- Parties plagued by lack of internal discipline, ideological cohesion – Investigation
- They’re only seen as SPV for fame, wealth, power – Analysts
- Confusion in parties instigated by opposition figures – Stakeholders
BY AUGUSTINE AVWODE, TIMOTHY AGBOR, MAYOWA SAMUEL AND BRIGHT JACOB
The unprecedented post-election trauma currently ravaging Nigeria’s major political parties has been attributed to the lack of internal discipline, absence of ideological identity and structural cohesion, among the parties.
The fact that many politicians see the parties as multi-purpose vehicles for fame, wealth and power is also at the root of the multi-dimensional crises, The Point’s investigation has shown.
Since the conclusion of the 2023 general elections, Nigerians have had to endure the almost daily deluge of news of infighting, disagreements and other discordant tunes characterised by accusations and followed by suspension, expulsion, warnings and, sometimes, outright invasion of party offices, particularly, the major ones.
With the unexpected turn of events that have pushed self-analysis and post-mortem examination of their performances to the back seat, Nigerians are worried that they may have to bear the brunt of the squabbles if they are not urgently addressed.
They have, therefore, called on the Judiciary to save the country by expediting actions on the litigations arising from such internal disagreements before they impact negatively on the nation’s democracy.
The ruling All Progressives Congress, the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party, have been the worst hit in the post-election internal crises.
Some legal luminaries, civil society organisations, political thinkers and public affairs analysts who spoke to The Point in separate interviews, bemoaned the development and attributed the crisis to the selfish agenda of politicians and apparent lack of cohesion and party discipline among other self-serving interests.
They lamented that the internal crises rocking the political parties were also piling up political litigation that the Judiciary had to battle with, aside from the fact that their hostilities were heating up the polity and stoking tension among citizens.
According to these stakeholders, if politicians adhere strictly to the tenets of their party constitutions, shun selfish means of outdoing each other and fight for the common interests of the masses, the internal wrangling would be avoided.
Nigeria’s former Ambassador to the Philippines, Dr. Yemi Farounbi, while reacting during an exclusive chat with The Point, said the crises started because of the undemocratic ways the political parties conducted their primaries, saying that the situation made some aggrieved candidates become rebellious.
He said the crises might eventually lead to the deaths of the troubled political parties.
“No political party is as cohesive as some people think they are. The days of the Unity Party of Nigeria and the National Party of Nigeria that showed and lived cohesiveness and discipline are gone. I am a politician and I know what I am saying. There is no fifth columnist anywhere; the members of the political parties are those wrecking the parties once things don’t go their way”
“The truth is that the internal crises were there before and during the elections. Some of the crises started because of the undemocratic ways the party primaries were conducted. In many cases, the primaries were opaque and undemocratic. This resulted in some candidates becoming aggrieved and rebellious. Of course, there is the issue of party indiscipline. The parties refused to obey their own rules, regulations and conventions. The flagrant violation of party rules by the party executives led to indiscipline. It led to the creation of factions within the parties,” he noted.
Faroumbi further argued that democracies were built on the foundation provided by political parties and where the parties are themselves exhibiting undemocratic tendencies, the principle of democracy would definitely suffer.
“Political parties are foundational to democracy. The electorate makes a choice out of the candidates chosen by the parties. When the parties are undemocratic and undisciplined in the choice of candidates, the principle of democracy has been ruptured. Democracy enthrones a people’s government. Democracy must necessarily start within the parties,” he argued.
Explaining the dangers that the parties’ crises portend for the country, the political strategist said, “This is dangerous for the polity and democracy. In Omehia vs Amaechi, there arose a situation where Amaechi, who never campaigned, was enthroned by the Supreme Court. Similar situations occurred in Bayelsa, Yobe and Zamfara States, where governors were empowered, some with minority votes because the party broke its own rules. In such instances, popular votes freely given by the electorate became wasted because some caucuses within the party acted ultra-vires.
“Certainly, that’s no democracy. These occurrences become dangerous threats to the polity and democracy. As it is, some of these crises will lead to the decimation and eventual death of such parties. Evidence abounds already to the possible decay, death or stagnation of such parties.”
A civil society activist and the Executive President of Garnet Youth Development Foundation, Tunde Omole, said it would have been understandable if the issues tearing bigwigs and members of political parties apart were masses’ driven.
Omole submitted that it was unfortunate that the crises were linked to personal interests.
He said, “Naturally, I am not in the minds of these politicians and I can’t really say how their minds work, but from our observation as civil societies, we realised that most of the issues raised and why there had been counter-accusations and crises had to do with personal interests. If most of these issues tearing political parties apart affect all of us as citizens generally, like issues of economic plans and their strategies for ensuring that we have a better society, it could have been another game entirely.
“But most of these politicians and their political parties are not adhering strictly to the provisions of their Constitution in doing whatever they have done. So, when we look at it from the general perspective, we realise that it is more of a self-serving fight, it is more of personal vendetta, it is more of getting back at some people that didn’t support them during the course of doing their thing because they have the instruments of the party in their hands now. It’s not actually easy to invest so much energy in campaigns, spend so much on elections and at the end of the day, it is lost.”
“Some of the political players don’t really have that maturity to actually call in the spirit of sportsmanship. Then, you can’t rule out the possibility that, along the line, they have done a lot of disservice to themselves because they want to grab power or they want to be relevant or because some people want to be at the forefront of sharing all the goodies by the time they actually grab the power. So, some of them felt disappointed; they have to get back at one another. So, I think what is actually playing out is more of personal vendetta, it is more of their weak institution, and they are not adhering strictly to their constitutional provisions. That is why they have found themselves where they are,” Omole, who is also the National Moderator, Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All, opined.
Echoing similar views, a lawyer, Lekan Alabi, said the crisis was caused by bad leadership and lack of party discipline, noting that the masses were sharing in the negative effects of their infighting one way or the other.
He said, “The internal crisis is basically on party leadership and lack of discipline. There can’t be headway in any political party if these two things are lacking. Politicians have individualistic mentalities and they only want to amass wealth for themselves and once it’s not going their way, they turn it to war.
“No political party is as cohesive as some people think they are. The days of the Unity Party of Nigeria and the National Party of Nigeria that showed and lived cohesiveness and discipline are gone. I am a politician and I know what I am saying. There is no fifth columnist anywhere; the members of the political parties are those wrecking the parties once things don’t go their way.”
Proffering the way forward, Alabi noted, “We all must be ready to make the change our polity deserves to grow. Not until politicians fight for people’s interest and the welfare of the larger society, any fight or crisis they embark upon is borne out of self-interest and greed.
“We can’t give what we don’t have. We will continue to deceive ourselves until we change our ways and behaviours. Politicians need to realise that someday, they will leave power and so, they will also suffer whatever pain and anguish they have inflicted on the masses one way or the other.”
A political scientist, Seun Adeoye, the Lead Bishop of Worldwide Anglican Communion in Nigeria, expressed fears that Nigeria’s political operations might be returning to the politics of the 1960s, where democracy would not be allowed to work and where some fifth columnists would intentionally instigate violence and crises in political parties to wreck them.
Adeoye explained that it was a combination of selfishness and immaturity for some politicians to create crises in order to unsettle the polity for their selfish agenda, insisting that Nigeria’s democracy might not last if the crises lingered.
“I feel very strongly that we are gradually returning to 1960 politics. The 1960 politics in the sense that you want to cause confusion here and there. It is old-fashioned politics. An old type of politics whereby you create a crisis within the opposition so that the opposition won’t be able to sit down and get set for action. Also, we see that there is immaturity among political parties. If not, you would wonder why we just finished an election, a very serious election and then, all political parties are in court, including the ones declared as winners by the INEC.
“There is a huge crisis and I think it’s unfortunate. This could be termed selfishness or immaturity. Politics is not played this way. And one thing they failed to realise is that they are representing the larger society. If APC is creating problems, they should not forget that eight million people, according to INEC, voted for them; if PDP is causing problems, they should also realise that over six million people that have an interest in that political party, voted for them and they may not be their members. And if the Labour Party is causing problems, they should not also forget that they have over six million people that voted for them. So, why the crisis?
“Why would a few people cause confusion and crisis in various political parties? It’s unfortunate. We are returning to the old politics where crisis and confusion were reigning and I fear that if they continue like this, a democracy that we all so much nurture and cherish may not really last,” he said.
On the way forward, Adeoye admonished the Judiciary to wade in and rescue the nation’s democracy.
“The stakeholders should sit down and do something. I also hope that the Judiciary will help us because it is the Judiciary that can help us in this matter because some of these matters are also in court. They should sit down and look into the issues before them. Politics should be a game where love reigns and Nigeria’s own is not like that. As I said, it is quite unfortunate and those politicians should change their attitudes because it involves all of us,” he said.
Lawyer and public affairs analyst, Liborous Oshoma, opined that the inability of strange people, who came together with the sole purpose of grabbing power, was to blame.
He stated, “What is playing out here is that we have strange people who came together for one purpose and one purpose alone, to use the political parties as a vehicle for power sharing or power grabbing. The moment that doesn’t work out, you’ll see them go their separate ways or jump ship. We consistently say here that political parties do not have an ideological framework of backing. You have people without the same ideology in a political party, meanwhile, the political party is supposed to be composed of people sharing the same ideology on issues. The ideology that they shared was different.
“Also, you have a situation where the rules of the game become the dictate of one man, and imposition happens. Once the godfather takes over the party, he begins to dictate who gets what, when and how. The moment you’re not in the good books of such godfathers, you are shown the way out or suspended for flimsy excuses. Then, some people believe that they are the financiers of these political parties and so, they should automatically get whatever they want from the party or dictate whatever should happen with the party.
“That is why you’ll find out that when any major political party loses an election, they discombobulate and then people begin to find their ways into the new ruling party and now turn around to okay the saints of the party they initially belonged to.
“Look at the PDP for example, when they lost power, there was a major crisis for the soul of the party between the Modu-Sheriff faction and the Makarfi faction. Today, one judgement in Port-Harcourt, tomorrow another judgement in Abuja. You would remember that any time there was a party primary, there was a multiplicity of litigations, and court cases not anchored on the ideals of the party, but on the fact that somebody was not able to get what he ought to get. So, it’s basically about power sharing, and power-grabbing and not about ideology.”
A Port Harcourt-based political analyst, Sylvester Enefeli, noted that there was so much turmoil in the various political parties because there was no love lost between party members.
According to Enefeli, this is the main reason some politicians would choose to bring other politicians down.
He said that in some cases before they were held, the recent elections helped to “bottle up” the frustrations of some politicians, but that after the elections had come and gone, politicians started to vent their anger and frustrations.
“Mark my words, before May 29, you will see a further upsurge in the wrangling within the parties. Politicians are clever people. Some of them don’t have hopes in their present parties and are doing all they can to get the attention of other winning parties for appointments and contracts”
Enefeli also predicted that before the handover date on May 29, there would be more upsurge in the in-fighting, as “politicians who don’t have hopes” in their various parties would do all they can to get the attention of other winning parties for appointments.
“Who said that politicians like themselves? They don’t. They disdain each other and would look for the slightest opportunity to bring down fellow politicians. The elections have been decided, and these politicians, especially those in the parties that didn’t do so well or didn’t win the presidential election, can no longer bottle up their frustrations in their parties,” he said.
“Remember that another reason the situation has escalated so much now is that everyone was playing safe before the election. No one wanted to provoke the other person because everybody wanted votes from all angles and decided to keep ‘dissidents’ within their parties close.
“Mark my words, before May 29, you will see a further upsurge in the wrangling within the parties. Politicians are clever people. Some of them don’t have hopes in their present parties and are doing all they can to get the attention of other winning parties for appointments and contracts. And while I understand that the reason some party men and women have suddenly turned outcasts and lost support in their various parties could be because of downright incompetence, it is also possible that those party men and women may have blocked the channels politicians used for stuffing their pockets. For that, aggrieved members want their pound of flesh,” Enefeli said.
Another lawyer, Ken Eluma Asogwa, alleged that there was deliberate instigation of crisis in the opposition parties by the ruling APC.
He argued that it was being done to create a fertile ground for lawmakers to defect into APC so that it could have the absolute majority it needed in the running of the National Assembly.
“I heard from the grapevine that the number of all the opposition political parties put together, out of the number of House of Reps members-elect already announced by INEC, the APC has about 162 members-elect now, but all other political parties put together have about 163 members-elect right now. Now, there are about 30 House of Reps elections which have not been conducted.
“There is high politics over the next speaker of the House of Reps. What is going on is that the APC wants to have a commanding majority in the House of Reps. But they are afraid that the opposition parties may come together to produce the Speaker of the House because they are more in number this time. By the laws of Nigeria, no legislator is allowed to defect from one political party to another, unless you have shown evidence that there is division in your political party and that division is at the national level.
“What they are trying to do now is to cause a division in the Labour Party at the national level. There are over 30 House of Reps seats elected under the platform of the LP. What they want to do is to cause division to enable some of those members to decamp,” he alleged.
