6th September, 2010
As our fledgling democracy creeps towards its twelfth year, it is pertinent to sound a note of warning to politicians and political officer holders on the need for internal democracy in political parties to avoid the pitfalls that bedeviled parties during the 2003 and 2007 general elections.
We must explore ways to inject credibility into the 2011 elections and avoid becoming a laughing stock in the comity of nations.
East, West, North and South politicians are complaining about the overbearing influence of godfathers and the need to curtail their activities, especially at the party level. It is a blatant rape of the wish of the electorate and nothing short of standing democracy on its head for godfathers to foist candidates on parties whereas the electorate have better candidates that they should have chosen for the various elective postions.
Democracy is about choice and to, in any way, subvert the will of the people is criminal. The internal wrangling in most of the political parties is due to no other reason but lack of internal democracy within the party framework. Several candidates have opted out of promising political careers for this reason. Recently, the Abia State Governor, Theodore Orji, defected from the Progressive People’s Party, PPA, to the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, following complaints about the alleged hijack of his government by his predecessor, Orji Uzor Kalu and his mother.
The despicable roles of godfathers have adversely affected governance across the country. The godfather syndrome has been with us for quite a while. The case of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, and National Republican Convention, NRC, both creations of the former Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida remains fresh in the memory of Lagosians. The SDP could not decide on a governorship candidate between the late Prof. Femi Agbalajobi and Chief Dapo Sarumi and the party lost the election to Sir Michael Otedola of NRC, a party which was not even in contention in Lagos State at the time.
The lack of a clearly defined ideology and the plague called godfatherism in the Nigerian context will continue to be the bane of our democracy until the scourge is checked. Most Nigerians believe that what governs party activities today are money, violence and thuggery, not charisma, hard work or love for the people, and these are the ammunition of godfathers who determine who is nominated or even elected within the party.
These godfathers are responsible for the current problem of factionalism that has affected virtually all major parties in the country. Since 1999 when our hard-earned democracy was ushered in, there have been problems resulting in decamping, violence and even outright assassination of political opponents. Several souls have been lost, and God forbid, more will be lost if we do not check our attitude towards power and imbibe the time honoured culture of democracy.
The lack of internal democracy has also led to the proliferation of political parties. The result is that there is no real opposition and the party with the majority has continued to bestride the political landscape without actually making life better for the people.
As the general elections approach, politicians and political office holders must, for the survival of democracy, embrace a culture of internal democracy in the party and eschew violence in any form.
Nigerians have laboured for too long under dictatorship to allow our democracy to be truncated.