By Igbotako Nowinta
In Nigeria’s cash and carry political system, complimented by barbaric resort to gangsterism, brazen, senseless and reckless premeditated murder of political opponents, what we have is not a democracy, but the rule of the mob by the mob. From what we can deduce and conclude so far, the 2023 presidential election may be the worse to be experienced in the annals of our country. How could we comprehend the tragic reality that organized selling and buying of votes have reached such an unspeakable crescendo, beginning from the party primaries in Nigeria, with cabalistic political high tech manipulation holding sway. What is left for the average Nigerian electorates? Nothing! The beneficiaries of this present political disorder have simply declared war on the Nigerian people; the culture of cancelling everything connected with our democratic sanity has reached the point of absurdity, using the wildest range of negative democratic tools like politics of delegates and premeditated acts of violence. That this political nonsense called delegates has been embedded in the DNA of most of the political parties in Nigeria is the ugly truth. The emergence of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as the Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), for the 2023 Presidential Elections via the party’s convention last Saturday, signals the fact that we as a people are being pounded by atrocities created by politics of delegates. The delegate phenomenon has become a quintessential Nigerian political tragedy, given the awful role it is playing in scuttling genuine wishes and aspirations of the generality of party members. It becomes comical and insulting when you see some politicians/citizens celebrating the charade, called Atiku Abubakar’s victory, whereas it was the god of dollars or naira that guaranteed his emergence ditto many of the present crops of candidates waiting to contest the 2023 general elections. Who says the special convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) scheduled for the next few days, where its presidential candidate will eventually emerge will not go the way the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had gone, in terms of dollar windfall, which translated to a gross abuse of the people’s rights to choose their leaders?
The brutal and mindless assassination of Oredo Ward 5 People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman, Edo State of Nigeria during the recently conducted primaries of the party, was a classic example of how the political selection process has degenerated into the realm of barbarism in Africa’s most populous nation.
The People’s Democratic Party in Edo State had resorted to irreconcilable two parallel factions with candidates from the separate camps vying for the party’s elective slots.
From the look of things graphically on the ground, the PDP in Edo State may have difficulties fielding acceptable candidate for the various elective positions for the 2023 general elections due to litigations.
The fact of the matter is that the sad issue of political gangsterism cut across the front line political parties in Nigeria. More worrisome is the unprecedented level of bloodthirstiness, cowardice and moral cum religious hollowness being displayed so far in our political firmament ahead of the forthcoming general elections.
Let’s take a brief visit to Kenya in the 1950s where a character known as Dedan Kimathi was the symbol of resistance to the then British colonial masters. Kimathi used the Mau Mau movement to prove a fantastic point to the enemies of Kenyan independence.
Mau Mau was the cry of a people suffering from poverty and exploitation. He used it as a veritable vehicle for the eventual liberation of the people of Kenya. He was a focal point of resistance.
Now, those of us who are angry about the present reality in Nigeria, where organized political thuggery and pandemic influence of money have made absolute nonsense of the electoral process must find a way to individually or collectively spearhead a national resistance to this mess in our country today.
Enough of sitting on the fence, when and where our country is being torn to shreds by a tiny minority, who could buy big guns and flood the democratic arena with dollars.
In Nigeria’s cash and carry political system, complimented by barbaric resort to gangsterism, brazen, senseless and reckless premeditated murder of political opponents, what we have is not a democracy, but the rule of the mob by the mob.
From what we can deduce and conclude so far, the 2023 presidential election may be the worse to be experienced in the annals of our country. How could we comprehend the tragic reality that organized selling and buying of votes have reached such an unspeakable crescendo, beginning from the party primaries in Nigeria, with cabalistic political high tech manipulation holding sway.
What is left for the average Nigerian electorates? Nothing! The beneficiaries of this present political disorder have simply declared war on the Nigerian people; the culture of cancelling everything connected with our democratic sanity has reached the point of absurdity, using the wildest range of negative democratic tools like politics of delegates and premeditated acts of violence.
That this political nonsense called delegates has been embedded in the DNA of most of the political parties in Nigeria is the ugly truth. The emergence of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as the Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), for the 2023 Presidential Elections via the party’s convention last Saturday, signals the fact that we as a people are being pounded by atrocities created by politics of delegates.
The delegate phenomenon has become a quintessential Nigerian political tragedy, given the awful role it is playing in scuttling genuine wishes and aspirations of the generality of party members.
It becomes comical and insulting when you see some politicians/citizens celebrating the charade, called Atiku Abubakar’s victory, whereas it was the god of dollars or naira that guaranteed his emergence ditto many of the present crops of candidates waiting to contest the 2023 general elections.
Who says the special convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) scheduled for the next few days, where its presidential candidate will eventually emerge will not go the way the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had gone, in terms of dollar windfall, which translated to a gross abuse of the people’s rights to choose their leaders?
For how long will money pandemic continue to influence party electoral process here, where politicians would always succeed in muscling their ways into standing for elective positions without regard to caution, decency, ideology and commitment to the greatest positive demands of the electorates?
How can we craft a better democratic process without recourse to the twin-tragedies of political assassinations and financial inducement?
Certainly, our democracy is on the line as a result of weaponization of delegates and proliferation of guns by politicians. It is indeed heart-wrenching that we are witnessing party primaries at gun point and the reckless usage of monetary inducements have become a national creed of honor.
After all, one smart guy from the Niger Delta of Nigeria, Senator Ovie Omo Agege who led some thugs to snatch the mace at the National Assembly in April 2018, has not only been heavily compensated with the Deputy Senate Presidency of Nigeria – the nation’s highest Legislative organ, but was recently nominated as the Governorship Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State, come 2023 general elections.
What kind of leaders are we brewing here? The Nigerian people must organize to take our democracy from the present ignominious dead end. We need to establish a national movement that will counter and confront what we have presently in Nigeria, like what Dedan Kimathi and company did in Kenya, with a non-violent approach.
If credible, versatile, visionary and missionary elements are perpetually disallowed violently via physical and monetary blockage, from adding positive value to our democratic process, then what we have is a huge mockery of democracy?
If we cannot sanitize the electoral process, to give room for quality and vibrant candidates to stand for elections, to take our country to greater heights, even from within the political parties, then we are doomed endlessly to continue going round the same circle that destroyed the Second Republic in December 1983.
We must use the National Assembly in Nigeria to revisit our Electoral Act once again; it is never too late to embark on this nationalistic venture, even individually and collectively, to make way for mandatory direct primaries in the nation’s political system, where the rank and file members would be given the opportunity to nominate candidates to various elective positions in Nigeria.
It is my conviction that if an average contractor of political assassinations knows that there is in place a clause in our Electoral Act that gives blanket space for direct primaries, he would not be tempted to engage in such negative act; instead he would be ready to sponsor or support credible personalities for elective positions from the grassroots, such as we see play out in civilized societies.
This time around, the struggle must be total and uncompromisingly executed, just like how the civil society bodies, activists of all shades and professional organizations came out in full force in February 2010 to demand the elevation of Goodluck Jonathan to the presidency proper, after the demise of Umaru Musa YarAdua which eventually led to the famous ‘doctrine of necessity’ in the Nigerian Senate.
Nigerian patriots must be ready to put on the toga and spirit of Dedan Kimathi, to free ourselves from unbearable political slavery, electoral nonsense, continuous neck-breaking systemic exploitation and oppression.
We need another doctrine of necessity in our electoral process, to guide us as a nation in future intra-party electoral exercise, even as the political parties are already coming out with their presidential candidates.
Nowinta wrote: Where We Are – A call for Democratic Revolution In Nigeria.
