The failure of ideological commitment

THE just-concluded electoral war in Ekiti in which there could have been no victors and all were thoroughly vanquished is sad testimony to the fact that the sun of democracy is yet to rise over Nigeria. Ironically, in the short period between then and now, the nation has been called out to celebrate a decade of uninterrupted democracy. Whilst a few Nigerians found reason to celebrate, the vast majority simply ignored the non-event and instead devoted their undivided attention to existential matters; those concerned exclusively with keeping body and soul together, one day at a time. The few who celebrated were those who had found an avenue to divert public resources into their private coffers making it possible for them to show their gratitude for the providential situation, that is, the institution of civil rule which made it possible for them to dispense with the fear of impending starvation and other various wants necessary for a damned god quality of life.

Top on the list of the celebrants of sham democracy were some of the serving governors, those rulers of gubernatorial fiefdoms who are prime extractors of largesse from their respective states. There was the case of one such governor who made reckless and downright silly claims of good governance on no less than four coloured pages of The Guardian, clearly in the hope of convincing his serfs of voting for more of the same rubbish in elections which are all of two years away. Clearly, the man was playing infantile mind games since it is obvious that he does not hold his exalted office to votes cast in free and fair elections and has as much chance as the proverbial snowball in hell of winning any election that is not transparently fraudulent as the one that won him the Governor's mansion.

Right from the dawn of the electioneering process in Nigeria, political campaigns have been charaterised by the enumeration of the good things of life, so much so that the Action Group declared in its motto that it was going to provide 'life more abundant' for the people. Maybe there was sound justification for promising to provide all-weather roads where the only roads available were topped with laterite and the provision of electricity in communities which were lighted by humble oil lamps as soon as it got dark or 'free' education where the overwhelming majority had no acquaintance with formal education.

Sixty years ago when the level of technological development was not high enough to provide many of the good things of life, those promises were indeed justifiable not just in Nigeria but all over the world except perhaps most people living in North America. Even for these fortunate people life more abundant had only become available to them when the New Deal of F.D. Roosevelt had delivered on his promise of a chicken in every pot and a car in every porch to the Americans to whom rural electrification was still a novelty those 60 years ago. In virtually every part of the world today however all the indices of life more abundant can be taken for granted by a majority of the people except of course in Nigeria and other such backward countries, most of which are found in sub-Saharan Africa.

For more than 60 years Nigerian politicians have been singing the same discordant notes with nothing to show for all their singing. The roads which have been delivered have deteriorated to such an extent that they are hardly better than the dirt tracks which they replaced, no major town or city in Nigeria can boast of a constant (and in some cases, any) supply of clean tap water. Instead, governments at all levels celebrate the irresponsible expedient of sinking boreholes instead of taking the trouble to purify renewable surface waters. Water form boreholes like minerals, have been in storage for many thousands of years and once plundered can never be replaced. As for education, the opportunity for the acquisition of good education at reasonable cost is decreasing all the time. The overall quality of life is dropping steadily for most Nigerians and this is in spite of the numerous promises of succeeding generations of Nigerian leaders for the provision of life more abundant.

Over the years we have had military rulers and politicians across the full spectrum of the political divide ruling in various states except at the centre where a recognisably 'progressive' leader has never held sway, at least not for any length of time. That prize has always been won by consortia of politicians who build mega parties for the sole purpose of winning, or more appropriately, seizing the reins of power in crooked elections. Such parties do not even bother to make promises; such is their disdain for the electorate. These parties are home to politicians from all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria and on this basis claim to have a national spread. The sole prerequisite for all aspirants within these 'national' institutions is that they 'deliver' their constituencies to the party. How these deliveries are made is not the business of the party and we know many 'godfathers' whose methods of delivery are patently foul who have guaranteed such deliveries. With these parties in power anywhere there can be no development in any sphere within the polity and when there is no development, there is usually massive retrogression such as the country is now going through.

Some parts of the country have been ruled by so called progressive parties but even in these states, performance has not been better than patchy. These parties have always ridden to power on the back of electoral acclaim and waves of optimistic noise but the hurrahs are usually not sustained as many of the progressives are quickly exposed as men with feet of clay, making it possible for the more pragmatic 'national spread' parties to execute electoral coups against them, secure in the knowledge that their progressive opponents do not have really deep roots amongst the populace and are therefore on their own. There have been incidents of the violent rejection of rigged elections results in Nigeria but except for the wetie response to the 1965 election in the Western Region such violence is usually short-lived and easily contained leaving the looters with their prize. In any case, there is no place in politics for violent rejection of election results and this cannot be regarded as an acceptable response to electoral defeat even when underhand tactics have been employed by the winners and this of course is a common sense interpretation of political contestation which has been shamelessly exploited by the do or die politicians of the 'national spread' parties.

There are now no less than 50 registered political parties in Nigeria but not one of them has a set of principles or ideology to present to the long suffering electorate. Perhaps the only part that can be regarded as different in this respect is the defunct Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) led by the late Mallam Aminu Kano one of the very few politicians of note who have died without amassing an intimidating quantum of wealth. This abstemiousness probably explains why that much respected and principled politician did not attain high political office throughout his illustrious career. The PRP had an ideological commitment to the pursuit of a socialist agenda which is why Balarabe Musa and the real Abubakar Rimi as he then was, were willing to buck the system standing in the path of their attainment of their concrete political goals and stand resolutely on the side of the people of Kaduna and Kano states during the Second Republic. Both men, it must be said failed to achieve their stated objectives but their failure was not just grand but also honourable and worthy of emulation. It was a failure which was manifestly different from the failure of other progressives and one which points the way forward for the country if we are to make any sustained progress.

Perhaps the greatest source of the general failure of politics in Nigeria has been the failure of ideological commitment by our politicians. This is why there have been so many lateral movements by politicians of all shades throughout our political history. There have been so many examples of these that it would be unfair to call attention to any particular politician in this respect. However, a recent trend has been the abandonment of the PDP by politicians who were not able to get their party's nomination to contest the 2007 elections for other parties where they were able to secure the desired candidacy. With another election looming and fearing that the do or die party was not going to allow the lightening of losing out to strike twice in the same place, have retraced their steps and are now back under the umbrella of the 'largest political party in Africa'. In the absence of ideological commitment such inconsistencies have been elevated to the status of virtue even if people outside Nigerian politics may think the word 'prostitution' is more appropriate for the description of this cynical manoeuvre.


Professor Lamikanra teaches pharmacy at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

The failure of ideological commitment

By Adebayo Lamikanra



THE just-concluded electoral war in Ekiti in which there could have been no victors and all were thoroughly vanquished is sad testimony to the fact that the sun of democracy is yet to rise over Nigeria. Ironically, in the short period between then and now, the nation has been called out to celebrate a decade of uninterrupted democracy. Whilst a few Nigerians found reason to celebrate, the vast majority simply ignored the non-event and instead devoted their undivided attention to existential matters; those concerned exclusively with keeping body and soul together, one day at a time. The few who celebrated were those who had found an avenue to divert public resources into their private coffers making it possible for them to show their gratitude for the providential situation, that is, the institution of civil rule which made it possible for them to dispense with the fear of impending starvation and other various wants necessary for a damned god quality of life.

Top on the list of the celebrants of sham democracy were some of the serving governors, those rulers of gubernatorial fiefdoms who are prime extractors of largesse from their respective states. There was the case of one such governor who made reckless and downright silly claims of good governance on no less than four coloured pages of The Guardian, clearly in the hope of convincing his serfs of voting for more of the same rubbish in elections which are all of two years away. Clearly, the man was playing infantile mind games since it is obvious that he does not hold his exalted office to votes cast in free and fair elections and has as much chance as the proverbial snowball in hell of winning any election that is not transparently fraudulent as the one that won him the Governor's mansion.

Right from the dawn of the electioneering process in Nigeria, political campaigns have been charaterised by the enumeration of the good things of life, so much so that the Action Group declared in its motto that it was going to provide 'life more abundant' for the people. Maybe there was sound justification for promising to provide all-weather roads where the only roads available were topped with laterite and the provision of electricity in communities which were lighted by humble oil lamps as soon as it got dark or 'free' education where the overwhelming majority had no acquaintance with formal education.

Sixty years ago when the level of technological development was not high enough to provide many of the good things of life, those promises were indeed justifiable not just in Nigeria but all over the world except perhaps most people living in North America. Even for these fortunate people life more abundant had only become available to them when the New Deal of F.D. Roosevelt had delivered on his promise of a chicken in every pot and a car in every porch to the Americans to whom rural electrification was still a novelty those 60 years ago. In virtually every part of the world today however all the indices of life more abundant can be taken for granted by a majority of the people except of course in Nigeria and other such backward countries, most of which are found in sub-Saharan Africa.

For more than 60 years Nigerian politicians have been singing the same discordant notes with nothing to show for all their singing. The roads which have been delivered have deteriorated to such an extent that they are hardly better than the dirt tracks which they replaced, no major town or city in Nigeria can boast of a constant (and in some cases, any) supply of clean tap water. Instead, governments at all levels celebrate the irresponsible expedient of sinking boreholes instead of taking the trouble to purify renewable surface waters. Water form boreholes like minerals, have been in storage for many thousands of years and once plundered can never be replaced. As for education, the opportunity for the acquisition of good education at reasonable cost is decreasing all the time. The overall quality of life is dropping steadily for most Nigerians and this is in spite of the numerous promises of succeeding generations of Nigerian leaders for the provision of life more abundant.

Over the years we have had military rulers and politicians across the full spectrum of the political divide ruling in various states except at the centre where a recognisably 'progressive' leader has never held sway, at least not for any length of time. That prize has always been won by consortia of politicians who build mega parties for the sole purpose of winning, or more appropriately, seizing the reins of power in crooked elections. Such parties do not even bother to make promises; such is their disdain for the electorate. These parties are home to politicians from all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria and on this basis claim to have a national spread. The sole prerequisite for all aspirants within these 'national' institutions is that they 'deliver' their constituencies to the party. How these deliveries are made is not the business of the party and we know many 'godfathers' whose methods of delivery are patently foul who have guaranteed such deliveries. With these parties in power anywhere there can be no development in any sphere within the polity and when there is no development, there is usually massive retrogression such as the country is now going through.

Some parts of the country have been ruled by so called progressive parties but even in these states, performance has not been better than patchy. These parties have always ridden to power on the back of electoral acclaim and waves of optimistic noise but the hurrahs are usually not sustained as many of the progressives are quickly exposed as men with feet of clay, making it possible for the more pragmatic 'national spread' parties to execute electoral coups against them, secure in the knowledge that their progressive opponents do not have really deep roots amongst the populace and are therefore on their own. There have been incidents of the violent rejection of rigged elections results in Nigeria but except for the wetie response to the 1965 election in the Western Region such violence is usually short-lived and easily contained leaving the looters with their prize. In any case, there is no place in politics for violent rejection of election results and this cannot be regarded as an acceptable response to electoral defeat even when underhand tactics have been employed by the winners and this of course is a common sense interpretation of political contestation which has been shamelessly exploited by the do or die politicians of the 'national spread' parties.

There are now no less than 50 registered political parties in Nigeria but not one of them has a set of principles or ideology to present to the long suffering electorate. Perhaps the only part that can be regarded as different in this respect is the defunct Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) led by the late Mallam Aminu Kano one of the very few politicians of note who have died without amassing an intimidating quantum of wealth. This abstemiousness probably explains why that much respected and principled politician did not attain high political office throughout his illustrious career. The PRP had an ideological commitment to the pursuit of a socialist agenda which is why Balarabe Musa and the real Abubakar Rimi as he then was, were willing to buck the system standing in the path of their attainment of their concrete political goals and stand resolutely on the side of the people of Kaduna and Kano states during the Second Republic. Both men, it must be said failed to achieve their stated objectives but their failure was not just grand but also honourable and worthy of emulation. It was a failure which was manifestly different from the failure of other progressives and one which points the way forward for the country if we are to make any sustained progress.

Perhaps the greatest source of the general failure of politics in Nigeria has been the failure of ideological commitment by our politicians. This is why there have been so many lateral movements by politicians of all shades throughout our political history. There have been so many examples of these that it would be unfair to call attention to any particular politician in this respect. However, a recent trend has been the abandonment of the PDP by politicians who were not able to get their party's nomination to contest the 2007 elections for other parties where they were able to secure the desired candidacy. With another election looming and fearing that the do or die party was not going to allow the lightening of losing out to strike twice in the same place, have retraced their steps and are now back under the umbrella of the 'largest political party in Africa'. In the absence of ideological commitment such inconsistencies have been elevated to the status of virtue even if people outside Nigerian politics may think the word 'prostitution' is more appropriate for the description of this cynical manoeuvre.