Nigerian Political Party System (2)

I have traced the foundations, evolution and (lack of) ideology of Nigeria’s major political parties and concluded that we are yet to evolve a political party system in its normal characterization in which there are clearly defined parties with contrasting visions, ideologies and policy platforms and with stable membership and programmes. Instead the parties have fluid and fluctuating members (the ACN’s presidential candidates in the last two elections came from the PDP and one has since returned there; several ACN legislators and commissioners have been members of other political parties; one ACN governor has been a PDP senator, and governorship candidate for ANPP and CPC(!); another ACN governor previously contested on ANPP platform; PDP has previously handed the party governorship ticket to an ANPP deputy governor; the current PDP chairman has previously been expelled from the party (!); two former PDP chairmen were previously members, officials and candidates of other parties; many politicians across all parties have been known to cross to another party solely to contest an election and cross right back thereafter; APGA recently disqualified probably its best governorship aspirant in one state allegedly because of opposition to his candidacy from a PDP president (!); the two governors elected on the Progressive Parties Alliance (PPA) platform duly returned to the PDP leaving the party the empty shell it was; all the initial national chairmen and many governors elected on APP/ANPP platform decamped to the PDP; Labour regularly offers its platform seemingly to the highest bidder…), and there is very little discussion around policy and ideology. Yet since the ultimate objective of any political party is to win elections, form government in the society in which it is organized, and govern that society based on its beliefs and philosophies, it is often a political party’s actions in government that reveals or confirms what it actually stands for. We must thus examine the question, “how have these parties performed whenever they have had the opportunity of forming a government, either at national or sub-national level since 1999?” I will exclude local governments from this analysis for reasons of their de facto control by the state governments and because unlike Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Femi Gbajabiamila and their colleagues in the House of Representatives who appear intent on foisting a unitary constitution on Nigeria, I do not regard local governments as a separate and independent tier of government, and I believe in a federal constitution in which the regions or states are the federating units! Since PDP has exclusively formed the federal government since 1999, it bears the burden and benefit of accounting for all the successes and failures at that tier but fortunately we are able to review the performance of AD/AC/ACN, APP/ANPP, APGA, Labour, PPA and CPC which have formed various state governments across the country. The PDP has to accept responsibility for the country’s parlous state-corruption, acute insecurity and crime, increasing poverty and unemployment and the erosion of societal values. Obasanjo successfully carried out some economic reforms-telecommunications liberalization, banking consolidation, pension reforms and crucially, the Paris Club debt write-offs. He also enacted reform legislations for power and mining sectors which unfortunately he didn’t implement. Obasanjo also re-integrated Nigeria into the international community and took steps in his first term to prevent the recurrence of military intervention in politics. Beyond these, Obasanjo’s eight years failed to curb corruption; worsened the practice of democracy and conduct of elections and left infrastructure and power almost worse than he met it. Obasanjo’s successor, Yar’adua had no economic policy beyond stalling reforms and PDP’s internal troubles have made the country unstable under Jonathan. Jonathan has been plagued by indecisiveness and seeming tolerance of corruption, but he has resumed economic reforms and power privatization. Overall the PDP’s national performance has been very much less than glorious! At state level, PDP has been even worse! Its first set of governors included Diepreye Alamieyesegha, James Ibori, Peter Odili, Joshua Dariye, Achike Udenwa, Orji Kalu, Chinwoke Mbadinuju and Lucky Igbinedion!!! The AD/AC/ACN has fared significantly better in the states. Its governors have tended to be more level-headed and the welfarist heritage of governance in the South West has somewhat endured. While Bola Tinubu laid policy foundations in Lagos, Babatunde Fashola has been the party’s best advertisement and probably provided the impetus for other states in the region to return to ACN. APP/ANPP’s legacy can be seen starkly in polio and VVF, the problem of 10 million Almajiri children, the nation’s highest rates of poverty, unemployment and illiteracy, and the problem of Boko Haram-all these phenomenon you will notice are most concentrated in states substantially (mis)governed by the party-Borno, Yobe, Kano, Sokoto and Zamfara. There is nothing in ANPP’s governance record to recommend it to anyone! The CPC, until recently a part of ANPP by-and-large shares the ANPP’s dismal record and if winning Nasarawa was an opportunity to demonstrate what it could achieve at the federal level, it has thrown away that chance with both hands!!! The Labour Party has been lucky that many of those who contested elections on its platform (Fayose, Andy Uba, Patrick Ubah?) have lost and that only Olusegun Mimiko who has governed Ondo with competence and some vision has been successful.