Entrenching party reform ahead of 2019 elections

In this piece, George Ukanna writes on the imperative of party reforms to consolidate democracy and party system.

As the 2019 elections approach, a debate is on, on whether to maintain the character, quality and content of the nation’s democracy or lift it to avail majority of Nigerians the opportunity for inclusion in political conversations and decisions. The framing of the debate has made some analysts to think that the political firmament has been devoid of ideology or  party philosophy, which ultimately is at the root of the disconnect between the government and the governed.

Within the broad context of the nation’s political history, the two opposing sides to the debate have found expression in determining the character that informed the formation, maintenance and proliferation of political parties that are ideology-driven. The deliberate efforts toward the closing-up of the political space against broad participation have generated grievances that are expressed in electoral violence and the marring of the electoral processes by malpractices.

Within the context of political party formation in the First Republic, the perceived determination of progressive elements to ensure the widening of the political space against the stranglehold of a few persons which threatened political interactions and participation that led to the crisis that eventually resulted in the collapse of the Republic. The point must be made that the proponents of a closed political space are always hell-bend with their threats and preference to sacrifice the entire democratic project if they will not have their way. The struggle to entrench democracy in the country has been won and lost especially with the coalescing of national and international dispositions in favour of democratic consolidation as the sure path to guaranteeing effective public participation in governance. In the Second Republic, the narrowing of the political spaces resulted in the pilfering of the public treasury by the few elites and the entrenchment of mediocrity in governance. To maintain the status quo, the entire political party structures and processes dovetailed into the rentier government attitude and soiled the entire democratic experience in corruption. Sadly, the Third Republic was designed and destined by the General Ibrahim Babangida’s administration to yield the desired result, which was the exclusion of  participants on the basis of patronage and the deliberate skulduggery of the entire scheme with the annulment of a peaceful and credible election.

The Fourth Republic witnessed the sustenance of the confrontations between the proponents and opponents of a closed political space. Within the specific context of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the struggle has raged for close to two decades, resulting in the arbitrary removal of the party’s national chairmen at the whims of powerful public office holders. The removal of the current Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh,  as PDP national chairman  under the leadership of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Vice President Abubakar Atiku is still fresh in our memory. As the controversy surrounding the removal of Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State raged and in view of the role of the security agencies, Chief Ogbeh advised the former President to curtail the anarchy. However, he was forced to resign. This did not start nor end with Chief Audu Ogbeh, but with Chief Solomon Lar, Chief Barnabas Gemade, Vincent Ogubulafor, Okwesilieze Nwodo, Bamanga Tukur, among others. It was only Chief Ahmadu Ali that survived the onslaught of the proponents of closed political space because of his long time friendship with former President Obasanjo.

In conscious struggle against the proponents of closed political space, the late social crusader, Chief Ganiyu Fawehinmi battled against the structure and process that narrow political participation to certain class of individuals who claimed to have the exclusive prerogative to determine membership, rules and procedures in political parties. Although the benefits of Chief Fawehinmi’s struggle is currently being felt across the country with the wind of political party registration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the element of exclusion within the parties still lingers on.

Sadly, recent happenings within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) brought to the fore the unfortunate memories of the heyday of PDP when national chairmen and proponents of fair political party participation are sacrificed on the altar of the narrow interests of some elite. Indeed, the deliberate efforts of APC National Chairman Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole to guarantee effective political participation within the party have been resisted by few some people. These efforts, however, are widely supported by majority of the teeming members of the party within and outside the country. Without doubt, the composition of APC presents the potential for cacophonous sounds in view of its formative history. Nevertheless, Comrade Oshiomhole is navigating the party towards openness, transparency, consolidation and inclusive participation of the diverse interests represented in the party.

In initiating intellectually-driven reform mechanisms for accommodation, inclusion and broad participation in political parties, elements that have enjoyed the old order will want to maintain the status quo where a monarchical system of transition is institutionalised to the chagrin of the majority. This brazen oppression of the party structures and processes has denied not only the party, but also the country the benefit of harnessing the untapped potential inherent in individuals with no political godfathers. The task before political party administrators, which Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has confronted head on, is to institutionalise structures and processes for effective participation, which would afford political parties to identify and harness their best resource (s) for the benefit of all humanity. Fortunately, as the United States of America elected former President Barrack Obama, who navigated the country out of its economic crisis, so was Nigeria under the  Muhammadu Buhari/Yemi Osinbajo administration done with the Nigeria’s economic debacle, because of an institutionalised structure and process of wide party participation and consultations. As the then Illinois State Senator, Barack Obama gave the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention (DNC) on the night of 27 July 2004, which exposed the leadership qualities of  the young senator to the party. The young Barack Obama would eventually become the President of the USA. In the same vein,  APC under the able leadership of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has committed to harnessing enormous human resources that abound in the party and the country for socioeconomic and political transformation.

The commitment towards the institutionalisation of internal democracy in APC informed the decision of the party’s organs to identify three methods for the selection of its candidates at national and states levels – direct primaries, indirect primaries and consensus. Suffice to note that the indirect primaries have been adopted over the years by political parties with testimonies of inducement, corruption, manipulation, intimidation and undue influence of godfathers. The ongoing reforms in APC have ensured that party candidates emerged from a legally accepted procedure that would minimise litigation and entrench credibility. The reality is that reform is painful. However, efforts must be made by political party members to explore both internal and legal mechanisms for dispute resolution in ventilating their grievances without necessarily tying them to personal sentiments. Happily, the National Chairman of APC, Comrade Oshiomhole has severally said that the decisions of the party, which are mostly fair and just, are not sacrosanct but are subject to further interrogation by the relevant courts of the law. This rule of law-driven reforms of the party under the leadership of Comrade Oshiomhole is mindful of the repercussion of non-adherence of the rule of law as occasioned by the crass violation of party instructions and court decisions by some politicians, which has caused the party goodwill and offices in some states. That some powerful individuals lost out in the just concluded APC primary elections does not mean they have lost out politically, in the sense that political parties are platforms for the actualisation of collective interests for the greater good of all Nigerians. But these reform initiatives are necessary and fundamental to the realisation of the broader principles for grounding the policies and programmes of the Buhari/Osinbajo administration, which are in consonance with the constitutional provisions for guaranteeing the security and welfare of all citizens.