WHITHER THE NON PDP PARTIES

WHITHER THE NON PDP PARTIES

WHITHER THE NON-PDP PARTIES!

Today one could say that Nigeria has two political tendencies; one is linked with the PDP and the other with the non-PDP parties that is calling itself the CNPP. All of them constitute the political class. If the PDP as the officeholders is failing the Nigerian people one expects the non-PDP parties singly or together to serve as the opposition parties and as the alternative parties to the PDP. The non-PDP parties should work to replace it and deliver good to the Nigeria people. Are the non-PDP parties doing their best? Are they alternative political parties to the PDP now or in the future? These are the critical questions when one is talking of the relevance of the non-PDP parties today. They are irrelevant. They either through act of commission or omission allowed the PDP to be the only political party since 2003. Consequently it is failing its task of being an alternative to the Nigerian people.

One notices that the leaders of some of the non-PDP parties are operating in the private homes of their founders from where they issue communiqués as if they are from the secretariat of the parties. Those who founded them in 2003 have since 2003 abandoned the public political space meant for political parties. Some now use the parties as an opportunity to make speeches and issue statement from time to time as if they are credible parties.

Most of the founders of these parties are now functioning under the auspices of a body called the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP). The CNPP is not known to be a political party that is in accordance with the Constitution or with the Electoral Act under which the political parties were given recognition and funded in 2003.

To answer whither the non-PDP parties, they are dead or dying; they do not believe in the place of political parties in a democracy. If there is a need for the flushing out of anyone today, it should be applicable to the political class as a group and that would include those in power at Abuja and those who are planning the demonstration under false pretence. It should be obvious to the Nigerian people that those planning the demonstration are part of the political class that ruined the country since 1999. The demonstration should not just be against the government at Abuja in particular or against the officeholders in general but against the political class to which the non-PDP parties are members. All of them are involved in politics in Nigeria and not just the officeholders. Maybe Nigerians do not know that from the past of the planners of the demonstration their motive is to advance an extreme form of negativism, an attribute of nihilism, hence one could call them political nihilists. The leaders of the CNPP are not known from their past to have any positive vision for Nigeria. They have never gone to the Nigerian people with a mission in democratic politics.

To further respond to the question, whither the non-PDP parties, it is sad that Nigerians can no longer recall the names of all the non-PDP parties that were supposed to have been given certificate and funded by INEC in 2003. The planners of the demonstration as leaders of these parties are no longer even appealing anymore to the Nigerian people using their names and the parties they were supposed to have founded and supposed to be leading from 2003.

The planners of the demonstration are by implication telling the Nigerian people that they are no longer interested in democratic politics; they are telling the Nigerian people that they no longer constitute alternative organizations to the PDP at all levels.

No one has ever asked the question whither the non-PDP. One is shocked that the names of these non-PDP parties are no longer found in the media. No one can remember the names of those who founded these parties in 2003; no one can recall what they stood for in 2003.

It should be obvious to the Nigerian people by now that those who founded these non-PDP parties and told them that they had a mission in democratic politics duped them. They did not tell the Nigerian people that they had abandoned democratic politics for negative mass demonstration. They did not tell the people that they were founding these parties for making money that would by law be paid to them by INEC before the series of elections in 2003.

Did the Nigerian people know that they had since 2003 made away with the loot collected from the INEC? Did the people know that instead of spending the money for party-building, the leaders of these parties are going round the country making provocative speeches under the auspices of the Conference of Nigerian political parties (CNPP)?

CNPP IS ANOTHER ‘POLITICAL 419’

The leaders of some of the non-PDP parties who now hide under the umbrella name, Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) should be told that they are ‘political 419’. Why are the Nigerian people easily taken for a ride? One is shocked that an organization that has no constitutional or legal basis can invite distinguished Nigerian leaders of such reputable organizations as the various social-political organizations (Arewa Consultative Forum, Ohaneze and Afenifere, the Nigerian labor Congress) to join them to confront the government.

Nigerians started reading of an organization formed by some politicians during the 2003 election calling themselves leaders of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP). At that time it was supposed to be an ad hoc get together of the fringe parties that could not even win sizable votes in the elections to protest some of the irregularities during the election, which was perfectly legitimate. At some stage, the leaders gave support to General Buhari in his case against President Obasanjo. This was perfectly in order if it was for the purpose of have a joint fight against election rigging.

The CNPP was not and is still not an organization, as we know of an organization. As a democratic institution, it has no basis in the Constitution or in the Electoral Act.

Whither the non-PDP political parties, which were registered and funded since 2003? Could the CNPP be calling a meeting or inviting people to a meeting or holding a rally to advance the political agenda of some individuals? Why should the police not deny the leaders of this body on the ground that the Constitution or the Electoral Act does not recognize the CNPP as an institution that should canvass for vote or oppose an elected person?

Unfortunately it is occurring too late to such a distinguished pro-democracy and human rights lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehunmu that his party (NCP) would no longer participate in the activities of the CNPP because the organizers had some hidden agenda. The CNPP reason is that the demonstration should apply to the political parties in general that rigged election in 2003. That would include the AD one of the sponsors of the demonstration. Chief Enahoro’s party NRP would only participate in the demonstration if its irreducible minimums are added to the platform of the mass demonstration such as the calling of a Sovereign national Conference and the return of Nigeria to a Westminster Model of government.

The activities of the CNPP were reported on the pages of the Nigerian newspapers with two actors, Alhaji Balarabe Musa and Mr. Max Okwu as Chairman and Secretary respectively. No one is asking them what happened to the parties they floated and funded by INEC in 2003.

WHITHER THE 2003 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES!

For obvious reasons, only General Muhammadu Buhari and Dim Emeka Ojukwu are still calling themselves the Presidential candidates of the ANPP and APGA respectively. This is understandable because they still have cases against President Obasanjo in court even though they give support to the CNPP. Where are such distinguished Nigerians (General Ike Nwachukwu, Jim Nwobodo and Arthur Nwankwo) who were presidential candidates of some of these parties? Some who ran as presidential candidates under the non-PDP parties had since 2003 disappeared from the political scene and are hardly seen with any political party or in the CNPP. Some of them are back to the PDP; some who are not formally back are lobbying for jobs from the PDP administration at the federal and state levels.

Those who ran as gubernatorial candidates under the non-PDP parties in 2003 are no longer visible in their respective states. In fact some of these candidates had disappeared to their various organizations from where they sought nomination to contest election in 2003.

The non-PDP parties could not even put up candidates during the last local government elections only for them to turn up under the auspices of the CNPP crying foul after the election.

Recently INEC complained that many of the non-PDP parties do not have offices anywhere in the country and have no mailing address. INEC even said that they couldn’t account for the money they collected from INEC for party building. This is a moral issue where these politicians are calling others names when they are unable to account for the money they collected from INEC.

One would have thought that after the 2003 election the alternative dominant political party (ANPP) that won some sizable votes and constituted some states’ government would enter into a meaningful discussion with some of these parties with the hope of coming up with a formidable political party that would serve as the alternative to the PDP nationally. One would have thought that some of these non-PDP parties would by now be seeking to join any of the two political formations at the national level as this would be the basis of winning the Presidential election come 2007.

One would have thought that some of these non-PDP parties would concentrate their efforts in some states and local government areas while working with the two major parties at the national level. There is no reason why these small parties would want to be ‘presidential parties’. This is why they think that they have a role at Abuja.

My view is well known; these parties should have been functioning as part of two sprawling national organizations, PDP and ANPP or any other two names for that matter as ‘Presidential Parties’. Nigeria would have been seeing a virile two-party system in force at Abuja and that would have put an end to any feeling that without the PDP, it would be chaos or the military.

CNPP IS WORKING FOR THE MILITARY OPTION

A careful reading of the utterances of the leaders of the CNPP, especially its Chairman, Alhaji Balarabe Musa made me come to one conclusion that those in the CNPP are working for the military option. A clear indication of this can be seen in the interview granted to the media by Alhaji Balarabe Musa when he was asked if he did not know that the military could use the mass rally as an excuse for intervention and he answered: ‘well, it is too bad’! (See This Day on Saturday online of April 17, 2004).

The implications of his response in my view are (a) that he does not care if the military uses his mass action against the government as an excuse to intervene in politics or (b) that that military intervention in politics is what his real intention is when he commenced the plan to have a mass action.

On what would happen if the CNPP did not organize the demonstration Alhaji Balarabe Musa gave four scenarios. If the current state affairs remains unchanged there could be in the thought of Balarabe Musa one or a combination of the following:

1. A military take over;

2. A spontaneous civil war arising from deteriorating conditions;

3. A spontaneous uprising after a prolonged suffering; and

4. The re-colonization of Nigeria from the US because of oil that could involve the overthrowing President Obasanjo and the installation of someone favorable to the US.

Would the mass demonstration by the CNPP lead to the avoidance of these? One does not see the relationship between the four scenarios and the demonstration. It is sad that he could not articulate a vision for Nigeria which he never had from his past and could not articulate his mission in democratic politics.

The leaders of the non-PDP parties especially those in the CNPP do not like President Obasanjo as a person for various reasons and not for what he is doing as a President. Some also have problems with some leaders of the PDP in their areas. The only answer to their individual grievances is that everything should be done to force President Obasanjo and the PDP out of office even if that includes the use of the military. They know that they do not have support in the country for what they are doing or planning to do.

They feel left out of the political process founded on the ‘winner carries all’ since 1999. They therefore want a collapse of the current democratic order because they are out of it and not because they have something positively different to offer. They would wish that there would be a commencement of a democratic transition all over again that would not leave them behind or out of the picture. This is the way one sees the attitude of some of the leaders of the organizations that gave Alhaji Balarabe Musa some hearing. Do they know the antecedents of Alhaji Balarabe Musa? It does not appear they know him.

ALHAJI BALARABE MUSA AS THE LEADER OF THE CNPP

Do the organizers of the mass demonstration with Alhaji Balarabe Musa know the man, Balarabe Musa from his past? Alhaji Balarabe Musa does not believe in functioning in an organized government. This was the impression I formed after meeting with him and other Governors and party leaders of the Progressive Parties Alliance (PPA) during the 2nd Republic. His contributions at these meetings were on how to undermine the democratically elected government by precipitating actions that would bring in the army. Unfortunately, he has not changed with the advantage of years.

I observed his activities within the progressive movement that if he was not the leader, then the movement should be abandoned. His utterances in some of the meetings of the PPA demonstrated that consensus was not in his dictionary. I left with one impression that advocacy of accommodation was alien to him. This was in 1980s; after over twenty-five years, the man still remains the same except that he no longer has around him those ABU ‘socialists’ led by Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman, who was with him as the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) in Kaduna State when he was the Governor.

The Nigerian media usually describe him as the former civilian governor of Kaduna State. They never add that he was the governor that could not even manage a ‘divided government’ in the state. Nowhere is it ever stated that he was the first elected governor to be impeached in Nigerian history.

For the purpose of those who might be wondering as to what I mean by ‘a divided government’, it is a product of an election where the two elective arms of government are under the control of different political parties. One would recall how Alhaji Balarabe Musa a PRP candidate won the gubernatorial election with the support of the NPP, UPN and GNPP whose candidates had to step down for him on the advice of the leaders of their parties. This four party-arrangement did not work at the State Assembly election hence the NPN was able to secure a majority seats and control of the legislature. The outcome of the two elections was that the two elective arms of government were under the control of two political parties.

The voters, who did not give total control of the two arms to one party but to different parties, were actually sending a message to the political class. They wanted the political leaders to share power and did not want one party to be in charge of the two arms. The voters wanted the political leaders of all the parties to negotiate, accommodate and share power. This is not so for a political nihilist in Kaduna who thought that a Governor was the Chief Executive who should be allowed to have everything.

He could not form a government because he did not believe in power sharing. Consequently, the State Assembly controlled by the NPN rejected all his nominees for Commissioners.

He could not get a budget through the Assembly and his capacity to perform was affected. This was a clear case an executive paralysis and the governor just did not care.

All attempts by the leader of his party (Mallam Aminu Kano) and other interested persons including me through the 4-party alliance to broker power sharing and accommodation and peace in Kaduna were frustrated by the Governor, Alhaji Balarabe Musa who seemed to be enjoying the confusion. He threatened and in fact assured the PPA leaders that the masses would rise up and demand for his reinstatement if the impeachment mooted by the NPN State Assembly were ever carried out. The Constitution was upheld and he was removed and nothing happened. His Deputy was sworn in who then formed a government that took into account the nature of the divided government in the State. This was what Alhaji Balarabe Musa could not do. President Shagari’s memoir (Beckoned To Serve) touched on this issue and I would want readers to read it.

One should note that a system of divided government was to occur at the Federal level after the 1979 election with the NPN in control of the Presidency and the four parties having a majority in the National Assembly. To get around the initial difficulties that would be faced, the NPN entered into a negotiation with the NPP and formed an Accord that led to power sharing between the NPN and the NPP. This is political sagacity that Alhaji Shehu Shagari displayed in 1979 that Alhaji Balarabe Musa did not have. While Alhaji Shagari survived, Alhaji Balabarabe Musa did not survive. The difference is clear between one who plays a democratic politics and one who plays politics of nihilism.

A divided government calls for a unique style of management that Alhaji Musa did not have. He had opportunity to join a political party in the past since 1999. But he refused unless one that he would lead even though he would not be able to run an election in his ward. I was not surprised that he should go for a non-existent political association in 2003 that was eventually registered in 2003. What one should have been asking this political nihilist is why he should abandon his party that was funded by the INEC and cling to a non-existent political organization as a basis of operation? Why does he not want to build his party?

From what I knew of him from the past in the progressive movement involving the four parties, Nigeria would be worse off if Alhaji Musa were allowed to run Nigeria for one day. Maybe President Obasanjo should tempt him with one executive appointment and allow the Nigerian people to see him for what he is. How he would perform as a functionary of a government where he is not the leader, no one knows. It would be an unmitigated disaster in the end.

CHANGE THE POLITICAL CLASS (PDP AND NON PDP PARTIES)

The current Nigerian political class includes those who hold offices and those who do not hold offices. Unfortunately Alhaji Balarabe Musa sees it differently. In his response to the interview by the reporter of This Day as to whether his idea of government should stop with the President and the PDP, Alhaji Balarabe Musa had this to say:

When we talk about those responsible for the dangerous and negative state of the nation, we hold the following collectively responsible. First, the system controlling all developments in the country and the leadership produced by this bankrupt and irrelevant system. This leadership is made up of the President, the government he leads, the political party he belongs, the National Assembly and all other organs of the government and all organs of the executive.

This is arrant nonsense; Nigerians know better that the concept of the political class is more inclusive than just the concept of office holders. One hopes Alhaji Balarabe Musa and his co-planners of the demonstration would appreciate that they are part of the Nigerian political problem and that they should along with the officeholders think of stepping aside. They like the office holders are too old and comfortable and unable to empathize with the poor that they want to represent.

The current political leaders should allow the young people to assume leadership of the pro-democracy forces. Let the young people use the inherent right of the people to throw out an oppressive political class and not just Obasanjo as the CNPP would want the country to believe as the cause of the Nigerian problems. This is important because those who should be thrown out are not just the President and his clique but all members of the current political class as long as the political class continues the anti-people policies.

The right to change an unresponsive government that has grown so bad belongs to the people as was demonstrated in the four cases raised earlier. This right certainly does not belong to the military.

Should President Obasanjo continues with his anti-people and tyrannical practice he would be equally as guilty as the other politicians who have since 1999 failed to serve as an alternative to him and hold him accountable to the people. All of them are guilty of abandoning the people and operating not in accordance with the wishes of the people. The young people have the right to ensure the enforcement of the peoples’ right to political change. This right does not belong to the CNPP or the military.

How the young people can do it would be further elucidated later in an essay on ‘OPTIONS AVAILABLE TO THE YOUNG PEOPLE.

May 2004