FROM TEA PARTIES TO POLITICAL PARTIES: FORMATTING THE HIGHFLIERS OF DEMOCRATIC REGRESSION TO LIVEWIRES OF DEMONSTRABLE PROGRESSION
Just
before you accuse me – a civil servant, of being meddlesome in partisan
matters, may I remind you of that guiding and evergreen quote of the former
French soldier, writer, statesman, Prime Minister and later President of France
during her fifth Republic, Charles De Gaulle; “I have come to the conclusion
that Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.” Gaulle’s
reference is not so much as to lure today’s bureaucrat to the opposing side of
the law either as an open card-carrying member of a political party in the day
or a clandestine sympathy-wielding non-member of a partisan group in the dark.
Rather, I deduce that Charles De Gaulle’s call was (and still is) for concerned
citizens to take more than a passive interest in the critical task of
nation-building, lest they continue as chronic victims of never-ending
governance maladies driven by political parties and politicians.
Famously regarded as “The Mark
Twain of American Socialism”, the late German-American Socialist editor, Oscar
Ameringer, made a sarcastic reference to the game of politicking when he noted
that “politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign
funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other.” Kindly prove
me wrong if the two leading Nigerian political parties haven’t been run and paraded
as having taken individual oaths to distinctively fulfil Ameringer’s opinion-cum-accusation.
They appear to have each earned doctoral degrees in this path of political infamy
and its resultant national perdition by demonstrating just one goal of their
respective existence – power, through periodic votes-acquisition strategies and
funds-raising activities. Since
that historic 1993 election till date, the political actors of the Nigerian
democratic script have redefined the latter as government of the
politicians, for the politicians and by the politicians. Little wonder why Prof
Pat Utomi at an interview granted Channels Television on 18th April,
2022, labelled the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives’
Congress (APC) as “election machines”.
To
be fair to our existing political parties registered by the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC), the just-concluded party primaries showed
flickers of evolutionary trends since our return to uninterrupted democratic dispensation
in 1999. The anti-democratic and controversy-courting clause of ‘consensus’ in
the choice of candidates was not common this time around as primary elections
carried the day. Post-primaries rancour was also less. Throwing of punches and
chairs was a rare feature of the political transactions this season. Additionally,
some contestants laudably touched on one or two topical national issues, though
weakly. Therefore, notwithstanding their noticeable democratic shortcomings
such as heavy monetization of internal electoral processes, I associate with
those who would rather see the cup as half-full than half-empty. Nevertheless,
is that the Zenith expected of a nation with an unbroken democratic record of 23
years? No!
Why
this conversation, therefore? Political parties are perhaps the most
influential non-governmental socio-political institutions in a democracy and their
imperfections, or otherwise, continue to rule our lives. For that, we can’t
afford to throw these babies of our ‘nascent’ democracy away with either their
teas or bath water. For the umpteenth time, the measurable national progress we
crave from the 29th day of May, 2023 when a new President is sworn
into office is one that is woven around my would-have-been campaign slogan (if
I was a 2023 Presidential aspirant/candidate). My earlier publicized and now
modified tag line reads - “Reforming our Governance structure; Revamping our
physical infrastructure; Recovery of our social architecture; and Remodeling
our political culture”. To recast Nigeria’s political culture, however, enlightening
pieces of this kind must be dutifully developed and passionately propagated to
Nigeria’s major political parties to lament their current positions as cesspool
of regressive giants. We must, as a result, speak out for them to urgently upgrade
to the expected level of progressive goliaths because it’s a pure case of
“helping them to help us” – a management axiom I borrowed from my boss, the
Director General of Ondo State Contributory Health Commission, Dr. Abiodun
Oyeneyin.
Hon.
Patrick Obahiagbon, an Edo State-born politician and former Federal lawmaker
noted for his epic English-Latin vocabulary mix, had advised his fellow
politicians in an interview he granted years past that “they must avoid regular
big stouting, suyaing and peppersouping” for meaningful impact of their
political-cum-legislative positions. Having served as Chief of Staff to former
Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, and later Member of the House of
Representatives (MHR), Hon. Obahiagbon is certainly grounded in Nigeria’s
political and governance firmaments. His artistry and creative use of edible
substances (big stout – an alcoholic beverage; suya – roasted, spiced,
diced & lean cow meat; peppersoup – meat or fish boiled in spiced
soup) to reprove his colleagues’ misuse of their individual political
platforms confirms that political parties and/or its members engage more in tea
parties than teaming up for national good. His submission summarizes the surreal
fanfare that embodies the two prominent political parties in the midst of languishing
Nigerians and M.K.O Abiola must be utterly disgusted by such institutionalized
frivolities.
The tea
is represented by the penchant for power-driven and perks-dotting interests
that are not mere suspicions in Nigeria’s political context. It is a fact!
Repeatedly I have challenged any doubting Thomas to ask the self-acclaimed
politician or card-carrying member of a political party living beside his/her
house about the 2023 post-election agenda of governance that was ‘considered’
for discussion in their last party meeting. Embarrassingly, it’s like seeking
the living among the dead. Such conversations, let alone, actions, are scarce discoveries
in the meeting agendas drawn up by Nigerian political parties. How many party
Chairmen can at the snap of a finger, speak of the statistics of schools,
primary health care facilities or access roads that are without drains, within
his/her area of jurisdiction? How many political party Secretaries brought up for
discussions at the last political party meeting, strategies to develop these public
goods? As a matter of fact, an X-ray of the usual meeting agendas (pre-election
and post-election) of political parties divulges 5 major focal areas of discussions
to be about ‘how’ to;
a. Raise and share campaign
funds, mobilize members and deploy necessary ‘logistics’ to win elections;
b. Share political offices
among ‘loyal’ party members after the party’s victory;
c. Lobby and attract
government contracts to ‘loyal’ members who are without political offices so
that they also drink some ‘tea’ as ‘dividends of democracy’;
d. Pressurize office-holding
party members who are either serving legislators or members of the Executive
arm of government (at Federal, State or LGA levels) to organize ‘empowerment
programmes’ to dole out monies and/or materials to other party members;
e. Attend and support social
events (birthday, burial, chieftaincy, house-warming etc.) organized by members
and plot how to dominate the events with praiseful songs to assert their party
brands and scare the opposition party members who may be preset at such
gatherings.
As a
consequence of these and many more of their shallow and selfish ways, our
democracy’s regression and scantiness of demonstrable development aren’t
surprising. Nigerian political parties would rather discuss ‘how’ to grab power
than ‘what’ to do with it. How did I know, or have I been a member? For some
reasons, I’m extremely politically informed but choose to restrict my political
participation, for now, to the thankless task of sociopolitical enlightenment.
At the appointed and convinced time, I’ll throw my hat into the political ring
that ought to hold livewires of our democratic progress and join the combat
against the political highfliers who daily regress our development.
What
then, are my recommendations for democratic advancement by our political parties?
I humbly advocate to the handlers of Nigeria’s political parties that they
intentionally grow our democracy by creatively instituting the likes of the following
six points (and many more) in their operational mechanisms;
a.
Development-inclusive meeting agendas: Discussions of identified development gaps
within each party office’s area of authority (Ward, LGA, State, National)
should be a new habit. The classrooms without roofs in that primary school
adjacent your party secretariat can be considered for discussion in your next
meeting. Whether your party is in power or not, take a picture of the gutter
and attach it to a letter to be written and forwarded to the Ministry of
Education after your meeting.
b. Community
service days: Without contravening the provisions of the electoral act or
INEC’s guidelines regarding the conduct (or not) of campaigns, a party Chairman
can ask his/her members to congregate on a Saturday (without branded items) to
clear a blocked drain or clear the garbage at a popular market square. Such
civil acts will register the needed consciousness of “service” in the hearts of
political party members.
c. Physical
development-related innovation in political contests: For instance, instead of N100m (one hundred
million naira) price tag for the purchase of Expression Of interest (EOI) forms
for Presidential contests, can political parties be innovative in compelling
contestants to undergo physical development of their society? For example,
can’t the party request aspirants to each expend N50m on the upgrade of 1
primary health center or 2 schools or 3 Police stations in their LGAs of origin
(with verifiable evidence – pictures, videos etc.) within 4 weeks before coming
forward to procure the form for (the remaining) N50m?
d. Political
party Academy: An APC Academy or PDP Academy will do well to articulate
respective party ideologies; enlighten new members; train new public
office-holders on legislative or executive duties (as the case may be); develop
policy thrusts for Presidents, Governors & LGA Chairmen and function as their
routine think-tanks; regularly update old members on party ethos; adapt/adopt
best development practices from various parts of the globe and share same with
members etc.
e. Dethronement of Presidents and
Governors as leaders of parties: Party supremacy ought to be the bedrock of internal
discipline and it is doubtful if it can be achieved when one occupant of an
exalted public seat is deemed to have superior and exclusive views. Whatever
the appellation/position of the ‘leader of the party’ means as being used by
political parties, it is despicable, in my view, to subjugate the decisions of
thousands or millions of party members to with the whims and caprices of one
President or Governor. What does the job description of a party Chairman imply,
if he/she is not the leader of the party? When Mr. President or Mr. Governor
falls short of the party’s ‘legitimate and selfless’ expectations, will any of
the Chairman, Working Committee, Executive Committee, Board of Trustees,
Council of Elders or other organs of the party be empowered to reprove and
nudge him/her back to track when he/she is already seen as the ‘leader of the
party’?
f. Enforcement of part-time
politicking: Except for party members occupying political offices, others
within the productive age bracket should be mandated to get busy and routinely
present evidence of same. An idle politician is a political jobber who, like a
roaring lion, is wandering and seeking crass opportunism to devour.
In brief, political
parties in several democratic climes are serious-minded entities that
understand their sensitive functions to the society. From tea parties to
political parties, let’s format the highfliers of democratic regression to
livewires of demonstrable progression in Nigeria. Let’s take it that the late M.K.O
Abiola, recipient of the post-humous national award of the Grand Commander of
the Federal Republic (GCFR) which is traditionally reserved for serving
Presidents, hereby ‘commands’ the APC and PDP to lead the pack in formatting a
new normal of political party responsibilities to the Nigerian society. We’ve
had enough of tea parties from our political associations. Political parties
can’t just continue to drink tea, urinate it, flush the urine, and yet expect democracy
to put tea and food on our tables. Period!
this article written by Dr. Adetolu Ademujimi, a Medical Doctor, Author, Reformer, Coach, Public Policy expert and Social entrepreneur, was first published on the June 12, 2022
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