By Msonter Anzaa
The People’s Democratic Party,
PDP, had vowed or threatened to rule Nigeria for at least 60 consecutive years
before it can hand over to any other political party. Given its performance
since 1999, this ambition has serious implications for the future of Nigeria.
Single political parties have attempted but always failed to dislodge the PDP
from power. The only way out of this desperate situation is the formation of a
merger or at least a formidable alliance among the leading opposition parties
in the country. But given the character of the Nigerian politician, can such a
merger work?
Quite clearly, Nigerian political
parties do not have a remarkable history of mergers or alliances. A most recent
demonstration of this problem occurred during the 2011 presidential election
when attempts for an alliance between the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN and
the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, failed. The usefulness of a merger is
self-evident in a nation under siege like Nigeria. Mergers or alliances
strengthen political parties and increase their support base. This is evident
in the 2006 merger of the Action Congress and the Alliance for Democracy to
form the Action Congress of Nigeria. The ACN has since then steadily risen to
become a major opposition party in the country. To defeat the PDP, a merger of
the leading opposition parties is necessary. This will not come without its
challenges though.
The biggest challenge to a merger
of the opposition parties is the parties themselves. Opposition parties in
Nigeria do not have a common idea of what they want to achieve. Each party
appears to have been formed to pursue an agenda contra-lateral to that of the
others. This is so because where these parties are not platforms for certain
principal “owners” to express their political ambitions and become
“stakeholders” in “cutting” the “national cake” without baking it, they are
regional parties formed to advance sectional interests against those of the
other regions. This causes opposition within the opposition and makes no room
for a common ground among the parties. Take the failed ACN-CPC alliance for
instance. General Muhammadu Buhari was torn between his personal ambition to
acquire the title of president, his desperation to present himself as a
Northern candidate in his campaign and the ACN’s need for a more liberal
and national figure. It was impossible for Buhari to give up his hold on the presidential
ticket because that was essentially why he formed “his own” party, and the
sentiment at that time was that it was the “turn” of the North to produce the
president. If the alliance had succeeded, it would have upset PDP’s victory
given the CPC’s impressive performance of winning 12 states.
A similar trend will likely play
out between the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, and any of the other
opposition parties. To begin with, APGA is an emerging power in the South East
and is majorly regarded as an “Igbo” party which should provide a platform for
an “Igbo” president. This sentiment is particularly strong because since the
Civil War ended, no one from that region has become president. Typical of
Nigerian political mentality, the South East feels “marginalized” and is
agitating for its “turn” to produce the president. It will be difficult for the
region to accept a merger which does not immediately gratify this desire.
Indeed, it would be seen by the region as unfair for any of the other regions
to insist on producing the president when they have done so at least once in
the past. On the other hand, the Labour Party, LP, which does not seem to have
any immediate presidential ambition, may not pose a great challenge, but due to
its limited reach, its merger with any of the others alone will not present a
significant challenge to the PDP.
It follows from above that the
merger of these parties will be difficult not because of any difference in
ideology. Instead, it will be because of the non-existence of any ideology in
the first place. This is where the opposition parties are no different from the
PDP. It is a fundamental problem arising from wrong motives for political
participation which are fuelled by irredeemable corruption. What is the essence
of political power? Why is it difficult to have a national party that promotes
the ideal of a strong and united Nigeria? Why do individuals hungry for power
find it expedient to constantly harass the nation with threats of disintegration?
It is because the Nigerian politician is a creature of emotions and not ideas.
The people of Nigeria may have to
suffer a little longer under the PDP and its genetic corruption because of this
behavior of opposition politicians. A merger is only feasible where parties with similar ideas work together
to achieve common goals. It cannot work where one man is occupied with a
primordial desire to be president at all costs and another feels his “people”
own the presidency and it is his duty to acquire it on their behalf. For
instance, shortly before the 2011 presidential election, Orji Uzor Kalu was
quoted as saying that he was running for president because an Igbo man does not
yet have his picture in Aso Rock. General Buhari on the other hand was poisoned
by the sentiment that the presidency belonged to the north, and he and his
followers then defined a free and fair election as an election in which Buhari
wins! The trouble with Nigerian
politics is the inability of the politicians to rise above selfish interests
and become sensitive to national interests. Why must a particular individual be
president? Can’t these gentlemen sacrifice their personal ambitions for the
sake of this nation? Why do we proceed with this chieftaincy-title-president
ideology where the presidency is reduced to a title which everyone must bear? Why,
as Chinua Achebe queries, do “a couple of [individuals]. . . see the
Nigerian presidency as pension and gratuity for the services they think they
rendered to the country thirty years ago”?
Before any merger or alliance can
work among the opposition parties, they would have to break with their ethnic
and selfish sentiments, and project a national vision which every Nigerian can
share. The “owners” of these parties must understand that the primary mandate
of any political party is to serve Nigeria above everything else. They must
liberate themselves from their incurable affinity for titles and positions. Not
everybody must be party chairman; not every strong party member must be in
political office, and not every financier of the party must be president.
Instead, these parties should form for themselves a national vision and find
from amongst themselves a Nigerian, irrespective of what language he speaks and
where he worships, who has a full grasp of what needs to be done. Until they do
that, any merger – if it happens at all – will only last as long as it takes
them to realize that there was actually no merger in the first place.
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