The Challenge Of Internal Democracy In Nigerian Political Parties

PARTY politics means different things to different people in Nigeria. To the civil society it ought to be a vocation of service through which political leadership of the country is recruited and harnessed. But to the average Nigerian political party partisan, it is an occupation or business through which one makes a living and/or profit and secondly affords one a possible participation in the distribution of political patronages otherwise called “dividends of democracy” for the benefit of one’s family, village, community, local government or state in that order of importance.

  Politics and its practice and praxis in Nigeria has had a chequered history and despite its seeming openness to the general public it is still a puzzle and arcane to the outsider. It is perhaps in the light of the foregoing that one can understand and sympathize with The Guardian Editorial Board, when its Leader of December 15, 2014 blazed forth in a celebratory tone holding up the outcomes of the various party primaries as a “remarkable preparedness to break with previous practices that were antithetical to a genuine democratic process.” And it further went home with the optimism that the outcomes sign-posts a “hope of a blossoming democracy in the nation.” 

  On this innocent judgment I almost wept. And my sorrow was shared by no less a person than our former Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida, who in an interview with the Daily Sun was disenchanted with the exercises and unambiguously bemoaned the absence of internal democracy in the various primary elections conducted by the parties to nominate candidates for the 2015 general elections. My sorrow stems from the fact that this type of misunderstanding or misconception when an innocent party; a judge or a policy maker is deceived or misled by certain make-believe practices of a person, an institution, government or organisation that a greater evil occasions thereby returning the victim of the deception to the initial stage of frustration, alienation and disappointment with the entire system or practices.   

 Apart from the issue of intractable corruption, and current security challenges, politics remains the main staple upon which the Nigerian newspapers feed. It is more so in an election year such as 2015. So, almost all the newspapers were, and are still sufficiently concerned with the political issue of the day, which is parties’ nomination of candidates for the elections. The Guardian had variously highlighted the problems in the parties as it devoted precious pages to their primary electoral crises in these editions: November 30, 2014, December 7, 2014, December 14, 2014 and capped its effort with the December 15, 2014 editorial comment.

  Other newspapers have also devoted several pages to the party primary crises as could be gleaned from the Sunday vanguard of December 7, 2014, New Telegraph Editorial January 9, 2015 and so on. Being an outsider to the inner workings of the political system and the practice and praxis of the various parties it is easy to fall prey to the deception practised on the public outside its confines by the various parties- in particular by the two main parties, the People’s Democratic Party and the All Progressive Congress in their party primaries.

  Nigerian political parties suffer vicarious dysfunctionality that flows from the aboriginal dysfunctionality of the Nigerian state and its political and legal order. Thus our political parties are poor copies that have no cultural substance to sustain them. A typical Nigeria political party is structured in such a way that nobody is endued with moral authority as the leader. Its leadership inheres in the group of people exercising political authority at that particular point in time and a coterie of other members belonging by way of grant of access to the prebendal patronage of the electoral booty in form of government contracts, land allocations, political positions and other privileges. In most cases, the membership is so structured in such a way that its inclusion revolves around family members and such friends adjudged harmless enough and in most cases circumscribed to be incapable of rocking the boat. During the tenure of the incumbent occupant of the position (be it the Local Government Chairman, Governor or the President) but mainly the Governor or the President, every decision by way of anointing of a candidate for any election issues from the Governor or the president who may not be charitable enough to seek the input of other stakeholders..

  It is usually difficult to question or challenge the decision of the governor or the president in matters of anointing of candidates for party primaries because by the very nature of the political structure (i.e. the state resources or privileges concentrated in his hand and the party formation deliberately structured and controlled by him) any disputation or challenge from any opposing quarter is easily countered and silenced.

  It is perhaps necessary to explain the peculiar structure of the Nigeria political party that makes it practically difficult for any outsider to comprehend its practices and praxis. The Nigeria political party, quite unlike its United States counterpart, is an association given a clear and unambiguous constitutional recognition by the 1999 Constitution. This constitutional recognition is further seasoned by the provisions of several statutory measures, principally the Electoral Act. By these statutory measures, the parties are registered and recognised by law and its operations are guided by law stricto sensu. On the contrary, the United States political parties were not the creation of any statutes or the constitution as they originated from the political evolution of the people, which is founded on the United States’ foundation based on the republican ethics and values.

   In this wise, the United States’ political parties were creations out of the people’s mores and convention. For instance, at the formation of the United States in 1776 and the adoption of the constitution in 1787, the founding fathers otherwise called the ‘Patriots’ administered the country on zero party basis. It was the complex and controversial socio-political and economic issues arising from the controversies and struggles for the ratification of the 1787 US Constitution which polarized the Patriots and caused a sharp division into the ‘Federalists’ led by Alexander Hamilton and the opposing force dubbed ‘Anti-Federalists’ later renamed Democratic-Republican and led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison that grudgingly resulted in the formation of political parties in the USA in the 1790s. George Washington, the first President of USA governed the new country on zero-party basis and history records him as having a virulent opponent of party politics, and most of the founding fathers shared his concerns. It was after his tenure when John Adams assumed leadership 1796 that the party system took shape as a result of the aforesaid schism between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. 

  As stated earlier, the Nigeria political parties are associations governed by the constitution and statutes. Its operations therefore are strictly governed by law. These being so, the politicians with the means to finance its establishment and operations take advantage of the ordinary members who, like ordinary shareholders of publicly quoted limited liability companies take advantage of the insignificant voting powers of the said members to exploit the system to their own benefit. As in the said public liability companies likewise the political parties; the actual owners are the rich men who contribute significant amount to the establishment and financing of the party operations, and by so doing invariably acquire controlling shares in the control and operation of the party as it were. Where the party has public officials such as governor, president or chairman of councils or such other elective or appointive offices these public officials jointly finance the party. But the bulk of the financing and operational logistics fall on the governor or the president due largely to the enormous resources available to him for dispense as political goodwill and patronage.

  On accession to power, the governor or the president having been the humble beneficiary of the party goodwill by virtue of the anointing by his predecessor, which act clothes him with garb of a vassal promptly deploys his incumbent power to hijack the party structure to shake off that encumbrance. And in accomplishing this strategic political act nothing is spared in realizing this object, including deliberately sidelining and rubbishing his erstwhile benefactor or godfather including all those related to him except they buy into his new power calculus. This was the origin of the political crises between General Olusegun Obasanjo and some members of the PDP led by the late Chief Sunday Awoniyi who shared the defunct National Party of Nigeria political tendencies. President Obasanjo had utilized his deputy’s (Alhaji Atiku Abubakar) PDM faction to neutralize that group. When Alhaji Atiku was using the PDM to gain certain advantages General Obasanjo considered himself politically mature enough to neutralize him; he sprung Chief Audu Ogbeh to displace Chief Gemade, whom Alhaji Atiku had installed through PDM. Chief Ogbeh was later to be rubbished and replaced with Col. Ahmadu Ali when Chief Ogbeh refused to dance to his tunes. 

  When the late President Musa Yar’Adua took over from General Obasanjo he replaced Col. Ahmadu Ali with Chief Ogbulafor whom President Jonathan inherited from him on his demise. However, Chief Ogbulafor was singing a tune of PDP zoning formula different from President Jonathan’s ambition of running for the presidency after completing the Yar’Adua tenure; he was promptly rubbished and replaced with Chief Okwesilieze Nwodo. President Jonathan by this act displaced General Obasanjo and other stakeholders. This weird political stratagem is replicated in the 36 states of the federation in greater or equal measure. Once the president or governor is in control of the political structure his political kingdom is assured smooth sail or less turbulence in the shark infested and muddy waters of Nigerian politics. 

  The control of the party structure leverages the position of the governor or the president in many ways; the most important being that during the party primaries the members of the Executive Committee at the Ward and Local Government Levels are members of the congress for the election of the chairman, if a local government election. For the state congress for the nomination of the governorship candidate of the party the delegates consist of all the wards’ chairmen, secretaries, the three-man delegates, local government chairmen, vice chairmen, secretaries, youth leaders, woman Leaders and the organizing secretaries are statutory delegates. So, it is the electoral value of these party officials during primaries that make the control of the party structure from the ward to the national levels a prized possession in the political kitty and arsenal of any political leader, be he the president or the governor.

  In control of the party structure, the governor or the president remains impregnable except there arises a force of greater or equal control of resources (money and goodwill from the presidency or high echelon of the party apparatchik) and in that case a challenge could be sustained against his interest. It was the rise of some forces and the control of resources equal or greater to that of the various governors or senators and others that gave rise to the electoral misfortunes of some of the governors, senators and so on which created the impression of change in the electoral culture of the parties.

  After the National Party Executive of the PDP and governors had given the president automatic ticket and the presidency and the national party office had presumably conceded to the second term governors the right to nominate their successors and the added right to aspire to the position of a senator for others, the governors went home celebrating. Governors are potentates and dictators in their various states but this assurance from the presidency and the national party office literally elevated them to the status of emperors whose words were laws and so some discountenanced any form of consultations or advice from stakeholders on the choice of candidates to succeed them and other positions. In their respective states they were used to running roughshod on their hapless party members and they hardly beheld to anybody in terms of advice or consultations in the management of the parties. 

  It was in this state of mind that most of them sought to implement the decisions of the presidency and the national party office and cash the political I.O.Us these decisions represent. Meanwhile, the presidency and the national party office had weighed their relative political relevance and credit worthiness in their respective states and discovered a startling find: they are largely paper tigers relying largely on the structures of government and its resources for relevance. So they are dispensable! It was as a result of this finding that the presidency and the national party office looked the other way or allegedly connived with some other critical stakeholders in the states to seize the party structure from them. As a result most of them lost either their personal ambitions to migrate to the senate or to nominate their prospective successors or both.

   Meanwhile, it has to be noted that the successes of the winners of the various party primaries were not as a result of any credible, free and fair contest where the parties were afforded equal opportunities. Nothing as such happened.  What transpired was that during the filing of nomination forms for the election of the various delegates to the party congresses and convention, each faction prepared a list of its own delegates and obtain forms for them. At the end it is the list accepted and validated by the national party office that wins. So, once your list of delegates is not accepted by the national office of the party you are as good as a loser. What remained for you was to make as much noise as possible and perhaps explore the avenue of utilizing the various judicial remedies such as injunction or declaration to harass the party and your opponent. This in a nutshell is what happened. But to the unwary public ignorant of the various processes, these results from the party primaries felling the giants constituted a clear departure from the sordid past of imposition of party candidates by the godfathers. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The old system reigns in a different design and circumstances.

BUT how can this obnoxious system be changed for the betterment and “blossoming or democracy” the media and other compatriots hoped for? It is possible to change the obnoxious system but the tiny minority of the political leaders during their tour of duty takes advantage of the putrid system and after leaving office joins others to savour the sour grapes of impositions of candidates thus becoming helpless victims. But why has it been difficult to change this system? The answer lies in the fact that a majority of the elite that controls political power in Nigeria were and are still largely bereft of any philosophical foundations and so could not design a workable political system for Nigeria. And issuing from the above they are largely ignorant of the dysfunctionality of the system that has failed the country since independence. Being so ignorant of what constitutes their enlightened self interest they fail to access the knowledge available from other good and functional systems elsewhere for changing or reforming the system.

   Secondly, abolishing this neo-feudal system robs them the power of political control over the poor and hapless Nigerians who are subjected to this obnoxious system, which makes it impossible for any Nigerian in a lawful occupation, trade or profession and living within his means or to leverage the support of other honest Nigerians to amass the required material resources to mobilize the people to contest any elections into elective positions in Nigeria. Only somebody who has amassed wealth through Nigeria’s prebendal political patronage system can play politics and contest elections.

   It is in the light of the foregoing that we appeal to the media to collaborate with the hapless society by not allowing false impressions put forward by the parties or their officials to be relied upon to paint a picture of the political system that is clearly contrary to the reality or to celebrate an obviously flawed political system and its failed electoral processes in Nigeria. But rather, it should seek out enlightened and knowledgeable Nigerians in the parties to help in educating Nigerians and to spearhead the political change we need in Nigeria. In this wise, we proffer the following solutions.

Solution

BUT can anything be done to salvage the hopeless situation? Definitely, yes, if only the society which has been made a victim of this vile culture summon the courage through governmental institutions like the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to force a change by formulating the policy of changing the party organizational structure and reform its primary electoral practices and praxis. This it can do by making the party executive committee at all levels to become unbiased, disinterested, and even if interested; a powerless-to-mischief umpire in the party congresses and primaries that lead to the election of candidates of political parties for the general elections. This policy or law if legislatively enacted or adopted in party manual will abolish the cash-and-carry delegates system of election of party candidates. 

  Secondly, aspirants to elective political positions will be made to submit themselves directly to the party members at the ward level and other levels and thereafter obtain the approval of the appropriate caucuses at the respective levels of organisation of the party. After these processes, when the prospective candidates have emerged through popular primary elections, the appropriate congresses and convention will hold to ratify the results and validate them for onward transmission to the INEC as the concerned party’s authentic list of candidates for the elections.

  If this system is adopted it will cure the following mischiefs which are the current albatross of the political system in Nigeria, namely:

Obsessions with political power 

  The president, the governor, the council chairman or other political office holders and stalwarts will be less obsessed with the mindset of, or hanker after the seizure of the party structure that will solely serve their selfish interests or ambitions. In this suggested system the party structure is useless to any private pursuits contrary to egalitarian and republican interests of all members. 

Corrupt Enrichment and Political Aggrandizement

   The enormous resources corruptly acquired and wasted on the pursuit of seizing the party structure and oiling the machinery will abate and these resources will usefully be deployed for the social services and infrastructural development especially in the poor states.

Reduction of Time-consuming Political Designs/Intrigues 

   The precious time and energy expended in the design and schemes to hijack the party structure as well as maintaining and sustaining it will be usefully deployed to useful ventures of public governance and personal improvements especially intellectual-wise which is currently abysmally lacking.

Reduction of Proclivity for Political Violence

   The proclivity for violence, which is the current culture of politics as induced by the inordinate quest to control the party structure will be minimized and in its place the politician will be forced to put on his thinking-cap to fashion out the means of reaching the partisans and convincing them on his ideals, programmes and convictions.

Leadership Recruitment, Development and Mentorship

 Party leaders and elders will be forced to mentor their members as the future leaders as failing to do so will leave them with ignorant and uncommitted members who will fall for all kinds of stratagems, devices and designs of their more illustrious opponents.

Reduction of Speculative Politics

 This system will stop the speculative politics which leaders force their members to live with ignorantly not knowing the processes that will produce prospective office holders; a practice that has been condemned by former Governor Donald Duke recently (Saturday Sun, November 8, 2014, p. 5) when he berated his successor (Governor Liyel Imoke) for allegedly playing hide and seek in his succession plan by counselling that, “…families, when they get very large, they have challenges, but the only way one can keep everyone together is by showing leadership; by being honest, by being forthright and by being straight forward. Members of the family should not guess what the leader…of the family thinks. They should know. You don’t guess what God wants of you.”

   In conclusion, we hold the view that while the problems associated with Nigerian politics will not be solved overnight but with the concerted efforts of all Nigerians, especially the intelligentsia with its most potent weapon (the mass media) the seemingly insurmountable problems will be solved to everybody’s happiness. But if we continue to hope on the good or commonsense or enlightened self interest of the current Nigerian political class, we will sink deeper until the scale tips and we may regrettably find ourselves in the abyss of irredeemable political crisis or worse, state failure.  

Onwe, Esq. is Former Political and Legislative Adviser to Ebonyi State Governor (2001-2011 and a Doctoral Student of Law practises law at Abakaliki).

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