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Government Of National Unity: Towards a One Party System in Nigeria.

October 11, 2008

Ogbeifun, 2008 quoting Kiiza, 2005 when defining democracy and the role of parties said “democracy is a term derived from two Greek words – demos (or people) and kratos (rule)”. The key components in this definition are people and rule, therefore according to him the system will ultimately involve a process in which people of a given constituency, come together as specified by their electoral laws, to vote and elect some people to rule over them for some specified period. But this has to be in consonance with the provision of constitution.

Ogbeifun, 2008 quoting Kiiza, 2005 when defining democracy and the role of parties said “democracy is a term derived from two Greek words – demos (or people) and kratos (rule)”. The key components in this definition are people and rule, therefore according to him the system will ultimately involve a process in which people of a given constituency, come together as specified by their electoral laws, to vote and elect some people to rule over them for some specified period. But this has to be in consonance with the provision of constitution. In a multi-party system like ours, democracy offers alternative choices to the citizenry. The choices in a true democracy are informed by the parties’ manifestoes, credibility of the candidates, their contributions to the welfare of the people and the upliftment of society. Unfortunately, in most democracies especially here in Africa and particularly Nigeria, the people are hardly allowed to elect leaders of their choice because the thugs; yan kalare, yan daba and goons normally do hijack the electioneering process on one hand, and the Independent National Electoral Commission fraudulently manipulate the electoral system and select those they want as leaders over the wishes of majority. We have seen in the past nine years how politicians fraudulently and sometimes violently select those who they want to be candidate in primary elections and subsequently become leaders in general elections. However, whatever happens at the end of the day, some set of people would emerge at both the Executive and legislative levels. Logically, all the political parties cannot form the central government. Therefore, the party with the majority of vote counts will be given the mandate to form the central government while the rest would constitute the minority groups or the opposition. In a true democracy opposition is the bedrock of sustainable democracy and opposition parties are encouraged, and are given access to information and the media so that their voice could be heard. It is through the opposition that the political party in power will come to know that within the population there are huge silent majority, who did not vote for them but have the right to express their position in certain aspect of governance and it is through that their views can be passed to the government. Historically the founding fathers of modern Nigeria laid its foundation on multi-party democracy. The idea of multi-party system logically is simple. To have a government that would be very conscious of what they are doing and a strong opposition that would challenge actions taken by the party in power, perceived to be detrimental to the nation’s interest and the interest of the majority of its citizen. In the colonial days, political parties were formed to protect the interest of the various regions the country had then. This is a fact. Except for the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon which metamorphosed to National Council of Nigerian Citizens, all the other parties have regional outlook. Notwithstanding their ideology or regional inclination, opposition parties at that time remained what they are known for, i.e criticizing the government in power for good governance. This was evident considering the fact that many of our nationalists leaders in the first republic – a time when a party needed the support of other parties to form a government, the turbulent nature of the political landscape at the time, serious agitation for breakup from all angles; opposition parties remained steadfast to what they believed in. The great Awo for instance led a strong opposition against the government at the centre, maintaining what he thought at the time was good for the nation. That does not stop them from contributing meaningfully to national development. Even in the second republic, which political commentators described as the beginning of the end of democratic governance in Nigeria, opposition parties remained strong and provided they needed opposition that the nation required at the time to push it, in its quest for instituting democracy and good governance. Mallam Aminu Kano and his PRP led an opposition that forced the NPN government to consider the pros and cons of any decision they wanted to take. However, we have reached an era where someone is telling us that opposition has to be part of government as a ‘necessity in order to forestall the chaos that would have erupted after the 2007 elections’. The question is; what was the chaos? From whom? Nigerians? No Nigerian said anything that would threaten the security of the country after the 2003 or 2007 elections. Even Buhari that called for mass protest did not say ‘violent mass protest’, he suggested a peaceful one. And the ‘turbulent’ nature of the aftermath of 2007 election was no near to what happened in 1993. Yet the country survived it. The only argument that would have been accepted was for those in favour of Government of National Unity to tell Nigerians that, their own form of political ideology was to be in government at all cost even if it warrants compromising the interest of their supporters. There are so many ways of joining the ruling party, simply, without taking anybody for a ride. Politics in Nigeria, especially in recent years has become an investment venture where people are hired under the pretence of being members of a political party to come and destroy a party so that there would not be opposition at all. It is just sheer providence and only God knows how that the opposition ANPP is still a political party. From its inception the party was led by hired individuals, whose agenda was to ensure the party does not go beyond state level. They came into the party, wowed people into accepting them, sell their ideology, only for them to turn round and accept appointments in the federal government after ‘their party’ lost the election. I never believed in the ANPP or its leaders, I never considered even for once that what they are doing is for the good of Nigerians. Most of them are group of opportunists that used the popularity of some few individuals within the party to achieve their personal goals, and it shows considering utterances from some of their leaders. History has proved that since its formation in 1998, the party has never been led by its members but by hired individuals from the PDP who connived with their masters in the PDP to field a candidate who in turn will loose the election for the preferred candidate. Most of them that achieved what they were hired to do have gone back to where they came from, that is PDP. Example abound in each state, some were even former governors. What majority of Nigerians were expecting when the party lost the presidential election in 1999/2003/07 contest was for its members to provide a strong opposition based on purpose, ideology, with constructive criticisms that can ginger the government in power to perform and provide good governance. But alas, the moment the party lost that election, the party lost direction. Most of its leaders defected to the opposition PDP, accepted position and since then nobody could say where they are. I have deliberately avoided discussing other opposition parties because they are almost similar to or even worse than that of ANPP. For AC, I still don’t believe that the party is any different from PDP. They came from the PDP, and are part of what happened in the last eight years of Obasanjo. The only party worthy of mention here is AD, which was one of the strong opposition parties in Nigeria prior to 2003; however the party leaders, playing the tribal card succeeded in helping the PDP to destroy the party in its base – the Southwest. The PDP needs not to hire anybody to do that for them, they just employed tribalism and all the 6 states under AD in 1999 – 03 became PDP states with the exception of Lagos. Nigerian politics, especially in the present dispensation was not build on any political ideology or agenda but on how to attain power by whatever means. We are not suggesting that the opposition should just oppose any programme the ruling party put forward just to pull it down, but they should provide constructive criticisms, proffer better, workable and viable options. It is through this, not formation of Government of National Unity that will save the country from the present crisis it finds itself.

 

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The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of SaharaReporters

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