7th February, 2014
By: Amir Abdulazeez
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radually, Nigerian politicians are introducing a brand
new political system that had probably never existed before and does not
currently exist anywhere in the world. It is important to note that, there are
two ways to creativity; one, you can create something from the scratch and two;
you can modify and re-modify something that is existing, until it becomes
entirely different from its former self.
There is little or no doubt that Nigerian politicians
have continue to engage in practices that tend to shape and re-shape democracy
into an entirely new political system that one will face great difficulties in
trying to find a name for it. Can we call it the Nigerian brand of democracy or
can we simply call it Nigeriancracy?
Our current political system is neither democratic nor
dictatorial. It is probably in-between or a marriage between the two. At the
moment, it looks like our politicians are not ready for democracy and they
don’t want dictatorship by the military so that’s why they have settled for
political dictatorship.
In Nigerian politics of nowadays, the most influential
and authoritative position is that of ‘party leader’, whether at the national
or state level. The party leader is superior to the party chairman, party
executives, party elders, party trustees and even party constitution, and yet
no any democratic election is needed for the position. All you need to become
party leader is to try at all cost to be a president, state governor or
minister. In some parties, a good financial status or an ex-public office
holder status will suffice. If you are a party leader, you can do and undo in
the party at will, with little or no resistance.
Before the 2003 general elections, this position of
party leader was officially non-existent at all. It was formally introduced
into this Fourth Republic by former President Olusegun Obasanjo after he
secured a second term in office.
In 2003, Chief Obasanjo learnt a bitter lesson from
the powerful PDP governors who were alleged to have nearly cost him his second
term bid. As a very good student of politics, Obasanjo learnt from that
encounter with the PDP governors who nearly ditched him for his deputy that
they derive their powers through the sole and dictatorial control of party
structures at their various states. Soon after securing his second term in
office, Obasanjo began the process of controlling national party structures.
After succeeding, he declared himself PDP national leader.
At the beginning, it wasn’t clear who had the final
say on party matters, between the PDP National leader and the PDP National
Chairman as it was like a situation where two national chairmen are operating
under the same party. As events unfold, it was clear that in the PDP, the
partly leader is supreme to everyone and everything in the party. This
phenomenon rapidly spread to all PDP states with state governors taking it as
an opportunity to legitimize their undemocratic control over state party
chairmen. From then, other opposition parties with state governors like ANPP
and APGA began to operate under the same system where state governors are
regarded not as members but as people above the party and its
constitution. Up till now, it is not
clear whether PDP has amended its constitution to accommodate the position and
assign it with specific constitutional functions, but the position outlived
Obasanjo as President Jonathan is actively the PDP national party leader.
This idea of party leader in Nigerian politics is
disgusting and overbearing as much as it is undemocratic and unneeded. The
position exists in other democracies, but not in the Nigerian format and hardly
do you find it co-existing with the position of National Chairman. Furthermore,
the position is being subjected to democratic processes in other countries like
South Africa and Britain, both in its formations and operations. This is unlike
in Nigeria where someone proclaims himself party leader just by virtue of being
a president, governor or minister. In China for example, a party leader may be
politically stronger than the president.
This issue of party leader is not peculiar to PDP. The
newly formed All Progressives Congress went as far as incorporating the
position into its laws from the onset thereby undemocratically proclaiming
state governors as state party leaders with almost unlimited powers. This was a
party many Nigerians expected to behave differently from the much-hated PDP. At
the moment, APC has given powers to state party leaders to single-handedly
appoint interim party executives which is not only autocratic but a betrayal of
justice and fairness.
Not only in APC and PDP, similar instances can be seen
everywhere in most opposition parties. Some months back, the National Chairman
of Labour Party declared former Ogun State Governor, Gbenga Daniel as Ogun
party leader. The LP Chairman is somebody whose position was recently enmeshed
in crisis over his alleged refusal to step down after his tenure has since
expired, but he is still hanging on to unilaterally appoint people as party
leaders.
What is the rationale behind giving party leadership
to the custodians of public funds if not base on the expectation that they will
use state funds to finance the party? The extent to which people in the
executive arm of government at all levels are being worshipped in this country is
highly unfortunate.
Let’s take the PDP for example, since when did they
actually elected a National Chairman? The chairman is always appointed by the
president or state governors who are party leaders. This has rendered the party
impotent, with all the party executives directly answerable to the president,
who ordinarily should be just an obedient member of that party. How do you
expect fairness here?
It is now that we begin to understand why the self-acclaimed
messiah party, the APC was running from house to house in search of governors
to join the party so that they can have enough custodians of public funds in
their fold as party leaders.
This concept of party leaders must stop, elected
public officers should run the government and become leaders of the state while
elected party officials should run the party and become leaders of political
movements and ideologies. Our failure to do this has done a lot of damage to
our democracy so much so that, we don’t operate a democracy any longer. If one
person under the guise of party leader can determine who gets what, how and
when in a party, then what type of political system are we operating under?
All the prominent political parties in Nigeria are not
serious; they are not ready for democracy. Until they completely reform
themselves or new serious ones emerge, we may not have democracy at all.
©2015: abdulazeezamir@hotmail.com
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