24th March, 2011
Politics, according to Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs. It also refers to behaviour within civil governments.
However, politics has been observed in other group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. It consists of “social relations involving authority or power” and refers to the regulation of public affairs within a political unit and to the methods and tactics used to formulate and apply policy. Wikipedia went further to define Political Engineering as a concept in political science that deals with the designing of political institutions in a society and often involves the use of paper decrees, in the form of laws, referendums, ordinances, or otherwise, to try to achieve some desired effect within a society.
The criteria and constraints used in such design vary depending on the optimization methods used. Usually, democratic political systems have not been deemed suitable as subjects of political engineering methods.
Political engineering, using suboptimal methods or criteria, can sometimes yield disastrous results as in the case of attempting to engineer a previously democratic country’s political landscape by such methods as, for example, a coup d’état.
The Greek military junta of 1967-1974 used political engineering utilising a coup d’état to dissolve the democratic system of Greece with catastrophic results. Political engineering can also be employed to design alternative voting procedures in a democratic system. In the social arena the counterpart of political engineering is social engineering.
To Dr. Jeffrey R. Lax, Department of Politics, New York University, political engineering is like engineering in the natural sciences, which translates theory (e.g., from physics) into practical design (e.g., a bridge), engineering in the social sciences translates rational-choice analysis into the design of better political-economic social institutions.” and “Informed answers to these questions require that we set forth criteria—the specifications of the engineer—for evaluating institutions. In this course, we will invoke such criteria as efficiency, equitability, freedom from certain paradoxes, etc. Particular emphasis will be placed on making institutions as invulnerable as possible to manipulation, which will be subjected to theoretical analysis and illustrated through a series of case studiesâ€.
Political Engineering to Benjamin Reilly Ph.D. is when political parties in theory represent the political expression of underlying societal cleavages and parties and party systems have not usually been thought to be amenable to overt political engineering.
While some authoritarian states have attempted to control the development of their party system (e.g. the mandated ‘two-party’ or ‘three party’ systems that existed under military rule in Nigeria and Indonesia respectively, or the ‘no-party’ system that currently exists in Uganda), most democracies allow parties to develop freely.
Because of this, parties are generally understood to remain beyond the reach of formal political engineering in most circumstances. As much as it is not my intention to bore you with all the postulations about politics and political engineering the major thrust of this attempt is the current political reengineering taking place in Rivers State referred to as the Principle of ‘Anya-neli’ with its chief proponent and advocate being Chief Barr Hon. Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike, the Chief of Staff to the Governor of Rivers State of Nigeria and the Director General of the Amaechi 2011 Re-election Campaign Organisation.
Considering the speed with which this principle is taking root in the politics of Rivers State it has become expedient to critically examine this new political concept by this enigma -who in the course of the ongoing campaign has proven himself as the new political force and encyclopaedia of Rivers State politics- and its effect and socio-political impact on the present and future fortunes of the political terrain in Rivers State. Now that the major purpose of this study has been defined, let me for the avoidance of doubt particularly for non-Nigerians that may be reading this thesis from foreign countries shed some light on the entity called Rivers State. Rivers State is one of the 36 states of Nigeria with Port Harcourt as its capital. It is bounded on the South by the Atlantic Ocean, to the North by Imo, Abia and Anambra States, to the East by Akwa Ibom State and to the West by Bayelsa and Delta States. Rivers State is home to a variety of ethnic groups, including Abua, Andoni, Ekpeye, Engenni, Etche, lbani, lkwerre, Kalabari, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni, Okrika and Ogoni.
The inland part of Rivers State consists of tropical rainforest; towards the coast the typical Niger Delta environment features many mangrove swamps. Rivers State, named after the many rivers that border its territory, was part of the Oil Rivers Protectorate from 1885 till 1893, when it became part of the Niger Coast Protectorate.
In 1900 the region was merged with the chartered territories of the Royal Niger Company to form the colony of Southern Nigeria. The state was created in 1967 with the split of the Eastern Region of Nigeria. Until 1996 the state also contained the area which is now the Bayelsa State.The word ‘Anya-neli’ is a political word coined from the Ikwerre language and has an array of uses in context ranging from carefulness, alacrity, watchful, cautious, alert, vigilant, wary and observant. The essence of this new principle and concept in the politics of Rivers State urges one to be on guard to protect each and every vote that will be cast in favour of PDP candidates in the state at the April polls.
As Director General of Amaechi 2011 Re-election Campaign bid during the course of this campaign, it has become second nature for Chief Wike to end what I have come to refer to as his “Charge Speechâ€, where he mandates specific PDP stalwarts to deliver their various words on election day; with cries of ‘anya-neli!, anya-neli!!, anya-neli!!’. It is the gusto with which he has applied himself to this act at all campaigns that stirred my interest to research and understand the idea behind such passionate cries and if it in any way had any far reaching implications on the political stage of a state like Rivers State.
To say that the Amaechi campaign train so far has been operating like a well oiled military onslaught with Wike as Chief Strategist at the helm of affairs, would be underestimating the obvious. This is because apart from the new doctrine of anya-neli he is so passionate about, any keen observer of the campaign is amazed at Wike’s prowess at mentioning the names of every stalwart charged with delivering the wards in their various states. And if one recalls that a total of 319 wards in contention, then it would not be wrong to give kudos to the man who is able to seemingly without effort reel out names off hand at each campaign.
He is also quick to add that political relevance in the next dispensation will be based on ability to deliver wards at the polls. This charge in my opinion is a major form of political engineering which gives a sense of responsibility to party stalwarts and negates the principle of “business as usual†by keeping everyone his toes.
The fact therefore remains, that never in the annals of politicking in the state or any part of Nigeria has one individual exhibited the skill and ingenuity developed by this new enigma of the politics of the state in delivering charges and mobilising the people to action.
In one of such campaigns at a particular local government rally, the traditional rulers in attendance stood up in salute of this new revelation in the art of campaigning in the state as he reeled out names and charges to people.
So much so, that Mr. Julius “De Genius†Agu, a renowned Rivers-born comedian and entertainer who compeered at most of the rallies, was forced to call him the embodiment and encyclopaedia of the Rivers State politics based on his ability to reel out names of politicians in the state without any paper in hand.
At Okirika the home local government area of Dr. Abiye Sekibo, the ACN governorship candidate in the 2011 April polls and one of the pretenders challenging Amaechi for the seat of the governor of Rivers State, Wike’s speech reverberated around the whole of the town and by all intents would have sent Sekibo scuttling out of town if he was anywhere near the vicinity.
Wike charged the Okrika people to ensure that Amaechi be re-elected come April. Showing the stuff of which he is made, he reeled out names of different individuals who he mandated to personally work tirelessly to deliver their wards during the elections. He especially fired on all cylinders when he charged Honourable Soe Dikibo, one time commissioner in the state, to ensure he delivered Ward Four to PDP come April. He was emphatic in his call for victory at this particular ward because it incidentally is the Ward of Sekibo, the ACN governorship candidate.
In his words: “uproot the so-called base of doom and watch the other areas deliveredâ€. What is perhaps baffling to most people that have watched this man on stage is how and when he does his research resulting in such commendable delivery at the rallies. Being a member of the campaign team, it was easy for me to make up my mind to do a fly on the wall study of this man to understand what drives him.
Fortunately 7 March 2011 presented me with an opportunity to monitor him. Like every other day since the campaign started on 1 March, he woke up by 4 am and went straight for morning devotion with his family. By 5 a.m., he took his bath and by 6 a.m. people had already gathered in his house for meetings or other businesses.
By 8 a.m., he was at the campaign office to attend to files before the arrival of most of the staff and directors of the campaign. 8.30 a.m. saw him hold meetings with the Chairmen and Secretaries of the Campaign Committees and by 9.30 a.m. he was off to the campaign ground to inspect the venue while awaiting the arrival of the governor and his entourage. This particular day we visited two local government areas – Ahoada East and Ahoda West and came back to Port Harcourt by 6 p.m. He drove straight to his house after a debriefing at the campaign headquarters. On arrival at his residence, we were met by hundreds of people already seated and waiting for him for several meetings.
•Eze Chukwuemeka wrote this piece from Port Harcourt
