POLITICS OF OPPOSITION AND IDEOLOGICAL CRISIS IN NIGERIA

Tuesday 08-09-09

Not too long ago, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was the official guest of Imo state Government. The occasion was the official cross carpeting of Imo state governor Ikedi Ohakim from the Peoples Progressive Alliance (PPA) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from whence he came. Still not long before that, Mr. President again had also been the official guest on ceremonies in Bauchi and Kebbi states.

In Bauchi, Mallam Isa Yuguda also moved back to the PDP from the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), but this time around not with the Deputy Governor, who has since been impeached by the state House of Assembly for reasons I consider frivolous. It is interesting, if not curious that Mr.. President whom I am told, does not waste time on inanities, would find ample time to leisure about in these states in the name of receiving returnee governors in what every discerning mind knows as a well crafted script by the PDP to undermine civil rule in Nigeria.

The cross carpeting of these governors has generated unusual tension in the polity, not on the political parties on whose platform they secured their respective ‘mandate’. The aftermath of the ignoble events has culminated in summering crisis in these parties who have gone to court to seek a nullification of thee infamous moves, or better to return the coveted governorship positions to the opposition parties.

In the PPA for instance, the party has been boiling since the inglorious, untidy exit of Ikedi Ohakim. The current crisis besetting the party is perhaps partly symptomatic of the undercurrents arising from the handling of that event by members of the National Executive Committee. However, it seems to me that it is not the root of the crisis. If the ongoing problem must be put in perspective, then political commentators would agree that it all has to do with the dearth of ideological politics in the land since 1979-1983, and the material dialectics that propelled the formation of these parties in the first place.

Ideology in its elementary from is an organized collection of ideas. The word was coined by count Antoine Destutt De Tracy towards the end of the Eighteenth century. It can be seen as a comprehensive vision, a perspective of reality, or a way of understanding, seeing things and events or actions. In fact, an ideology should serve as a mirror for the people, expressing how the people view themselves, and even more importantly, how they want to be seen by outsiders. Ideology embodies a system of goals and beliefs, or widely held ideas by members of a society or group. Ideology, well articulated sign posts the pattern of transition of each society and the roadmap to change. The utility of ideology is more apparent and alive in its application to the political realm.

Political ideology is a certain ethical set of ideals, principles, doctrines, myths or symbols of a social movement, institution class or large group that explains how society should work, and offers some political or cultural blueprint for a social order. Political ideology is majorly concerned with how to allocate power and to what ends it should be used (see wikipedia).

In societies where democracy has taken root and become firmly consolidated parties are delineated by their ideologies, for instance in the United States, the Democratic party is known over the years, indeed through out its history, for its liberal platform. It emphasizes increased regulation, worker protection, increase social spending, big tax, decreased spending on defense, liberal immigration policies, big government, pro-choice policies towards abortion, government control of health care, ban on death penalty etc.

on the other hand, its main opposition, the Republican party arraign itself on a seemingly contradictory premise- as it shows its conservative learning in its encouragement of private participation, de-regulation, decrease social spending, a cut in taxes to protect owners of capital, increase defense spending, lean government, decrease minimum wage and maintenance of death penalty etc. The same scenario replicates itself in U.K France, Italy etc.

Regrettably, the situation is totally dissimilar in Nigeria. In Nigeria, political parties are not delineated ideologically. This may seem to be a product of ideological confusion, or a total lack of ideology in the development or formation of these parties.

In the United States, Britain etc, it is easy and simple to predict not only the programmes of these parties, but also how the congressmen and women would vote on any particular issue. Not so in Nigeria, where the parties are united in their mutual quest to loot the treasury for personal aggrandizement. In Nigeria, politics follow Machiavellian thesis as it moves without principles. Even those who are gifted with prophetic wisdom and discerning spirit cannot tell the pattern of voting on any national issue amongst Nigeria representatives and senators. At least it does not reflect party affiliation, but rather, what one observes sadly is a tragic reminder of the ethnic bases of our nationality.

In Nigeria, there is not much to differentiate the parties in terms of national posture. This marriage of strange bed fellows masquerading as political parties led the cerebral Late Bola Ige to dismiss them as five leprous fingers of one hand under the Abacha regime. The complexion of parties has not changed even under civil rule (not democratic) as we shall soon demonstrate.

The PDP which is the leading party in terms of its control of majority of states, the presidency and also the legislature, is in spite of its dominance of the political land scope ideologically bankrupt. What the party stands for and what benefits the masses are expected to reap, even the now bastardized democratic dividends are unclear. The only thing that Nigerians know about the party is its consuming passion to violate the sanctity of the electoral process and increase its stranglehold on the nation till eternity.

The party is a behemoth of sorts providing stinking refuge for persons of diverse ideological hues (or better still of no ideology at all). What havoc PDP’s dominance of the polity holds for Nigerians is better imagined than described. Its primitive quest for more of the remaining fragile states to come under its control is perhaps one of the greatest threats to the survival of the current republic.

Nevertheless the opposition as it is comprised and composed cannot provide alternative succour for Nigerians, as they too are bereft of any ideology, and do not poses the capacity and competence to challenge the rampaging dominant PDP. The ANPP have been unmasked by the greedy manner it went into the so called Government of National Unity (GNU) whatever that means. That arrangement confirmed my earlier suspicion that Nigerian politicians owing to prebandalism and patrimonialism cannot survive, without angling for a piece of the national pie under whatever guise. The way and manner it has been decimated by the PDP is a story for another day. As for the PPA, its acceptance of the GNU was a further demonstration of ideological inertia and an infantile move for national relevance and clout.

That move ought not to have been made if the party was serious about providing alternative template to governance in Nigeria. Those who believe that the PPA is a party for the future are now currently reminded by the events in the party that its history, its defence of capital and establishment policies are all too alienating to the masses of this country. I am sure by now the BOT Chairman of PPA may have realized that it takes more than uncommon bravado, or even huge material war chest, qualities he possesses aplenty to prosecute successfully opposition polities. Not too many people will last there if they are tempted by the filthy lucre offered by the awesome corrupting state like we have in Nigeria.

He needs to reeducate and reposition himself by first developing a coherent ideological framework that will appeal to the perennial hunger of Nigerians for a better life. The current bemoaning of the fate of PPA by its members over the desertion of Ikedi Ohakim et al typifies ignorance or complete lack of knowledge of extant realities in Nigeria. All that is happening are quite expected in situations of ideological hiatus driven by politics of the belly.

The All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) has been a victim of state induced manipulation directed by the PDP. The unending feud between Victor Umeh and Chekwas Okorie has the imprimatur of external manipulation. But then, it must be conceded that the party has also suffered phenomenal crises and rudderless particularly because of lack of ideological clarity. In Anambra state where the party is a charge of the executive arm of government, the state is now besieged by the worst form of banditry as security of lives and property the raise of government historically has been seriously assaulted.

The Action Congress (AC) however is gaining prominence in the West because of some portrayal of a tinge of ideological seriousness. It must be noted through that its ideological history, the fact that it shares ancestry with the Unity Party of Nigeria and Action Group (AG) both founded by the late sage Obafemi Awolowo may be the main reason why it is gaining prominence after the near forceful disbanding of its camp (Alliance for Democracy) by the Obasanjo presidency.

With what is happening in Lagos and perhaps Edo, it is not yet too late in the day to plan for, look towards the birth of a new party premised on clear cut ideology and distinct membership. Not to do so, but to continue along side the current arrangement is to imperil eternally their chance(s) of confronting the PDP anytime that a free and fair election will be held in this country. It is also unwittingly a massive support for, and surrendering of state authority to PDP. In spite of what admirers of PDP and their members would claim, a one party state is a recipe for disaster in Nigeria.

•AU. Nkemdili Nnonyelu PhD (Associate Professor), teaches Sociology at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Akwa.

 

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