How many political parties do we need in Nigeria?

In an ideal democracy, in which political parties are built based on ideology and the desire to provide public service, one could say our political landscape is widened, given Nigerians more alternatives during elections, with the registration of new political parties by the Independent National Electoral Commission. Last week, four additional political parties were registered by the electoral body, bringing the number of political parties in Nigeria to 54. These newly registered parties are United National Party for Development (UNDP); National Movement of Progressives Party (NMPP), Kowa Party (KP) and People for Democratic Change (PDC).
A cursory look at all the registered parties one find it difficult to identify where they differ, in terms of ideology or programmes, they are only associations that revolve around individuals, who were aggrieved, because they were denied tickets to contest elections, or are paid by the People’s Democratic Party to cause further division in the opposition. Others are group of people – members of the same Mosque or Church, or group of old boys association – people who are in no way representing the will of the people. In other cases you will find the party as just an association of people who joined the party simply because their colleagues or village members are in the party. Or they joined the party because they are married to the daughter of the chairman of the party.
To many observers and commentators, the democratisation process in Nigeria is a one characterised by our inability to evolve a workable political system due largely from lack of vision of most of the political elite. Nobody can dispute the fact that political party pluralism or multi-partisan is very important for the progress and development of democratic system. Political parties are necessary and desirable institutions for democracy, however, we have to note that, no progress will come out of most of these political associations, basically, because in the first place they were formed with a sole intention of having a platform to do business with the ruling party during elections. We have seen in the last ten years, in almost all the political parties an alliances of influential individuals and small groups who are able to control and, often enough, manipulate party structures, candidacies, deciding who becomes a councillor, chairman and or members of house. To a large extent, these individuals decide who becomes a governor of a state and or the president. The parties are turned into a business venture where “political entrepreneurs” who invest huge amounts of money expect rewards on such investment, through large contracts.
From 1999 to date, the parties that emerged, from the ruling party, to the smallest parties, are characterized by undemocratic practices, intra-party strive, and corruption. Besides fuelling corruption, the political parties or association’s state of affairs is decidedly non-transparent and undemocratic. Take for instance the ruling PDP – a party characterised by strange bed fellows, whose idea of democracy is imposition of candidates from the party level up to general election and where money is the bedrock of loyalty and support and mobilisation and conscientisation of the people took the back seat. However, we have to acknowledge that the PDP, despite all these, is one party in Nigeria that can be said that has a defined focus – to remain in power for the next sixty years. With the kind of opposition we have today, yours sincerely believes PDP will rule till eternity.
The tragedy of the Nigerian society today is the fact that we can seem always to know that we have a problem, we can even discover the cause of the problem, but unfortunately display a tragic lack of will to take the necessary appropriate action. If not why should we be talking about INEC registering political parties now? Of the over 50 political parties that participated in the last general elections, only five made any meaningful impact. The remaining 45 or 95% have not secured even a councillorship seat in any of the 754 local governments in Nigeria. Whereas the Electoral Act was very specific that any political party that fails to score 10 per cent of the seats during the local government elections as envisaged by paragraph, 10(2) of these guidelines, the political party shall continue to operate only at local government level in all subsequent elections as envisaged by paragraph 10(1) until such a time it complies with the provisions of paragraph 10(2) of these guidelines. We wait and see how many political parties will be allowed to fill in candidates for national elections in 2011.
It is sad to say, but what we have in Nigeria as political parties are anything but parties. It is what political commentators described as mushroom ‘outfits’. No political party in all the registered parties by INEC represent the interest of poor Nigerians. This alienates the electorate, led to emergence of poor representation at all level of government and prevents the evolution of an accountable governance in the country.
Political parties are important vehicles for candidates’ recruitment and the organization of parliament and government and serve as key institutions of representative democracy and intermediary between individual citizens and the state. For our democracy to survive we need strong and ideological parties that reflect the interest of everybody – the poor, the rich, the educated, the uneducated, the farmer and business entrepreneur. They have to provide alternatives, clearly spelt out on how to move this country forward. Anything short of that will just strengthen the PDP, which for the last ten has virtually done nothing in terms of improving the standard of living of ordinary Nigerians, thereby ruining the hopes they had for democracy.

Re:quacks,fraudster s, and 419ers

Dear Sir, Iread your column today (The Nation, Tuesday, July 21,2009)
Our country today is filled with funny characters. I think we (in the media) share in the rascality, in one way or the other. David Mark himself is a 419er, because he was in the senate through a controvercial election, which even the verdict of the tribunals is still debatable. But that not withstanding we should not take his comments for granted, or brush them aside, because we feel 'His Excellency', Right Honourable David Mark said them. There are quacks, fraudsters and 419ers in the media. In fact, Sir, you know better. The rot in the media is so pervasive that comment like this keep on coming.
And I mentioned it in an article I wrote sometimes last year, where I specifically mentioned your name, and other prominent journalists in the country, that you are the only people that can resque the profession. You know how it started and what led to the present state of things, especially of poor pay,the hirelings, quacks and crooks who invaded the profession and turned it to what it is now.
Agreed, what is happening in the NASS is a shame but, in a situation where what we do best in the media is to blackmail them into sharing the loot is unacceptable. Sir, it happens in the media and you know it. We should not pretend that we don't know all these. Today what we hear in the NUJ, is how the ex-president embezzled the Union finances or having the president to come from one part of the country or particular ethnic group. Not this alone, we criticise politicians on the basis of where they come from, we defend them because at one time in our lives we worked under them as press secretaries.
Does this speak well of a profession regarded as fourth estate of the realm in a democratic society? Sir, we have to stop pretending, this country is in crises. As I am talking to you, almost 80% of Nigerians are living below the poverty level, ASUU, NASU, SSANU are on strike. Nobody knows where Nigeria is heading to as a nation, our schools, hospitals, roads and every thing are in shambles. We have to 'export' our children to Ghana, Malaysia for secondary education. Do you think these children can have a sense of national culture? Do you think a child, trained overseas can be patriotic?

Of Police and Subversion of People’s will

Over the years, the Police in Nigeria have earned themselves a very negative perception from the citizens. The institution has earned itself negative perception basically, through what people saw as its biased and partisan approach to issues of politics and its blind support to any government in power regardless of whether this government is right or wrong. This singular act made the force to be seen as an enemy by many a citizen in Nigeria instead of a friend, as the force preaches everyday.

A careful study of the Nigeria Police Force, apart from the general negative perception most people have about the institution, the institution itself has contributed a lot in building a negative attitude it earned from Nigerians. First, there is widespread ignorance and misperception about the role and powers of the police, even within the ranks and file of the Nigeria Police Force on one hand and the general public on the other. This derives generally from the historical legacy of using police to suppress the citizens by colonial and post-colonial governments. Thus, citizens resent police, even when they are exercising their legitimate powers in the course of legally permissible law enforcement activities.

That aside, the personality of the force itself does not speak well of an institution, instituted to safeguard and protect the lives and property of citizens. The hostile police-public relations contributed a lot to the present state of the police force. In many cases the police allowed themselves to be used by politicians, which in most cases put their top officers on their pay-roll, so as to look the other way, when they are doing their dirty job. In their bid to satisfy their pay masters, these corrupt officers sometimes forget their primary duty of protection of the rights of the citizens, sometimes even used obnoxious laws, to violate fundamental rights of citizens provided for in the constitution, on a simple pretext of maintaining peace and order.

One is forced to make above assertion based on the event of July 11, 2009, in Kafanchan town in Kaduna state. On Saturday, July 11, 2009, the Movement for a Better Future, a civil society organisation with the objective of intervening in the social, economic and political life of the Nigerian society, organised a Public Lecture Kafanchan, Kaduna state. The Movement invited prominent Nigerians, politicians, scholars, professionals, civil society groups, religious and community leaders for a seminar to discuss on a burning issue ‘Corruption and the Crisis of Development’. Those billed to present papers include Vicar General of the Kaduna Catholic Diocese, Rev. Fr. Mathew Hassan Kukah, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and Professor Sam Egwu. Unknown to the organisers, there are people, top officials of government, who don’t like issues of corruption to be discussed.

The organisers started receiving calls on their mobile phones and invitation from the SSS, and strong warnings on the pages of newspapers, particularly the New Nigerian, Friday, 10th July 2009, page 1-2, and New Nigerian on Sunday, July 12, 2009, page 36, where the Kaduna state police commissioner, Mallam Tambari Yabo Muhammad, issued a warning that they have reliably gathered that there are groups that hold, according to him, ‘clandestine meetings’. This, he said, violated the provisions of the Public Order Act Cap 382 and the Penal Code of Northern Nigeria.

The Saturday event left no one in doubt about the outcome of 2011 elections. It is also a pointer to the fact that still the Police have failed to learn from our ten years democratic experience. It is surprising that the institution regarde as one of the pillars of democracy could allow itself to be used by desperate politicians, who want to perpetuate themselves on power even if their people think otherwise. It is wrong and indeed very wrong for the police to allow themselves to be used in subverting people’s will to organise themselves to chart a new course for the society which majority of Nigerians feel ia suffering from moral bankruptcy.

No doubt there is popular frustration in Nigeria, emanating from what Nigerians are experiencing under the present dispensation for the past ten years, of misrule, total disregard for their basic rights as human beings, corruption, open stealing of public funds, election rigging, manipulation and abuse of democratic principles. Our politicians, it seems, are ready to go to any length, including ordering the police to shoot at sight, anybody who they feel can stand in their way to perpetuate themselves on power. If not, how can one answer the question of what the Area Commandant of Kafanchan Command alleged to have told the organisers when served with the notification of the Public Lecture that his men are going to shoot anyone who dare go to the Public Lecture. Is that what the law says? That law abiding citizens who organise themselves within the ambit of the constitution to discuss about how they want to be governed, to be threatened with shoot at sight order?

The Movement for a Better Future is not a secret society. It is an interest group registered under the Ministry of Youth and Social Development with registration number KDS/YC/06/4773. It conducts its activities openly and does not hold ‘clandestine meetings’ as stated by the police authorities as the basis for stopping the public lecture. The constitutional provisions quoted by the police authorities to stop the public lecture have already been nullified by the Court of Appeal since December 2007 in the case of IGP vs ANPP (2007) 18 NWLR (PT. 1066). The provisions of the Public Order Act and the Penal Code of Northern Nigeria are also inconsistent with the provisions of the 1999 constitution, especially section 40. So it is clear Nigerians have constitutional rights to organize without any unlawful permit from anybody. Article 2 of the code of conduct for law enforcement officials adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, resolution34/169 of 17, December 1979, which is binding on Nigeria, stated that ‘in the performance of their duty, law enforcement officials shall respect and protect human dignity and maintain and uphold the human rights of all persons’.

Today, forty years after the establishment of the Nigeria Police Force, we can rightly say, nothing much has change in the way the police work, from the way they were during the colonial period. Allegation and counter allegation in the way they perform their duty, especially during elections, their relationship with government in power has been a disappointment. As one of the pillars of democracy, the police in the last ten years have displayed highest sense of partiality, when what is needed from them was neutrality. The police in several occasions were accused of looking the other way when politicians rig election or clamp on opposition. In fact, there are instances where the police are accused of fully participating in the subjugation, suppression of the opposition or participating in rigging and manipulation of election results.

For our democracy to survive, there is need for total re-orientation of the force to understand the role which the police are expected to play in a democracy. There is also a need for structural and institutional reforms, legislative initiatives as well as monitoring, research, and training and advocacy and mobilisation activities by civil society, in order to introduce and implement necessary changes within the police institution and in the relationship and partnership between the citizens and the police. These are necessary for the sustenance and survival of our democracy.

Religious leaders and leadership failure in Nigeria

I want to discuss a rare and delicate subject, which most shy from discussing.This has to do with an experience I had last week with somebody, who I respect so much as a scholar. The attitude of this man and other so-called scholars has contributed a lot in the leadership crisis we are witnessing today.

Leadership, according to scholars, is seen as involvement of a wide range of institutions and actors in production of policy outcomes, including non- governmental organisations, private companies, pressure groups and social movements apart from the traditional and formal state institutions. However, one institution that receives little or no attention in Nigeria, when it comes to failure of leadership is the religious institution. Religion provides the ultimate source of a group's identity and reason for being. To be religious is to effect in some way and in some measure a vital adjustment (however tentative and incomplete) to whatever is reacted implicitly or explicitly as worthy of serious and ulterior concern. All our life – our aspect of behaviour, interaction etc. can be given religious significance. That is why religious leaders play a vital role in the moral and spiritual aspect of our lives. They are respected everywhere. Their contributions towards ensuring peace and social harmony cannot be overemphasized. However, since the inception of democracy in Nigeria 10 years ago, the attitudes and behaviour of some religious leaders is becoming pathetic and to some extent shameful. It is a common knowledge to all, how some clergy men in this country degrade themselves to sycophancy level, boot leaking and twisting the teachings of their religion just to gain favour from politicians.

When we list how indices of failure stare us in the face – a weak political foundation, an irresponsible, unaccountable political elite, passive citizens, the crippling effects of corruption, lack of social order, spiritual and moral bankruptcy, a rise in the spiral of violence, poverty, hunger and misery, lack of social services, collapse of infrastructure, we tend to forget one important factor – the role which religious leaders play or failed to play, which led to where we found ourselves today. Although it is absolutely difficult to believe that the supernatural sanctions of religion can be bought off by proper observance of purely religious rules, it is not surprising that they carry little weight as motive. Nor is it easy, in a period in which all moral authority is dominated by secular ideology, to determine precisely that extent of the influence of religion or religious leaders on the contents of our moral beliefs. However, we cannot dispute the fact that religious leaders still play a very prominent role in the way and manner we go about interacting with our fellow human beings.
Nigeria is a religious country, even though we pretend to be running a secular constitution. The number of churches and mosques scattered in every corner in our major cities, towns and villages is an indication of the role religion play in our personal life. However, to be sincere our Ulemas and Pastors contributed a lot to the present state of the country. They have failed, as guides, to provide, either in their preaching or in a forum, the needed leadership or call the attention of our leaders on their excesses. Never in the mosques or churches do they come clear to tell their followers the repercussion of public stealing, for instance, or tell them that God is never happy with any leader that is unjust to his people. They have failed to imbibe the attitude of honesty and God fearing and have contributed sometimes in the stealing and looting of public treasury, by encouraging corrupt leaders.
Religion provides a meaning for life which reinforces the morals and social norms held collectively by all within a society. Religion provides social control, cohesion, and purpose for people, as well as another means of communication and gathering for individuals to interact and reaffirm social norms. But for us, reverse is the case, religious and political forces join hands in the exploitation and oppression of their followers.
Think of it, how much is spent every year by politicians, top government officials on Ulemas to go and perform the lesser hajj? The money runs into billions. Then the same amount is also expended on Hajj using tax payers’ money. Or imagine billions spent on Christians visitors to the Holy Land every year with tax payer’s money. Where as millions of Nigerians are living in abject poverty and lack of basic amenities. To these Ulemas and Pastors, a politician that sponsors them to these trips is a good politician, even if their neighbours are walloping in poverty. The most pathetic aspect of it is that the followers failed to understand these people and their treachery against them and the religion.
The same Ulemas and Pastors are ready to preach enmity and division and instigate their followers to start killing each other because a Christian has parked his car in a Mosque premises or a Muslim has done so in a Church premises. What a country? As Nigerians we need to realise that our major problem is not our Muslim neighbour or a Christian neighbour, who daily struggle to make ends meet, but that politician you ‘voted’ for and failed to keep his campaign promises. The sooner we realise this better.

Still on the Assassination of Sheikh Ja'afar

I read the stories linking Governor Shekarau and other top officials of Kano state government with the assasination of Sheikh Ja'afar and comments made by people in different foras. I don't know, but as a journalist, I feel the death of Sheikh Ja'afar is much more than what people are speculating. Ja'afar was killed by powerful and mighty in the land and with active collaboration of some people, that know the scholar personnally.
Ja'afar, unlike other Islamic preachers, was different, because he was more than a preacher,he was a guide, who made his disciples see reasons behind everything he preached. He made people scholars by bringing out different opinions of Ulemas on an issue and allow you to take decision.
He was somebody, that tried to make Muslims realised that their problems lie in them. They should solve their political and social problems with the application of the teachings of the Prophet of Islam and those that came after him. He was a threat not only to his contemporaries, but also to the powers that be. They were afraid, if allowed, Jaafar would have mobilised people to challenge the authorities, whom we know for the past thirty years or so hold the country to ransom.
Jafar was a member of Mumtada Al- Islami, a group branded by US intelligence as terrorist. It will be difficult to rule that out. He posed a threat to Shekarau and Obasanjo at that time, they can also not be ruled out. There are also religious groups within the Islamic circle that are not comfortable with his style of teaching. Then come the other likely suspect, his students. Those students who felt Jaafar was soft in the way he tackled the issue of Jihad and obedience to dagut or the government that is driven by man-made constitution.
Let us not allow politicians to just use us in order to score a point. They are good at that. They are in one way or the other responsible for his death. If they are not directly involved, they are indirectly, due to their actions or inactions. Nobody is safe in this country. It is either the assassin's bullet, armed robbers or the police. Which ever way is death.
Ja'afar has gone and one indisputable fact about his life is that, even his enemies come to accept that Mallam was an honest, dedicated, intelligent and God fearing individual who devoted all his life to serve his creator.
I think that is the most important issue. He is dead and nothing can change that. Although he was the first Islamic preacher to be assassinated, he was not the only one brutally killed in the most gruesome manner. The only difference I think was the fact that, the others were politicians. Harry Marshal, Bola Ige, Rimis wife and a host of others, that up to this date, no trace of the culprits.
I think what Ja'afar need from us is not speculation about his killers, but prayers. May Allah forgive his excesses and make Janna firdaus his abode. Ameen.