLY exasperated by the insufferable arrogance of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), a select group of opposition politicians and civil society leaders are working on a project to create a mega party: an alliance of opposition parties which can wrestle power from the PDP in 2011, and put an end to its menace. The ambition of the coalition is in sync with the aspiration of many Nigerians. Ten years after seizing majority status in Nigeria's political space, the PDP has been unable to make much difference in the people's lives. In a few isolated states across the country, there may have been intimations of progress, depending on the personality of the Governor in office at a particular time, but generally, the pervasive impression is that the PDP is a non-performing political party whose members and representatives have failed to give full effect to the country's return to civilian democracy. The more alarming part of it is that the people are seemingly helpless. Every hope that the party can be removed from power through the ballot box has been thwarted at various turns, by a compromised electoral machinery and a PDP-elite that boasts arrogantly about its capacity to "fix anything". The only thing they have not been able to fix is Nigeria's problems. In those instances where the PDP lost elections, the party did in part due to overwhelming public objection, or some say, due to the contrivance of a picture of credibility and PDP-benevolence interpreted in the following thought: "it is good to let the opposition take a few states or seats". Much of the problem with contemporary Nigeria is thus PDP-created, PDP-facilitated and PDP-imposed, all of which is a reflection of the primitive nature of Nigerian politics, the failure of the political party system and the discounting of the Nigerian electorate. The feeling that Nigeria is at the mercy of one political party takes away from the country's democracy. A grand defeat of the PDP at the centre and at other levels is perhaps the only thing that can restore voter confidence, and the belief that change is achievable in real terms. Existing doubts have been promoted by such declarations by the PDP Chairman, Vincent Ogbulafor that the PDP will rule Nigeria for the next 60 years. And the opportunistic manner in which leaders of other political parties including Governors have been defecting to the PDP, after having won elections on the platform of other political parties. Add to this the fact that the other 50-something political parties on the INEC list are poorly organized entities without significant spread. For this and other reasons, there is a real justification for the kind of movement that is being proposed. A re-grouping of progressive forces is probably what is required in order to save Nigeria's democracy and give it a new direction. But where are the progressives? Can they be found in the National Political Summit Group (NPSG) - the body that met in Lagos on Wednesday, April 8, with the sole objective of ending PDP's continued majority status in the 2011 elections? Vincent Ogbulafor, the garrulous Chairman of the party that advertises itself "as the biggest political party in Africa" is unfazed. His sharp reaction to the idea of a mega party in Nigerian politics is as follows: "Surely they shall gather, but surely they shall scatter. We know of the meeting of the proponents of the so-called Mega-party. My reaction to it is that surely, they shall gather, but surely they must scatter because they are strange bedmates... let me tell you that history will always prove us right. They shall gather and scatter with the same speed of their gathering. The reason for their gathering and scattering is simple. They have no political relevance anymore and their individual greed will make them scatter." It is easy to dismiss Ogbulafor's statement casually as mere political rhetoric but he may well be saying the truth, even if it does not lie in his mouth to talk about individual greed or political relevance. His statement is indirectly a comment on Nigeria's political culture. As a beneficiary of the politics of strange bedmates and as a manager of the politics of gathering and scattering, Ogbulafor should know. This is not the first time that attempts will be made in Nigerian politics by "progressives" in different political parties, or groups to join forces together to achieve a common agenda. Such alliances - in the First Republic, the Second Republic and even in more recent times, almost always floundered due to personality differences, intrigues and the inability to form a consensus around an ideology that is inspired by a Nigerian agenda and the common good. The mega-party proponents want the PDP out of power, but what are they offering in its place? They want to form a new mega-party. What is their ideology? Nobody knows. What is known is as Ogbulafor puts it, the obvious fact that they are "strange bed-mates". The proposed movement is chaired by Chief Anthony Enahoro, but there are reports that other stakeholders include Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC), and Presidential candidate in the aborted 1993 elections, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Dr Frederick Fasheun, Chief Olu Falae, Dubem Onyia, Alhaji Asari Dokubo, Chief Dapo Sarumi, Alhaji Yerima Shettima... The group is reportedly talking to Prof. Pat Utomi, and members of the Progressive Peoples Alliance who are said to be pulling out of the Government of National Unity with the PDP. The names of Alhaji Abubakar Atiku and General Muhammadu Buhari have also been mentioned in connection with the proposed mega party. What can a Chief Anthony Enahoro possibly discuss with Alh. Bashir Tofa, who is said to be leading a faction of the divided ANPP into the grand alliance? If Professor Pat Utomi agrees to join the coalition, what ideas can he possibly share with Bashir Tofa as a co-partner in the movement to change Nigeria? And to ask a more pointed question: who is the godfather behind this proposed mega-party which seems to be bringing together cats, doves, hawks and rats? It is a fact that Nigerian politicians are opportunistic. Political arrangements are rarely for altruism but self-interest. Technically, the proposal in the White Paper on Electoral Reform that only parties with 5 per cent of the votes would be entitled to campaign funding from the state should take care of the mischief represented by the existence of so many unviable political parties which seem to be structures set up solely for the purpose of rent-collection. This will probably result in the structured creation of two or three major political parties. But the emergence of two or three major political parties is not even where the problem lies. It is the cynical use of political parties as vehicles of rank opportunism. In the last month alone, two state Governors have defected to the PDP, the ANPP Governor of Zamfara state Mahmuda Shinkafi and the ANPP Governor of Bauchi state, Isa Yuguda. The latter, long before the defection, had even taken one of the President's daughters as his third, (or fourth?) wife. Yuguda was originally in the PDP, then for the purpose of the 2007 election, he defected to the ANPP, now having been elected as ANPP Governor he is two years later, returning to the PDP with the enhanced status of being the President's son-in-law. If the weather changes tomorrow, he could move on to the Action Congress and back to the ANPP. This is the nature of Nigerian politics. What is required beyond the righteous objection to the PDP and its totalitarian tactics is a reinvention of the political party system in Nigeria. The soul of politics, even of society is tied to the character of the political party system. In Britain, Germany, the United States and elsewhere, politicians and even the voters do not jump from one political party to the other as is done around here; membership of a party is about a vision of society, individual and collective, it is about preferences and choices. In Nigerian politics, the stomach sadly, rules. Unfortunately, it wasn't always so. In both the First and Second Republics, we had in this same Nigeria, political parties with strong, definite brand identities. It was not so difficult to tell the difference between the Northern Peoples Congress and the Action Group, or between the NCNC and the Northern Elements Progressive Union, Aminu Kano's People's Redemption Party, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) or Ibrahim Waziri's Great Nigeria Peoples Party. In 2009, we are saddled with over 50 political parties of uncertain colour and identity. But it is possible to build a new political party of progressives. Except that the National Political Summit Group or any such other group must not become a platform for excluded politicians seeking a stronger platform for relevance. Commitment, focus and vision are the values that build political parties. It is the same values that can sustain a movement for change and progress in Nigeria. The PDP runs a well-oiled machinery for "scattering" any alternative or progressive initiative. For more than 10 years, PDP politicians have "scattered" Nigerians. Would they not also attempt to scatter the opposition? And to scatter Nigerian politicians is ever so easy. General Obasanjo did it to the Alliance for Democracy (AD), and later to the APP, and the ANPP. When Ogbulafor the PDP chief laughs at the idea of an anti-PDP, mega-party, he should be taken seriously even more by members of the NPSG. He could well have been saying in popular parlance: "I know these people, they won't last". Desirable as a strong alternative to the PDP may be, the promoters of the idea must seek early in the day to gain the support and confidence, not of politicians but of the Nigerian people who must be more interested in seeing the PDP taught a lesson in humility. But people-ownership can only be secured through a strong definition of vision and ideology beyond a crass bid for power. The Nigerian people have been disappointed so often by politicians, they have seen so many gatherings of strange political bedmates which later "scattered" (PDP, NPN, etc), that they have since resolved that all politicians are the same. Even now, apart from the Enahoro-led mega party, there is said to be another mega-party being proposed by other factions of the Action Congress and the ANPP, involving former Lagos Governor, Bola Tinubu. What we may well remember later is the fight of the mega parties. This however does not negate the urgency of the change that the people desire. Not change in terms of the replacement of one set of predators with another, or a recycling of the old brigade, but a different political culture, a new momentum, and a value system where the votes count, the electorate matter, and Nigeria is considered more important than private and narrow ambitions. That is the change we want.
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