Something sinister is rearing its ugly head in Nigeria. The country’s political system is turning into a one-party arrangement. The ruling party, the All Progressives Congress ( APC), has become the beautiful bride. It is very much sought after by political actors.
In the last one year or so, every Nigerian politician, young or old, active or inactive, wants to belong to the APC. This ruling party is regarded as the only living political party. The others are dismissed as dead, leprous or ineffectual.
This evolving trend is ironical in the Nigerian setting, given the country’s recent political experience. Here is one country whose latest presidential election held on February 25, 2023 produced the very opposite of what the people voted for. In that election, a relatively little known party called Labour Party (LP) gave the old, entrenched political parties a good run for their money. This was possible because LP was privileged to have as its presidential candidate, a man whose outlook and approach to party politics was revolutionary. Nigerians connected almost effortlessly with his message. He embodied hope. He represented a radical departure from the old, debilitating order. For this reason, Nigerians saw him as the epitome of the new Nigeria they have been yearning for.
But that man, Mr Peter Obi, and his political party were shortchanged by a corrupt electoral commission and compromised judiciary. In the end, an imposed leadership took over, leading to the excruciating suffering that Nigerians are going through at moment.
If the people of Nigeria still have any distaste for ugly situations, they will repudiate and reject everything that the political party they rejected at the polls stands for. They will frown on and vow to do away with the imposed presidency that has impoverished them. In other words, the APC would have been the most loathsome political party in the eyes and imagination of Nigerians. Sadly, that is not the case. Rather than loathe and shun the party that has destroyed the very fabric of their existence, the people are falling over themselves to join and be identified with the party. The rush at the gate of the party is frenetic. It is akin to the race and struggle for a space in Cinderella’s castle.
The scenario can only be described as bemusing. It has tasked the imagination of those who are desirous of understanding the true Nigerian character. The preliminary impression they get is that there must be something fundamentally wrong with a people with this perverse and perverted sense of judgment and value. As a matter of fact, the scramble for APC says a lot about the character and characteristic of the Nigerian. It alerts us to the fact that Nigeria is majorly peopled by elements whose hold on anything and everything is fleeting. The typical Nigerian is not governed by any principle or belief. He lives for the moment. He has no staying power. What propels him is the immediate. He does not believe in a lasting struggle.
If Nigerians were not fickle and gullible, many would have put on their thinking caps with a view to working out how to dislodge the system that has emasculated them. But they are not doing that because nobody is interested in any form of struggle. Rather than tackle the rot they have been thrown into, Nigerians are busy calculating what it will cost them to dismantle the destructive order. Nobody wants to dare. If anything, they have chosen to toe the line of least resistance. They reckon that the political party which grabbed power in 2023 has consolidated. Can they neutralize this octopus in the next election? The feeling they have is that it is near impossible for the ruling party not to win the next election and control the levers of government. So, why bother when you will end up losing? Faulty conclusions such as this breed hopelessness which, in turn, leads to defeat.
For the fair weather Nigerian therefore, anybody who operates outside this ruling party will gain nothing. He will lose everything. What makes sense in their estimation is to join the winning party rather than struggle to dislodge it.
This disposition is at the root of the hopeless state of the Nigerian state. By struggling to be part of the party that ruined the land, Nigerians are simply saying that they are not aggrieved about the bad governance that has incapacitated them. By struggling to join the ruling party that offers no hope, Nigerians are telling the other political parties to give up. They have nothing to anchor their future campaign on. They cannot tell the people that the ruling party failed them. If they say so, they will get a quick retort: if APC failed, why is everyone struggling to join its bandwagon?
The ugliness of this state of affairs is most noticeable in the National Assembly. Here, we witness cross-carpeting on a fairly regular basis. Lawmakers who were sent forth by their people to represent them at the centre have clearly forgotten those who sent them. Their biggest pastime there is the struggle to join the APC. Nobody is defecting to any other political party. What this means is that the APC is the only party that holds attraction for the Nigerian politician. All you need to win election is your membership of the ruling party. Your personal credentials, no matter how sterling, will not count. What does is belongingness to the party that controls everything, particularly the electoral commission, the judiciary, the army, the police and other agencies that aid in election rigging or manipulation.
If it were possible to rescue Nigeria, you will not see people who ought to tell the president the truth turning out to be his chorus men. Nigeria’s National Assembly is the president’s personal estate. He controls it even from his bedroom. That was why the sycophants that populate the two chambers sang a solidarity song for Mr President at a budget presentation session. The lawmakers concerned reduced their hallowed chambers to a campaign ground. What a violation. What a show of shame.
Observers and analysts are jolted by this ugly trend. They are worried that opposition politics is on its way out. Their fears are justified. One-party political system is antithetical to democratic governance. In it, there is no genuine competition as only one political party controls the government either by law or in practice. The ultimate destination of this state of affairs is dictatorship.
QUOTE:
“The scramble for APC says a lot about the character of the Nigerian. It alerts us to the fact that Nigeria is majorly peopled by elements whose hold on anything and everything is fleeting. The typical Nigerian is not governed by any principle or belief.”
