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Fusion, Not Party Alliances
There is some kind of a history of party development in Nigeria which is about “other parties” struggling to challenge the position of a relatively dominant one. In the First Republic, for instance, the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) was the dominant party whose awesome control of the centre provoked the alliances of other political parties. A series of shifting alliances between parties culminated in grand alliances that aped a two-party competition. The 1964 Federal elections were contested between a group of politicians which styled themselves as progressive, the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA), and another group assumed to be conservatives, the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA) which revolved around the ethnocentric NPC. The alliances collapsed with the demise of the First Republic in January 1966. History repeated itself in the Second
Republic (1979-1983) when the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) emerged as
the relatively dominant political party following the 1979 elections,
thereby compelling self-styled progressive politicians to attempt to forge
an alternative political party via the Progressive Parties Alliance (PPA).
The progressive politicians held a series of meetings and rallies, giving
an impression that something great was going to happen. The alliance
collapsed on the altar of ethnic politics as the members were unable to
agree a common candidate for the 1983 presidential elections. However,
they agreed to support in the presidential election whichever member of
the alliance posed the greatest challenge to the NPN candidate – a
strategy that met its waterloo once the electoral arrangement was reversed
to begin with that of the president. What would appear to be a blatant attempt
to compel the fusion of the progressive and conservative ideological
assumptions or tendencies in Nigerian politics came in the Third Republic
when General Ibrahim Babangida decreed two political parties – the Social
Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC) – into
existence. Sadly, General Babangida himself killed off his own experiment
making it impossible for us to know how far it could have gone. However,
the history of political party development here or in any other place
suggests it was one experiment which in the long term hardly had any
chance of succeeding. While a nation may choose to be a one-party state
or a multi-party state, compartmentalising one as large and diverse as
Nigeria into two political parties was indeed one hell of an experiment in
political engineering. General Babanbida’s seeming aberration
was soon followed by General Sani Abacha’s joke of five political parties
that would have a consensus presidential candidate which was to be
himself. However, fate did not permit the Abacha joke to further
infuriate our sensibilities and maybe we now know better that there is
really no alternative to democracy in whatever shape it presents itself.
The current shape of democracy in our society may not be the most ideal
but democracy is nevertheless one experiment that improves with practice
and continuity. The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) urgently needs
genuine rival political parties and not toothless and spineless opposition
parties. The dominance of the PDP is more or less
a continuation of the tendencies witnessed in the First and Second
Republics when the NPC and NPN respectively dominated the political
space. The politics of alliances might have been suitable in the
parliamentary system as practised in the First Republic when
post-electoral coalitions between parties decided Government and
Opposition but the presidential system of government is a different kettle
of fish. Parties have to be of sufficient strength to be realistically
able to challenge for the presidency and that is why it is absolutely
important for Nigeria’s minor political parties to consider merging their
forces rather than continuing to agonise about the PDP. This writer has
argued consistently that truly competitive political parties that traverse
ethnic and religious divides can emerge if the principle of leadership
rotation is entrenched in the constitution. If the Nigerian Constitution
is ever going to be reviewed, this position should be favourably
considered as it is one effective way of removing the hob around which
support for the ethnic political party revolves. Helped by an electoral institution which
is truly independent and fair to all parties, the people themselves are
the most important elements in the trend and direction of a nation’s party
system. They are the ones who decide with their ballots whether or not a
set of political office holders should continue to serve. One phenomenon
in the old democratic nations, particularly America and Britain, is the
continued increase in the number of independent or floating voters. They,
not the traditional card-carrying supporters, decide the outcome of major
elections. One believes strongly there would be a large number of such
independent voters in the Nigerian society once major political parties
have ceased to be ethnic. It was said at the beginning of this article that Nigeria does not have a serious ideological divide and that should not suggest anything negative. The presidential system of government thrives on such an atmosphere. The absence of a serious ideological divide explains why America’s two political parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, have co-existed and worked for common good over the years. Where there is a serious ideological divide, one party might assume it had an obligation to silence the other whenever the opportunity presents itself. However, our elected politicians are enjoined to respect their mandates and stop prostituting themselves. Defecting from one political party to the other does not help the cause of a stable, competitive party system. |