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Political parties in Nigeria (2) By
What is passing as a political party in Nigeria since 2003 is in the language of President Obasanjo “anything goes” Would this not be a concern of Nigerians who want a democracy based on viable party system? What passes for a political party ought to be acknowledged as recipe for political disaster.
In 1999 only two political associations actually met the conditions set out before the commencement of the Abubakar transition program. These would have been the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Peoples Party (APP). Why the Alliance for Democracy (AD) was registered in 1998 and had been explained by the former Chief of General Staff, Admiral Mike Akhigbe. According to him the military junta did so in order to placate the Yoruba who were in search of a platform to participate after what happened in June 1993. There was nothing new in taking political decisions in order to placate certain interests during the transition period. After all one saw how the Supreme Military Council (SMC) used the “national security” argument to allow certain political figures to contest the 1979 Presidential election even though they did not meet the qualifications. The SNC was right in 1979 just as the Abubakar regime was right in 1999.
What should be noted was that the other political associations that did not meet the criterion set out for the registration of political associations in 1979 and in 1993 did not go to Court. But in 2003, those who were not recognised by the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) went to court to challenge the right of the INEC to even participate in the registration of political associations. INEC that originally registered three political associations in addition to the existing three to make six then. This was how INEC opened the flood gate and the flood rushed in. This was how Nigerians went to the 2003 series of election with 30 political parties. INEC was being made to provide for the thirty political parties on the ballot papers even though many of them were technically one-man organisations with no offices and no followers any where in the country. This was what prompted me to offer a suggestion to help the Nigerian people in February 2003 in The Guardian as they faced the daunting task of picking a President out of the thirty candidates to be fielded by the thirty political parties.
One would recall that based on the principle of “geographical spread” in the constitution it was my honest view and I was proved right later that the only two viable candidates were Chief Olusegun Obasanjo of the PDP and General Muhammadu Buhari of the ANPP. What I took as an honest, patriotic and innocuous advice to the Nigerian voters turned out to be a source of attack on my person by some Nigerians who thought that I should not have dismissed Dim Ojukwu as a spoiler. Was I not proved right? My view was that he should allow the people of the Southeast to decide which of the two candidates to support. But then the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) ought to have known that he had no followers among the primary group of his campaign. My appeal to the Nigerian people was that they should not be misled by charlatans parading themselves as presidential candidates when actually they were not known even in their hamlets.
Since the conclusion of the series of elections some of these charlatans have been parading themselves under the banner of the Council of Nigerian Political Parties to call into question the credibility of the process in which they were not part of number of parties, a lingering poliical issue since 1999. As Nigerians prepare for the 2007 election the issue of political party still remains one of the unresolved political issues of our time hence it fits into the category of the lingering political issues that is the subject of this column.
Nigerians love two-party system but leaders hate it Those who care to go to my past would quickly call me a two-party believer. Yes I have no apology for the advice I gave to the former President to push Nigerians through a decree in 1989 to follow what they had been doing since 1964 under the auspices of NNA-UPGA or NPN-PPA in the First and Second Republic respectively. The system worked in 1993 and delivered governments at the three levels culminating in the June 12 1993 Presidential election. If the annulment had not taken place Nigerians would have reconciled themselves with the idea of a sprawling two party system since then. There would have been at lest three elections with that system since then.
Nigerians were forced to agree to the thirty-party system by default. Out of desperation by INEC in early 2003 only agreed to it as if time would solve it. INEC thought that a time would come when Nigerians would sit down and actually face the matter. We do not need thirty political parties in Nigeria. I know Wadas Nas would argue to the contrary that Nigeria with over 120 million should have more than thirty political parties. Wadas Nas and co should be reminded that parties are not amenities that government gives to every community or persons. Unfortunately, that is the way he and some people see political parties because the mere recognition in February 2003 gave each of the political party five million naira before the series of elections. Is that right? Is that how we should be spending the oil money?
Nigerians should know that these eminent Nigerians who said that they floated political parties were each given five million naira to pocket in accordance with the Electoral Act. It should have been obvious to these eminent Nigerians that the provision of the section in the Electoral Act was based on credible political parties and not on the assumption of one-man organisations called thirty political parties?
Suggestions for a viable party system. One understands the argument of Chief Anthony Enahoro that Nigeria under the thirty-party system should return to a Parliamentary System even though the argument is not empirically valid. Assuming that we have thirty political parties, they should restrict themselves to an area where they can be useful. This is the case that I want to make under this column. One, a viable Presidential System can best to function under a two-party system. Hence only parties with proven national following should be registered for that purpose. Two INEC should be made to use the series of election beginning with the local government level as the avenue to limit parties to a level where they can fit.
Three, the parties should voluntarily limit themselves to a level where they can make an impact. Wada Nas should limit himself to a local community and not even to the whole of Katsina State? Four, some floating national leaders such as Chief Tony Enahoro and Balarabe Musa should not be making provocative statement under their parties, as if these parties have a national platform. Maybe one should advise them to limit themselves to Edo and Kaduna respectively? Five, there should be an amendment to the Electoral Act denying the leaders of these mushroom political parties money for party building. It should have been obvious by now that that money since April 2003 was never spent on party building. Instead the money was spent on travels to meeting to participate in the activities of the Council of Nigerian Political parties and on press conferences. Only candidates should be provided some fund by INEC.
Today outside the two national political parties, PDP and ANPP, these so-called political parties do not exist. They do not have members in the various States and on the two elective bodies at the state and the national levels. They are merely overheating the polity.
Dec 2003
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