Oshisada: The march to one-party state

IF care is not taken, this country may eventually turn to be a one-party state. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is gradually inching towards its achievement. Of course, the party has long voiced its ambition to remain in the saddle of power for 60 years. One-party states are those states where a single-party is accorded the monopoly of political activities.

   Single-party system may be enforced under a country’s Constitution. It may be the consequence of denying rival parties electoral access. In a country with one-party system, it may be a result of the failure to consult the electorate that is, the failure to conduct elections. In this country, there is no provision for one-party system. If there is, I stand to be corrected, and the public deserves to be informed. A perusal of the 1999 Constitution Part III (supplemental), sections 221 to 229, does not reveal a provision for one-party. However, there are subtle efforts to attain that objective. There are the manipulations to ensure the returns of the governing party. These returns go by the bogey, “riggings”. It is in this country that we talk of “incumbency” which is synonymous with rigging.

   It is in Africa that one-party state is entrenched. President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe is typical of it. In his early 90s, Mugabe is still in his grip of the control of administration. This has been so since 1980. I have it on the authority of The Guardian that he collapsed recently. Periodic sham elections cannot be an excuse that there is liberal democracy in Zimbabwe; in Nigeria ditto. Incessant manipulations of the elections ensure the return of the same governing party. In Nigeria, the Peoples Democratic Party is in tow. In May 1999, when it came on board, the same party remains in power, till February 2015, with the prospect of a change, after 16 years. This culture of sticking perpetually to power is the first step to the entrenchment of a one-party State. Part of the PDP’s antics and tactics is the undesirable suggestion to shift the elections date forward; this is to ensure its perpetration in power. Postponement till when? President Umaru Yar’Adua died on May 5, 2010. The Vice-President Jonathan acted and was later confirmed as the President. In 2011, he had a full mandate.

     A period of four years or five years must be adequate for a governing political party, before it wanders into the wilderness. Another party assumes power. But the PDP is unwilling to relinquish power, despite its unhealthy delivery of democracy dividends. If the administration is good, the life span is four years; another party can perform better. In this country, the chance is not feasible, because of avarice and crudity. Whatever is good can still be made better. German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder (of Social Democrats), once said: “Nothing is so good that it cannot be improved upon”, a fortiori, an administration that is bad can be made good by another party, if it is not denied the opportunity. Why the propensity to entrench one-party State? Gen. Yakubu Gowon is a former military head of state and the author of “1976 is unrealistic”, meaning that he was unwilling to quit office. Hear him: “African leaders sit tight in office due to the prevalence of corruption caused by easy access to public funds and opportunities to make money that power avails them,… a corrupt leader would stop at nothing to protect his loot.”

   Many reasons could be ascribed to it. Principally, a ruling political party may be inclined to embrace the system, so as to hide some gross misdeeds when it is in power. Therefore, to avoid being exposed, the culprits, by subterfuge, choose to perpetuate themselves in power. For example, if any project is mishandled by an incumbent government, there may be the need to cover up. Misdeeds may include the blatant inflation of contracts’ costs, wrong location of the projects or discriminatory allocations to party members, all verging on corruption. Naturally, a party that is not in power is conscious of its responsibilities and cautious of its discoveries of the omission and commission. At any point in time, documents may be retrieved and witnesses got. So, ruling party endeavours to create situations to remain in power. If for long that party is entrenched in power, one-party state is created. This is exactly the position in which the PDP or any party finds itself. What is the result, if a one-party state exists?

    The result is that the governing party is bereft of ideas. It becomes a stagnant pool of water without inlet or outlet flow, but green, mucky and stinking. The stench that is emanating therefrom can be nauseating. In such a situation, there can be no progress economically or politically. Take for instance, the seven-point programmes that were bequeathed by the late Yar’Adua to Goodluck Jonathan. How many of them were executed by PDP successor? Was it not recently that Federal Government shifted the completion date of the East-West Road when he commissioned the N6.5 billon Ring Road in Calabar? In general, the economy is in shambles with GDP growth down from 11 per cent to six per cent and Naira/Dollar rates from N146 to N210 today.  

   The practice that an opposition party is to come up with fresh ideas to form a future government is sensible. In Britain, the Liberal Democrats is a junior partner in coalition with the Conservatives under David Cameron as the Prime Minister, whilst the Labour Party is in the opposition. The PDP must go into the opposition during these 2015 elections, postponed from February 14 to March 28, to allow it reflect afresh for developmental ideas. For it to go into opposition is to afford it a blast of fresh air to move the country forward. In the words of Hon. Titi Oseni, the first female Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly in June, 2003: “Nothing changes when nonentities run a government”. Sixteen years of stay in the saddle of power has made nonentities of the PDP leadership and the followership. Myriads of national problems bedeviling Nigeria remain unsolved. Is it insecurity?

   We are in early 2015. The country’s security and defence expenditure accounted for 25 per cent of its annual budget in June 2012, according to BBC Focus on Africa. With this huge expenditure, security is still proving elusive. Agriculture used to be the mainstay of our economy. As for agriculture, food importation is still claiming over N1.3 trillion. The Punch, June 28, 2013 reported Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosu as having flayed the whopping N1.3 trillion being spent yearly on the importation of wheat, rice, sugar and fish. Unemployment, a much dreaded bogey, perennially defies solution. Industries continually collapse, without the prospect of revival, whilst new ones, local and foreign, are hindered for fear of insecurity-economic suffocation of the highest order engendered by one-party system. Having spent six years as the President, what miracles remain for him to perform by demanding for extra four years? To further impoverish us for 10 years? Nigeria does not deserve a “Robert Mugabe” as its president. 

    The foregoing is the consequence of a single-party state. With the above deficiencies, Nigerians are economically suffocated and yearn for the rejection of the PDP at the March polls, to effectively usher in a new era of positive change.

• Oshisada, a veteran journalist, lives in Ikorodu, Lagos.