The sight was not just bewildering it was also shocking. Dateline was Thursday, May 29, 2003. Venue was Aso Rock Presidential Villa. It was the cake-cutting ceremony to celebrate the second term victory and second swearing-in ceremony of then President Matthew Okikiolakan Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo. Joining Obasanjo to cut the celebration cake were two governors and some party leaders of the supposed opposition All Peoples Party, APP (which later became All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, before a faction of it morphed into General Muhammadu Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change, CPC.
By this time, the only other opposition party, the Alliance for Democracy, AD, had lost all but one of its six governors in the South-West geo-political zone, which was its stronghold. Apart from Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State, who survived through his grit, determination and an insider dealing of a leader of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the other five bit the political dust. Adebayo Adefarati of Ondo State, Lam Adeshina of Oyo State, Niyi Adebayo of Ekiti State, Segun Osoba of Ogun State, and Bisi Akande of Osun State, all lost the governorship election of that year. Through subterfuge, reliance on ethno-cultural bias, alleged manipulation of election results, and strategic deception, Obasanjo was able to bulldoze his way through and get PDP to take over the five states.
In fact, according to a February 25, 2004 Report extracted from the 2001-2009 Archive of the US State Department, “the elections (of 2003) also resulted in the ruling PDP winning 70 percent of the seats in the national legislature and 75 percent of the state governorship.” That was how strong the PDP was.
Prior to the bizarre events of May 2003, and under the guise of forming a Government of National Unity, GNU, Obasanjo, upon assuming office in 1999, rewarded the National Chairman of the APP, Senator Mahmud Waziri, with appointment as his Presidential Adviser on Inter-Party Affairs. Meanwhile, Obasanjo had two other Presidential Advisers on National Assembly Matters and another one on Political Affairs. So, what was the brief of Waziri, if not to use him as an instrument of destabilisation of the APP?
In that same 1999, for AD, Obasanjo reached for and appointed one of the leaders of Afenifere and AD, late Chief James Ajibola Idowu Ige (Bola Ige), SAN, as minister of power. He then grabbed Dupe Adelaja, daughter of Afenifere and National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, Leader, Pa Abraham Aderibigbe Adesanya, and appointed her as Minister of State, Defence. All these happened between 1999 and 2003.
So, how did these two opposition parties disappear from the political firmament – or as they would love to delude themselves, become a shapeless shadow? It is because those who are supposed to be in the opposition are afflicted with a cocktail of malaise that renders them both toothless and irrelevant over time. This report has codified them into 10.
QUOTES
The spirit of Mammon is in bed with many Nigerian politicians. Money is like an elixir for the politician because the primary reason why many of them go into politics is to make money
Due to the fickle and fluid state of affairs, many do not have the stamina to stand against the might of the ruling party. Blackmail, intimidation, abuse of court processes and other such unholy acts are used to whip opposition politicians in line
Because of loss of faith in the ability of the EMB to be above board, opposition politicians seek shelter in the ruling party where they are almost always certain to win and return to office
Deep-seated uncertainty
In his seminal work of February, 2002, titled: ‘Viable Party System As Basis Of Democracy’, Professor Omo Omoruyi of the famed Centre for Democratic Studies, CDS, pricked the conscience. He posited: “The notion of the deep-seated uncertainty (about Nigeria) has to do with the relationship between the past, the present and the future. When it affects a country, it can be a severe crisis. This is the problem in Nigeria today. I shall try to apply the concept of deep-seated uncertainty to three areas of Nigerian political life: The lingering political problems; the declining faith in the political order; and the notion of winners and losers.”
Socio-economic contradictions
In the course of doing this report, it was discovered that the social and economic contradictions inherent in Nigeria’s political sphere make it difficult, if not impossible, for opposition to thrive with a view to making the progressive change that should dominate conversations before and after the fact.
In a political system that is neo-patrimonial and largely based on links of connections and patronage between political stakeholders and stockholders, delinking abhorrent behavioural instincts from activities on the political terrain becomes difficult.
This report may not be able to dig deeper into the theoretical underpinning of competitive party behaviours. But there are the Vote-seeking parties; Office-seeking parties; and Policy-seeking parties. Unfortunately for Nigerians, it does not appear that any of the parties in operation today fits the policy-seeking model. As has been proved since 1999, the parties align with the office-seeking model but stretches it further by asphyxiating the political space
What is worse, Professor Omoruyi insists that the now common refrain of ‘THERE IS NO VACANCY IN ASO ROCK’, a statement which was introduced into Nigeria’s politics by PDP and now a hackneyed phrase for the APC, is abhorrent to party politics.
According to Omoruyi, what Nigerians should appreciate is that democracy is anchored on the feeling or faith under three conditions: “That there would be another election; That the winner is not the winner for all time; and That the loser is not the loser for all time.
“Consequently,” he continued, “democracy abhors the expression which can only mean one of two things or both, which are: there would not be a free and fair nomination process within the ruling party; and that there would not be a free and fair election process in 2003.”
Therefore, he concluded, “the meaning of both would be the following: That the two processes would be massively rigged to achieve the predetermined ends; that the President’s men are at work to implement a programme directed at the two ends; that the process of choosing party offices within the ruling party would be applied to achieve the same ends; that the process of divide and rule would be implemented to deal with other parties; that the electoral law coming out of the National Assembly on the next election would be such as to as to achieve the predetermined ends; and that the use of “faked” security reports as an argument to determine the schedule of elections in 2002 for the local government must be seen within the context of the two ends.”
Voters inducement
It has also been suggested that political parties do clinch power through the inducement of a section of the voting public and will go to great lengths to equally induce leaders of the opposition not to ‘disturb’ its grip on power. Late Dr. Wahab Dosunmu, Second Republic Minister of Housing blazed the ignominious trail of jumping from AD to PDP.
Asked about the possible implications of his move, he simply said people should go to court and test the provisions of the law. He was soon followed by Oluseye Ogunlewe also from AD to PDP and was rewarded with a ministerial post. Once there was no challenge to these two, the floodgate was opened. Even the attempt to stem the tide, rendering vacant seats of legislators who jump ship without conditions precedent by law, is yet to bear the desired dividend because of the convoluted and up-and-down judicial pronouncements coming from the courts.
So, Vanguard has carefully codified into10 the reasons parties that are supposed to play the role of opposition end up becoming toothless.
1.Greed of political actors
Exploring the etymology of the word greed is unnecessary here. A simple look at your average politician and his ways signposts him as a greedy fellow. Defined as “intense and selfish for something, especially wealth, power or food,” the politician who finds himself on the losing side craves that which he lost but does so without scruples. As if possessed by the spirit of avarice, it is about him and what he can get. That is why a politician who espoused all the virtuous concepts of RIGHT, becomes a legislator and jumps ship from his party to another party, (usually the ruling party) so as to partake in the privileges and benefits of being part of the same.
2.Role of money
The spirit of Mammon is in bed with many Nigerian politicians. Money is like an elixir for the politician because the primary reason why many of them go into politics is to make money. You can be in opposition and earn respect but you can not be in opposition and make money. It is even more difficult in a culture of winner-takes-all. Because he has nothing truly strategic to offer his constituents, he must explore all avenues of making money so that he can begin to stockpile palliatives that he would distribute. Instead of engaging critical thinking and availing his constituents visible dividends of democracy in the area of infrastructural development in education, health and other areas, many want the money. Sometimes, the money is not even used to palliate the constituents, it is to engage in sartorial flamboyance and acquisition of properties and choice cars. You can not make money as an opposition politician, so you jump ship. Labour Party, LP, which, according to the results of the House of Representatives elections of February last year, won 35 seats, now has 17 seats – 18 Reps have joined APC.
3.Pressure from constituents
Because a people deserve the type of leaders they get, constituents and followers are also complicit in this craze to defect to the ruling party. In an environment where poverty has been so weaponised, many followers of politicians also want to ‘belong’ – that is, they want to be where the action is happening. Seeing members of the ruling party being serenaded with palliatives, constituents sometimes pile pressure on their political leaders who are ready and willing to jump ship not necessarily to better the lot of the followers but to satisfy a desire that had been latent and looking for an avenue to blossom.
4.Fear of losing political relevance
After every election, politicians take stock, scan the environment and seek to make the most of their new office. For people who lack scruples but find themselves in opposition, they weigh their options. Members of the ruling party are almost always the news makers – mostly, for the wrong reasons. The opposition candidates enjoy a season of honeymoon in the limelight but soon fizzle out because of the toxic nature of the political space. Political correctness then becomes the order of the day. That way opposition politicians would not be seen to be attempting to upturn the applecart. The less forceful he or she is in the House of Representatives or Senate or State House of Assembly, the higher the chances of becoming a committee chair or a vice chairman. It is the fear of losing relevance that ends up making some opposition politicians engage political correctness as a standard practice. This leads to waffling and double speak. But the polity is structured in a manner that embraces idiocy, sycophancy and praise-singing hence politicians fear losing relevance and would go to any length to remain ‘relevant’, including keeping silent in the face of oppression
5.AGIP political orientation
Some politicians, since 1999, have become known as AGIP (And Government In Power) politicians. From AD, to PDP, APP, ANPP, ACN, ACD, CPC, LP, some politicians have traversed all the parties listed. For them, any party that clinches the federal power becomes a nestling place for them. It is not about what they want to offer the people but what they can get by being on the winning side. Politicians like that do not stay in opposition to fight for something other than self. To wait and expect something constructive or meaningful from such individuals would be like waiting for Godot.
6.Absence of a second address
Some politicians who may have trained in one profession or the other have never practiced for a day. Seeing politics as a sure means of acquiring wealth and power, they jumped in either through ancestry or patrimonial connection or success-by-association. Having become so comfortable with feeding fat on the largesse of the government, they have no other means of livelihood than to be addressed as honourables or distinguished.
The world of the unknown outside politics and public office would make such politicians do just about anything to continue to benefit, including jumping from the opposition to the ruling party. They have no job other than politics.
7.Lack of sustainable party structure
Whereas we can blame the individuals as being responsible for the weakness of the opposition, it should be understood that the political parties themselves act as mere Special Purpose Vehicles, SPVs, to acquire power either as vote-seeking or office-seeking parties. Having a sustainable party structure is not the same as having an organogram that outlines offices and schedules. It is about having an entity that is firm and grounded on norms and values that ideas are hoisted on. It is also about adherence to organisational protocol. It is this lack of accountable structure that leads to the collapse of the opposition parties. It is this same absence of sustainable party structure that makes an individual or just a handful of them to hijack the affairs of a political party and threaten to destroy it, even while already in bed with the ruling party.
8.Absence of internal party democracy
Stemming from the above, there is a discount of internal democracy in political parties in Nigeria. It is an affliction and it runs through all the parties. The consequence of this is that politicians of quintessential persona who espouse virtues of decency and uprightness are thrown aside for others who have the means or connection. Even party constitution and electoral guidelines put together by the parties are not adhered to. This leads to the emergence of candidates who do not have serious bonding to the parties, hence they easily migrate to the ruling party once they win elections. In fact, some politicians in ruling parties, having lost tickets, buy their way into opposition parties, clinch tickets, win elections and jump right back to the ruling party, thereby weakening the base of the so-called opposition.
9.State capture by ruling party leaders
Another major contributing factor to the weakening of the opposition is the issue of state capture by the ruling party operatives. What happens is that every aspect of government and its institutions is compromised to work for and be subservient to the ruling party. The judiciary, legislature, intelligence services, senior civil servants, et al become malleable to the dictates of the ruling party or what is known as the cabal around the presidency. Because of the fickle and fluid state of affairs, many do not have the stamina to stand against the might of the ruling party. Blackmail, intimidation, abuse of court processes and other such unholy acts are used to whip opposition politicians in line. This asphyxiates the political space where the opposition wants to play and, therefore, renders discombobulate, whatever meaningful attempts at raising the bar of opposition against the ruling party.
10.Loss of faith electoral umpire
The biggest elephant in the room is the electoral umpire and its shenanigans. Were the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, above board in its functions, politicians generally (and not just opposition) would be confident in their capacity to mobilise, go into the field and contest without fear of being rigged out. The February 25, 2004 Report extracted from the 2001-2009 Archive of the US State Department, that said “the elections (of 2003) also resulted in the ruling PDP winning 70 percent of the seats in the national legislature and 75 percent of the state governorship,” was a mere reference to the power of rigging carried out by the PDP with the connivance of INEC. Today’s APC and INEC are in bed, just as PDP was. But nothing lasts forever. Because of the electoral process that condones cheating, use of money to compromise officials and might of the ruling party to rig at will in collusion with the election management body, opposition politicians drift to the ruling party where they are sure to exploit the benefits of bandwagon. Because of loss of faith in the ability of the EMB to be above board, opposition politicians seek shelter in the ruling party where they are almost always certain to win and return to office. As a former chairman of APC unashamedly once said, “once you join our party, all sins are forgiven.”
(Vanguard)
