The party in the mirror

When members of Nigeria’s ruling Peoples Democratic Party look at rival All Progressives Congress, they see their likeness. This is because it looks like they are looking into the mirror. There is therefore no wonder that the PDP accuses the APC of copying its manifesto. This is even more so when you consider the submission that no one is going to be able to lay claim of originality to what a political party, communist or capitalist,  delivers to the people. It’s never going to go beyond providing security, economic benefits and social services. Section 14 (2) (b) of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution says: “It is hereby accordingly declared that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” So, any political party that gets to office has its job already laid out for it by the Constitution.

To ensure that there is no divergence of methods of delivering economic and social dividends, Section 14 (1) says “The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a state based on the principles of democracy and social justice.” It looks like there is no room for bearded, wrongheaded Bolsheviks in the scheme of things. So it’s no surprise that practically each Nigerian political party is a shade of conservatism; never mind their rhetoric. The APC manifesto, called Road Map, includes: job creation; fighting corruption; free, relevant, quality education; restoration of Nigeria’s agriculture; housing plan; health care for children and adults; social welfare for the less advantaged; building of roads, power and infrastructure; better management of national resources; and strengthening of peace and foreign relations. You will agree that these don’t look too far from the rhetoric of PDP chieftains. So, except for scale, APC does look like PDP.

But even then, you probably didn’t think that some stalwarts of the newly minted APC, would be making a bee line to the PDP so early in the day. That tells you that Nigerian political parties are no more than revolving doors, the ultimate confirmation of the dictum of realpolitik which says: “There are no permanent friends or permanent enemies in politics, only permanent interests.” The other day, comely Donald Duke, former Governor of Cross River State, told a bevy of women on TV, that there are no political parties in Nigeria, only political platforms. After all, Section 222 (5) of the 1999 Constitution says, “Membership of (political parties shall be) open to every citizen of Nigeria irrespective of place of origin, circumstances of birth, sex, religion or ethnic grouping.” To which one may add, “Irrespective of previous political affiliations.”

You may never know the true allegiance of a Nigerian politician, until, maybe he dies. However, the mother of all defections would be that of APC National Leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to PDP, or of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, to APC. Just imagine Tinubu twirling a PDP umbrella, or Obasanjo swishing a broom, across his shoulders, in the manner of a fly whisk. Just when Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe thought he got the Premiership of Western Nigeria down pat after the 1952 Elections, a contraption called ‘shon of the shoil’, reared its head, and snatched the victory away from him. Overnight, some members of his National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, including his protégé Anthony Enahoro, filed into the Western House chambers as members of the Action Group. Azikiwe’s victory was ‘awarded’ to Chief Obafemi Awolowo who then became the Leader of Government Business of Western Nigeria. Azikiwe never could trust Awolowo, the mastermind of the grand scheme.

So the political ding dong you are witnessing nowadays is not quite novel. It confirms also that, much as some political parties or their stalwarts, may want to present, or brand themselves (to use the latest buzz word) as progressives or even conservatives, Nigerian political parties are not quite defined along ideological lines. PDP stalwart, Olori Magege, is right when he says that people (in this clime) vote for personalities and not for political parties (or ideology). Nigerian politicians confirm the lyrics of a song by Eurythmics, the musical group led by red head Annie Lennox, “Some of them want to use you; some of them want to get used by you. Some of them want to abuse you; some of them want to be abused.”

This Fourth Republic political dispensation has witnessed a Vice-President, suspecting he may not get the nod as Presidential Candidate of his political party, launch deep into the bosom of the main opposition party, obtained its Presidential ticket, but lost the election to the candidate of his previous party. So he returned to his original party, only to now return to the now enlarged opposition political party. Many others have moved from their political parties to less impressive political parties, and got what they wanted. But others have also failed. Some sitting Governors, especially of the now defunct  All Nigeria Peoples Party, once defected to the PDP because they thought that the Government at the centre may profit the states under the PDP umbrella. Some Governors even married the President’s daughters as a show of solidarity.

Those New PDP stalwarts – including Governors, Senators and Members of the House of Representatives – who recently joined ‘progressive’ APC are coming with some ultra conservative ideological baggage, no doubt. Olori Magege argues that the PDP is “a party of intellectuals, party of businessmen, party of politicians, and party of ideology.” When you check the strange bedfellows (ranging from the rentier-class, middle roaders and former firebrand Marxists and socialists) you will agree with him. The PDP is a mix of all comers; just as the APC. The Yoruba have said that as much as there is soap in the leaf, there is leaf also in the soap. It shouldn’t really surprise you that many PDP members have joined the APC, and vice versa.

You have probably read the conflicting reports of some opinion polls obviously coloured by the prejudices of their sponsors. An opinion poll, carried out by Belgium based research company, KA Research, reports that APC, which commissioned it, has a 10 per cent edge over the PDP if a Presidential Election is held in Nigeria today: The report says 44 per cent of voters would vote for APC, whereas 34 per cent would vote for PDP. But the opinion poll by NOI, hired by the Jonathan Government, claims that Jonathan has 51 per cent job performance rating. Whereas the KA Research poll claims that 60 per cent of respondents think jobs are the major election issue, and 59 per cent think the President is not fighting corruption seriously, PDP insists that, apart from APC lacking in character, depth and ability to create jobs, its manifesto ranks security of lives and property low. Whose priority is more right?

Now that it is increasingly looking like there is no difference between six and half a dozen among Nigerian politicians, who prey on the citizens without any qualms, there is only one way to delivering the greatest good to the greatest number of the people: Heed the counsel of America’s President Barack Obama, build strong government institutions that come with high personnel selection criteria, and ensue that those who attain political office are assigned the job of finding an efficient way to build the commonwealth, and a just and equitable way to share it.