Nigeria and the prospects of a one-party state

Ekiti elections was as basic as they come. Some say it was a battle of the rice bags.  Fayemiused to share cooked rice to the old and hungry.  Then Fayose brought his raw one, thenFayemi went ballistic towards the electioneering period and was sharing 50kg rice! In a state that is supposedly Nigeria’s Fountain of […]

Ekiti elections was as basic as they come. Some say it was a battle of the rice bags.  Fayemiused to share cooked rice to the old and hungry.  Then Fayose brought his raw one, thenFayemi went ballistic towards the electioneering period and was sharing 50kg rice! In a state that is supposedly Nigeria’s Fountain of Knowledge. This was telling, as it was exposed that there really is no sophistication among Nigerian voters, most of whom are poor and hungry. Others who are less angry, would hold any sacrifices that a government puts them through – such as taxes, demolition of illegal structures, competency tests, law and order enforcement, even traffic violation penalties – against such a government. No Nigerian is wrong. We are always right and anyone who dares to correct us, will see our anger.  Ekiti politics merely dissolved to the level of the people. Enough of those well-crafted Fayemi grammar. His people showed him the door; he with all his good intentions. They said he build infrastructure, but not the ‘INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE STOMACH”.  I’ve heard supposedly enlightened people say things like “Na road we go chop? Na school we go chop?”, as if life is all about food.
Nigerians usually judge a government based on what they can or cannot get from such a government. But we cannot be close to every government. I am not close to any government in Nigeria today, but that does not mean I should criticize them based strictly on the fact that those close to government – Federal, State or Local – would usually benefit from their largesse. And those guys are usually in the minority. In the evolution of our democracy – that is if it is evolving at all – I hope we are not stuck with the politics of anger, whereby we change leaders every four years across the strata (even if votes now count), just because the majority in Nigeria (as in every country in the world), are poor; and the poor are difficult to lift out of poverty, and they will usually complain about their lowly estates, many times without even assisting themselves. This is what is called the TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY. If the majority is poor, impressionable, impatient, averse to personal sacrifice, then democracy will be reduced to a near state of anarchy.
But on a more serious note, let us seriously consider the prospects of a one-party state in Nigeria. Former President Obasanjo had muted the idea years back. The PDP had also boasted to ‘rule’ for 60 years. Some of us merely blew much grammar. But today, the prospect of a one-party state, and a PDP that will rule ‘forever’ is much more a reality.
The meaning of Fayose’s win in Ekiti is the total demystification of some knowledge, or principle-driven people from that area. It’s all lies. Nigeria is the same. Demographically, the people who matter when it comes to votes, are still very hungry, impressionable, shallow, and tragic. Ok, in this instance, many will say ‘we voted for Fayose, not PDP’, but we’ve heard that before. When you vote, you vote both the person and the party. Fayose is a crowd-puller, and enfant terrible of sort, a great orator. He has a past, but who doesn’t. His people have overwhelmingly voted for him. So case closed. The implication though, is that Mimiko should now be confident to return to the PDP from whence he came. OgbeniAregbe will likely be displaced by Omisore, Fashola’s successor may not be from APC, for Chief Bode George and those who control politics in that state now have more confidence to move against them. Ajimobi in Oyo will likely be replaced by Akala – again – because of his “anti-people’’ policies.
What is an anti-people policy in Naija parlance? I really used to think in terms of real governance, the governors of the South-West, including Mimiko, were setting very high standards. Notably because they were bringing back some discipline into day-to-day life. In those places, environmental sanitation had been enhanced, traffic recklessness had been curbed, even outdoor advertising regulated. We don’t even have that in the capital city here in Abuja where driving one-way against traffic is now the fad, newly-constructed infrastructure are pasted and plastered with all sorts of junk, and it is sexy to empty your thrash can from your car while speeding at 180kmph! But discipline and order are not what the people want. That is not what the majority of Nigerians want. They don’t want any responsibility. They want handouts. Free rice, some free water, free bread and free energy. And they want to also go out, get drunk and cause some chaos. And if politics is a game of numbers, by Jove, that is what they will get.
Let those of us who profess to be fighting on behalf of Nigerians take note. This is the reality. We’ve been fighting the wrong fight.
I think the intellectual arguments should shift to how we can get PDP to practice one-party stateship in the proper manner. Indeed it could work for us. Let’s get rid of these expensive elections. Let the single party share whatever the people want to them and let us have peace. Like China, let the leaders be decided from within the party. But let the party enforce some discipline from within. Let the party throw up its best people.  Like China, let them not treat corruption issues as ‘family affair’. This, to me should be the argument on the streets. Let the PDP ensure that the cost of governance goes down. Having privatized all privatise-ables, let them ensure it dovetails into leaner, less expensive central government. As things stand, the more we privatized, the more expensive governance became. Let the PDP ensure internal democracy, let the party ensure that the politicians – elected or appointed – do not usurp what belongs to the entirety of Nigerians (like that pension saga that showed that too much money runs people mental).
The North may be stuck in painful opposition politics that doesn’t get the states anywhere in today’s Nigeria. Fayose may do right by his people by sidling up to the President and obtaining grants and handouts for them, or by getting some concessions. The president had promised to ‘develop Ekiti’ if Fayose wins. Nigerian presidents are next to the Almighty himself! You better believe it!
So, congrats Fayose. Do right by your people. I am not ready to join PDP, yet. But it seems certain, that all that talk about Up Awo, Up Awo, is just what it was; talk. Apparently, all the books we read did not make much financial impact on the populace, such that the primordial considerations of rice and stew, water and light, are the most paramount to them. We better come to terms with who we really are… Come PDP. Come one-party State. Let us save ourselves some money. And some agony…