The End Of Party Politics In Nigeria

Writing about the things that would destroy any nation, Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948, listed them as follows:

Politics without principles

Pleasure without conscience

Wealth without work

Knowledge without character

Business without morality

Science without humanity

Worship without sacrifice

 Bad politics, selfish, unimaginative and unpatriotic politicians will eventually ruin a nation – even if it was fortuitously prosperous at one time in its history.

This article is being written as voters in Ondo State are going to vote in the Governor’s election. I am totally indifferent to the outcome. The three leading political parties – All Progressives Congress, APC, Labour Party, LP, and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP are factions of the same political monstrosity which is now nameless and ruling Nigeria. As far as I am concerned, it does not matter who emerges as the winner. Governance will not improve much. They are not political parties in any honest sense of the word. Why?

DEFINITION OF POLITICAL PARTY

“A political party deserves the approbation of [Nigeria] only as it represents the ideals, the aspirations and the hopes of [Nigerians]. If it is anything else, it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.”

US President Dwight Eisenhower, 1890-1969.

 Take a honest look at the political parties contending “to seize power” in Ondo State or any other place; and point to one which represents the ideals, aspirations and the hopes of Nigerians today. Fortunately all of them have Governors. We might as well add, APGA and NNDP, which also govern states. I am not asking you to point to the political leader you prefer. But, Tinubu, Obi, Atiku, etc, don’t constitute the political parties. They represent factions within the conspiracies vying for power. The APC, LP, PDP, SDP, ZLP etc have one thing in common. None of them has a political ideology distinguishable from rest. For all of them “politics without principles” is the norm. That is why it is easy for a man to spend years attacking a political party; and then get appointed as spokesman for it – without having to apologise for all the garbage uttered.

 By contrast, no member of the Labour Party decamped to the British Conservative Party until the party regained power. It is certain that no Tory party member will cross over to Labour – irrespective of how long Labour is in power. Which of the present Nigerian leaders, in and out of government, can we point to who is so principled?  I was apprehensive when the APC was going about campaigning of the CHANGE slogan; and wrote a two-part article titled: Is APC the Answer?

As we approach the end of nine and a half years of APC, permit me to remind all of us of the warnings that were ignored – while admitting that the PDP it wanted to replace was already a disaster.

IS APC THE ANSWER? — 1

“Alliances are held together by fear not by love”, Harold Macmillan, British Prime Minister. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 9).

Until the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, registered the alliance of political associations which had come together under the banner of All Progressives Congress, APC, to me, there was nothing to discuss about the matter. APC is now a reality, so there are loads of issues to consider. The first, and most important, has already been addressed by Harold Macmillan. The former British Prime Minister, on February 3, 1960, in a speech to the South African Parliament, had pronounced as follows:

 “The most striking of all impressions I have formed since I left London a month ago is of the strength of African national consciousness….The wind of change is blowing through the continent [underlining mine]. Whether we like it or not, the growth of national consciousness is a political fact”. His views of political coalitions, or alliances, were just as unique and sensible as his views about politicians in general. He was also once reported to have said that: “If people want a sense of purpose they should get it from their archbishop [or Chief Imam]. They should certainly not get it from their politicians”. I cannot agree more. The last person to trust absolutely is a politician; a bunch of them…make up the devil’s workshop – irrespective of political party or alliance; mainly because groups are generally more immoral than individuals.

 Even the devil knows that after fourteen years in government, at the Federal level, and in most states, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, has failed. There is hardly any problem we had as a nation, in 1999, that has not got worse or remained unsolved. The singular exception has been communications and the GSM revolution. Education, infrastructure, power supply, corruption and official greed remain with us; same with high unemployment and the decline of industries. Today, unlike any time in the past, we live under a Mrs President who intrudes into operations of government, at home and abroad, at will, bringing with each intrusion discord and sometimes ridicule. We know the problems; even if some ethnic jingoists would want the rest of us to join them in pretending that all is well. But, from now until 2015 and, perhaps beyond, the most urgent question is: Is APC, as presently constituted, the answer? My answer for now is: perhaps not. We may need another political party.

 That answer will probably shock a lot of people who had assumed that as a long-term critic of the PDP, I would naturally embrace any political association, especially one that has arrogated to itself the word “PROGRESSIVE”. The reason my enthusiasm for APC is less than expected lies in the fact that my readings in semantics had taught me to disregard the words people use to describe themselves and to focus on what they have done, or causes they have been known to support and their utterances on important matters. Lastly, I am more interested in character, or its synonym, integrity. Looking closely at the leaders of the APC, it is doubtful if all of them will pass the test of integrity. Few, if deeply probed, will fail to change their designer suits for prison attire. But, my biggest worry lies in the fact that APC, even so early in the day, is like a structure resting on two major pillars; each deeply flawed…. Character flaws in some of the leaders are so deep as to frighten me at the prospect that power might shift to them. Few of them believe in and practice democracy within their own organizations or in the areas they control and…there has been little really “progressive” about the governance in their domains. The question that bothers my mind can be summarized this way: will I be happy if Nigeria is delivered to a political party led by con-men? The answer is: I doubt it….”

That was before the Presidential candidate emerged in 2014. Shortly after that, the following was published.

IS APC STILL THE ANSWER? –

“To know that which before us lies in daily life/Is the prime wisdom/What is more is fume” John Milton. VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ.

 When the various groups forming the alliance which became the All Progressives Congress, APC, finally agreed to work together to get rid of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, I talked to some of the leading promoters of the scheme (or scam?). My fears centred around the likely Presidential candidate and his antecedents regarding respect for human rights, nepotism, religious tolerance and economic illiteracy. The answers I received gave me the impression that there was a solid working agreement which would take care of all those concerns.

 Today, as we start the year 2020, I am afraid that the APC government has, so far, exceeded my worst fears and dashed my best hopes. Southerners, including those who got us into this “One Chance” contraption called APC government can easily see that what has emerged as democracy in Nigeria is “government of the Northern Muslims, by Northern Muslims and for Northern Muslims.” For the first time in Nigeria, the President, the Senate President, the Chief Justice, the Chief of Staff, the Minister of Defence, the Army Chief, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Petroleum, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, the Minister of Finance, the Director General of the DSS, the Chairman of EFCC, the Inspector General of Police, the Director General of NIA, etc, etc, are all Northern Muslims. For good measure, an unbelievable percentage of them are Abubakars or Mohammeds in a country where over 100,000 names exist.”

 All the articles written from 2015 to 2023 pointing to the mismanagement, deliberate and inadvertent, of the Buhari government were ignored by leaders everywhere – especially the North. Today, there is unanimity in the region that the North has destroyed itself. That, as one of my sages would say “amounts to wisdom on the eighth day of the week”. Now professors, Emirs, former Governors and Minister are perplexed regarding how to rebuild a badly damaged North. It will be tough. Most of them were in PDP; they have drifted to APC. But, the North is infinitely worse than it was in 1966. Hope is gone. As far as the people are concerned, there is no difference between the two.

To be continued……

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