The Triumph of People’s Power
By
Wada Nas
After a long period of popular agitation against the unwillingness of certain powerful forces to register new political parties, in accordance with the rules of democracy, these forces have finally succumbed to the will of the people and consequently INEC announced the registration of three new political parties on 22/06/02. Of course, this is not the ideal but it is a step forward in the struggle by the people for true practices of democracy.
Ordinarily, democracy has nothing to do with party registration except party recognition. But ours is a guided democracy devoid of its true practices. While saluting INEC for doing what is expected of it, the people demand commendation for ensuring that their will and power prevail in the democratic process without resort to violence and extreme bitterness. The registration of the three new political parties is indeed the triumph of their democratic power and will.
The next struggle ahead has to do with the plot by some political leaders to subvert the will of the people by seeking to merge or fuse some of the political parties. For sure, it is not in their collective interest. Any merger could amount to taking away from them what the constitution allows them.
For sure, with the new political parties we can imagine those who would not sleep soundly, because the political terrain would no longer be the same again. The registration of three political parties, as already said, makes nonsense any idea of party merger or fusion, because this would be contrary to the objectives for which the registration was made. I have my reasons.
Political unity is very important for the harmonious growth of any polity and its political institutions. A platform that offers an avenue for the adoption of a common political action is vital for the growth of democracy especially in the Third World where differences of opinion sometimes lead to violence.
However, such a common platform does not have to be through the fusion or merger of major political platforms in a given society. Indeed as experience has shown us here in Nigeria, these fusions or mergers have not been helpful to the society. In forging the polity to adopt a two party formation, the Babangida regime had hoped that it would reduce tension within the system. It was therefore a laudable move of seeking to unite the country by forcing the people into two political formations.
But what was not taken into account was that the two political parties of the era were, in truth, composed of more than one political formation, which has existed in the previous Republics. The SDP was a typical example. Within it, it had the AG-UPN, NEPU-PRP, BYM-GNPP, some elements of NCNC- NPP; the PF of ‘Yar’Adua and several others.
The division within showed sharply during the primaries of 1992. Twice did the PF faction win the presidential flag, and twice did the others, especially the AG-UPN faction, dispute it. They even went to the extent of threatening that should the results be upheld, they were going to burn the country to ashes. This was how they helped in annulling the results of the primaries that paved way for the events that followed including June 12. In a way, the A.G-U.P.N faction, within the S.D.P, having failed to secure the party’s flag for their own favoured candidate, settled for causing violence within the polity and this was used as an excuse by the military , not only to annul the primaries of the time, but to ban all the 23 presidential aspirants and in a way led to the events of June 12, which in turn created serious problem for our country and this is still the case today. This arose as result of the fact that each of the factions in the party wanted the flag for its own candidate and since only one flag could be obtained, in that the various formations have been forced into one political party, the struggle within became more intense, which would not have been the case had each been allowed to be a party on its own.
Put another way, if each of the sub-groups, which were in fact formidable political parties, in both the first and second republic, respectively were allowed to exist and produce their own flag bearers the problem in which we are today, which was planted by the violent struggle for power, within the SDP, perhaps, would not have arose.
It is instructive that this was never exactly the case with the NRC the reason being that it is largely and substantially NPC-NRC with their old NCNC-NPP collaborators. There was never such a violent struggle within as in the case of the SDP, largely because of the fact that it was mainly composed of one party and its traditional alliances, unlike the SDP, which had so many parties within.
Today, the SDP situation is showing its head within the PDP. A careful reading would show that PDP is made up of almost all the political parties that had existed in the past except the AG-UPN and BYM-GNPP formations. In it are NPC-NRC, NCNC-NPP, NEPU-PRP , UMBC, PDM, NDC and several others.
In spite of the fact that it controls all the organs of government, and therefore poised to show sense of unity, the ugly friction within, has been such that the National Assembly, dominated by it, does not see eye to eye with the Executive, also dominated by it. The PDP has been its own problem where the Executive has been doing everything possible to undermine the legislature and also where, because of its nature, the frictions within have been formidable. Today the party is being held together only because of its victory in the Presidential election. It is easy to predict that the PDP would disintegrate, into pieces once it loses the forthcoming presidential election because it is the spoils of victory that hold it together. So, when the spoils are not in place, and bearing in mind how the Executive has successfully caused serious damage to the party, it will die in 2003 if it loses the forthcoming presidential election.
The hurried merger of various party formations, in the creation of the party, is partly accountable for this situation. This is a sufficient proof that party merger, or merged political parties, have turned out to create serious problem for the polity as the SDP did and as PDP is currently doing, to the extent that every one of us is now afraid of 2003, largely on account of the style of the ruling party. It is therefore necessary to avoid any attempt at forging a forced merger of any of our current political parties without proper work done. It may cause the polity very dearly as it has done in the past, and still doing.
The other disadvantage of merger is that it narrows the political space and denies the people the right to belong to an association of their choice. The SDP, for example, denied the existence of NEPU-PRP, AG-UPN, PF etc, as political parties on their own account, just as the PDP did the same to the various party formations within it.
It is contradictory therefore to sing the need for more political parties and then, at the same time, reduce them through merger or fusion. The merger of the PLP with the ruling PDP, for example, has denied Nigerians one more political party, assuming the PLP would have gotten registration. It is also the case with the proposed merger of the APP with UNDP. If the merger comes through, this would deny Nigerians one more political party, thereby defeating the purpose for which the NNDP was created in the first place. Assuming the NDP also joins the rank and other party associations merge with the AD or PDP, it means that Nigerians would still be left with the same three party formations, which they said are not enough to cater for their democratic needs. Merger is therefore a way, by party leadership, to deny Nigerians their right to belong to various party formations and this is bad for the polity. It amounts to denying them their constitutional rights through the back door .
Merger should not be confused with working alliance as happened during the first republic, when AG, NCNC, NEPU, UMBC, BYM formed the UPGA alliance, but with each retaining its distinctive identity. This was also the case with the NPC-NNDP alliance, which formed the NNA. They never fused or merged but remained political comrades and friends, coming together, each in its distinctive form, to cooperate in defending their common interest, without compromising the interest of their followers or narrowing the political space through merger of temporary convenience.
Nigerians need more political parties, which lNEC is trying to grant them. It would be wrong, on the part of party leaders, to deny them this by merging or fusing to reduce the number of political parties. It would amount to wasting lNEC time to register more parties, only for a few party leaders to scuttle all the efforts, through merger, which does not help in opening the political space.
The opposition to the planned merger of some political parties, with some political associations, or new parties, as the case may be, is not necessarily that it is being seen, wrongly or rightly, as an attempt to team up against some candidates, as being assumed, but rather because of the problem it created for the nation in the past and is still doing through the PDP and also on account of its capacity to limit the democratic space and deny Nigerians what INEC has guaranteed them in compliance with the constitution.
Merger is a political coup against the democratic spirit and aspirations of the Nigerian people, to the extent that it limits their choices and closes the door against what the constitution allows them. This is the central issue to be taken into account in discussing the issue of merger. Even as many people are insinuating certain motives in the on-going merger among some formations, as a deliberate attempt to scuttle the ambition of a particular candidate of the ruling PDP, the greater focus should be on the political disadvantages of merger and its capacity to limit the democratic space, thereby denying the people many avenues for free choices as guaranteed by the constitution. And as I said, what is the need asking INEC to register more political parties only for such parties to merge with the existing ones? It makes no sense even to the champions of merger .
Given the above analysis, could anybody sincerely say that merger, as being planned by some political parties, without even the input of their various organs, is in the political and democratic interest of the Nigerian people? My own answer is no. Party cooperation, through working and electoral alliance, is by far a better option as it doesn’t offend the democratic space or cause serious injury to the polity, as merged parties have done or are doing currently. What Nigeria deserves is lasting political parties and not merged parties of convenience.