For small parties, this is bonanza

Anyone who had been wondering for years why Nigeria has 91 registered political parties is about to find out why. In fact, given the ease with which a political party can be registered, I am surprised that the number is still less than a hundred. Maybe it is because INEC still finds a way to […]

Anyone who had been wondering for years why Nigeria has 91 registered political parties is about to find out why. In fact, given the ease with which a political party can be registered, I am surprised that the number is still less than a hundred. Maybe it is because INEC still finds a way to delay registration of new parties, hiding behind election preparations and the need to stop at one point in order to print ballot papers.

It had not always been this easy. In 1978 when the active transition to the Second Republic began, FEDECO and the military government registered only five parties, NPN, UPN, NPP, GNPP and PRP, out of the 50 or so that applied. The most difficult requirement for registration then was the Electoral Act’s demand that a party must have functional offices in at least two thirds of the states. There were 19 states then, so a “political association” [as they were called prior to registration] needed offices in 13 states. As we heard at the time, PRP was just short of the requirements but the military government bent the rules to accommodate it for fear that not registering Malam Aminu Kano’s party could disenfranchise millions of voters in the old Kano State. Only one more party was registered in the Second Republic, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite’s Nigeria Advance Party [NAP] in 1982.

The history of party registration in Nigeria in subsequent years ranged from the dubious to the sorry. In 1989, the Babangida regime refused to register any of the dozen parties that applied and instead created two parties of its own, NRC and SDP. The Abacha regime did even worse in 1996. After collecting the applications, it ignored all the serious ones and registered five parties UNCP, DPN, CPC, GDM and NCPN, each of which was sponsored by an Abacha minister or other top official. In 1998 the Abdulsalami regime registered only three parties, PDP, APP and AD. As we again heard, AD got the PRP treatment; it failed to meet the criteria but was registered in order not to disenfranchise South West voters.

Although three new parties APGA, UNPP and NDP were registered in 2002, the floodgates soon opened when the Supreme Court gave a ruling in 2003 that greatly liberalized party registration. Over the years many people went and registered “briefcase” parties. They have no members to speak of, hardly get mentioned in the media, are not known to most voters and they do not organize political activities of any kind. Yet, they continue to exist in INEC’s books as parties. Although INEC deregisters some parties after every election, they bounce back under new names. At first, we thought it was because government used to give financial grants to registered parties before and after elections but this practice stopped 15 years ago. So, what’s the idea of having a briefcase political party?

A lot, in point of fact. Let me tell you a short story of an incident that happened in 2003. A member of the House of Representatives in a certain Northern state lost his re-election bid in his party’s primaries. The distraught Honourable went straight from the congress venue to a beer parlour and launched into heavy drinking.  When his legislative aide caught up with him at 3am, Honourable was dangerously suicidal so the aide said, “Sir, I can secure for you the ticket of another party.” He jumped at the idea and said he was ready to pay, so the enterprising aide proceeded in the dead of night to the house of a man who was the “state chairman” of a briefcase party. When he explained his mission, the chairman said, “My charge is three million naira, but you can add anything on top of that for yourself.”

MHR immediately accepted the deal, rushed home at dawn and provided three million in cash, and the aide was back at the state chairman’s’ house by 5am. They went together to a nearby mosque and said the morning prayer, then proceeded to the party office where nomination forms were quickly filled, complete with the results of an imaginary congress where the MHR “defeated” some opponents. Pronto! He was on the ballot for the general elections.

Now, you must be wondering, as I did at the time, “what is the value of being a candidate on the ticket of a party that no one heard of?” You will think the whole purpose of contesting an election is to win and such candidates have no chance at all of winning. But there must be something to it, given the way non-descript parties in this country field candidates for elections. I think the beginning of it is the acceptance of Reverend Jessy Jackson’s slogan when he ran for US President in 1988, “If you run, you may lose but if you don’t run, you are guaranteed to lose.” For our friend the MHR, to be on the ballot for the general election, however tenuously, at least delays the moment of reckoning and keeps hope alive that he may remain in the House of Representatives for another term. If INEC were to accidentally omit the name or logo of a small party from the ballot paper, a tribunal could annul the election because of that so the winner will pay that party anything not to go to court.

It could get even better than that. We heard at the weekend that Senator Shehu Sani of Kaduna Central quit APC and is shopping for another platform to contest again for Senate in 2019. One report said he is eyeing PRP, which was recently rejuvenated with Alhaji Balarabe Musa’s retirement and Alhaji Falalu Bello taking over as its national chairman. At first I wondered what Alhaji Falalu, who was managing director of three different banks, was doing in such a small party but it is becoming clearer by the day. Anyone who had a strategic sense would have seen long ago that the nasty quarrel in the Kaduna State APC between Governor Nasiru el-Rufa’i and members of the Akida Group would ultimately result in mass defections. If APC had gone through with its earlier plan to give Shehu Sani the automatic return ticket, el-Rufa’i and his men would almost certainly have supported a small party against him. Now that APC gave the Kaduna Central ticket to Uba Sani, Shehu Sani must leave for another party and test his popularity, which he believes he has a lot of.

Even more interesting things are about to happen in Zamfara State. The enmity between Governor Abdulaziz Yari’s team and those of his APC rivals is such that there is certain to be exits from APC or at least, undercover support for small parties. Senator Sa’idu Dansadau’s running for governor on the ticket of his small National Rescue Movement [NRM] suddenly looks very promising. Or maybe Yari, backed by state government apparatus, could field his candidate Mukhtar Shehu Idris on the platform of a small party if he loses the APC ticket. Senator Kabiru Marafa too, who generated a lot of support during the primaries, might become the candidate of a small party if he misses APC’s, as is looking likely. I say so because of his bitter attack on Adams Oshiomhole recently, who he said told a lie by claiming that Zamfara APC adopted a consensus candidate.

As it is in Zamfara, so it is likely to be in Niger, Ogun, Imo and Cross River, to mention but a few. In these states, aggrieved governors or their opponents could either do “anti-party activity” to undermine their party’s official candidates, or else they could field candidates on small party platforms and throw their weight behind them. At the minimum, those who control the tickets of these small parties would reap millions in return for the platforms. I am beginning to regret that I did not register a briefcase party all these years.