Mega party of fantastic deceit
Nigeria now has an authentically emerging two-party system in the PDP and APC, while a host of minor political parties co-exist along with them. Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and President Muhammadu Buhari are key among the characters who eventually united the “progressives” under one umbrella. They did this in the successful merger of the political […]
Nigeria now has an authentically emerging two-party system in the PDP and APC, while a host of minor political parties co-exist along with them. Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and President Muhammadu Buhari are key among the characters who eventually united the “progressives” under one umbrella. They did this in the successful merger of the political parties they once led, resulting in the birth of the All Progressives Congress.
When Senator Tinubu was being rumoured as one of the architects of a yet-to-emerge mega party, I said to myself that the man could be destroying an enviable legacy if he, for any reason whatsoever, acquiesced in destroying the political institution he helped to build. His denial of involvement in the mega party contrivance could not but have been a welcome relief to his numerous admirers and those of us who seek tolerance and discipline in the management of political organisations.
Professor Ladipo Adamolekun was right when he posited that the military were to blame for the under-development of our political culture. Political structures were either discontinued or suffered a setback each time the military intervened in politics. By now, we should be talking of stable political parties that have become institutions of competing ideas and strategies rather than being appendages of corrupt and selfish politicians. The idea of a so-called mega party is not about the people of Nigeria, but the ambitions of undisciplined politicians and their migrant political culture. In the PDP, for instance, why must an individual assume that chairmanship aspiration is more important than the collective good of the Party? Why is it that someone cannot surrender personal pride and ambition for the sake of party and country?
The political party, as an organisation of human beings, can hardly avoid internal disagreements. In the older and well-established political parties, these internal discords or disagreements are accommodated in diverse ideological temperaments. There are left, right or moderate ideological wings in broad-based political parties. This is to say that while politicians support and are united by the overall principles of their political parties, they nevertheless have their differences in specifics.
Because our political parties still revolve around personalities who are unprepared to grow and mature, what we have are divisions that revolve around personalities – pro-Makarfi, pro-Sheriff, pro-Saraki, pro-Tinubu etc etc.
Politicians who seek new political parties, either because they have disagreements in one or because they eye particular elective political positions, seem to have forgotten that the problem or rivalry they are running from have a way of resurfacing somewhere else. Can a persistent fault finder ever have a successful marriage? At the end of the day, the true democrat is one that is disciplined and tolerant as well as accommodating – one that is able to appreciate that politics is about service to posterity, rather than self.
Anthony Akinola, Abuja