The political class has been the problem of our country from independence till now. Their ability to offer quality service has remained a subject of huge debates. There is agreement they have not done well but it has not been easy to say in very specific terms what factors are responsible. Even as you read this, a new dimension to the argument has surfaced with many asking if the possession of degrees can make a great leader. It is part of the issues currently being hotly debated, and a consensus is yet to emerge. Until we have it, let’s remain calm and do more of note taking. What, however, is baffling is the observation that while things keep deteriorating the political class instead of having a rethink and resolve to be of good behaviour have continued to carry on with their acts of perfidy.
At some point this year the political parties will produce their candidates for the general elections scheduled for the first quarter of next year. The atmosphere is beginning to charge up as aspirants to various offices begin to announce their interest. They are all doing so under very muddled political climate. The rules are not certain. At one end is the matter of a new electoral law which if it eventually becomes a law would come with new provisions. It was supposed to receive presidential assent last December but that was not to be for the simple reason that President Muhammadu Buhari found provisions on direct party primaries offensive.
The controversy raised by the issue is there with no one sure about how it will be resolved. Some of us have been told the president is insisting on the specific section dealing with direct primaries should be made flexible to include consensus and indirect primaries as means to pick party candidates. The president says that will meet the democratic principle of freedom of choice. We argued the point in our outing last Sunday and asked vital questions like: how does consensus fit into popular choice, consensus by who, how do we know those to make the consensus receive the mandate to act on behalf of the people in that regard?
The challenge and part of the problem has been the fact we took or subscribed to democracy without a corresponding love for the principles, without which what anybody does in the name of democracy is no democracy. Oligarchy, which is government by a few for a few has for long taken a reign in our clime and is responsible for the stalling of development in our society. Consensus and indirect primaries are like twin children sharing same genes but having different faces. Consensus is the extreme and indirect the façade. When they say indirect the impression is given that the people have been given opportunity to elect representatives to whom they would hand over their sovereignty.
In actual situations it is the powers that be, especially those in public offices, who write the names and pass across to already planted surrogates who prance about as party officials.
We have practiced consensus and indirect primaries and the outcome is what we see around us, very incompetent leaders all over the place. A citizen posed an interesting question few days ago; he wanted to know why local government officials seem non-active these days in spite of huge funds pumped into the sector every month from the federal account. And then why most governors and presidents we have had turn out far worse than their predecessors. The fellow got a quick answer: someone told him we don’t practice democracy in this place, what we have is selection. Out going public office holders know the capacity of all those who mill around them, they know those without capacity at all and those are the ones they favour to take over from them.
This perversion has left everyone bruised and even castrated and it is the reason there is clamour for sanitization of the electoral process. The people want credible elections. In their hearts they know the true leaders but what has come between them and their choices has been bad electoral process beginning from internal democracy in the political parties. Recently, we have heard governors and even the president tell us their preferred candidates that will take over from them. Few days ago, the Anambra State governor-elect, Professor Chukwuma Soludo disclosed in public ceremony he was anointed a successor to the incumbent, whose tenure will end in March five years before he stood for election in November. Those are aspects of aberrations we have seen that have grown into multiple dimensions in recent times.
It is part of the evils the new electoral law was designed to curb or eliminate but it may not be because those holding unholy advantages never desire to give up. Some of us have told those expecting good governance from current class of leaders to perish the thought. Why? The foundation was a corrupted one and the evil seeds sown have since multiplied in thousands. Negative political forces have since scared away the decent, intelligent and visionary ones. The buccaneers have succeeded in taking over completely. They have a style very unique to them, which is to quickly replicate their cells everywhere including the secret domains. This act has decimated society in no small measure.
Our diversity which would have been a plus has turned to an albatross. Now, rather than find remedies the political class would instead act to provoke more troubles. When power manipulators via their reckless acts hit the crossroads they easily mouth rotation. But when the pendulum swing to their advantage, they begin to hoodwink vulnerable citizens with good proposals but when it matters most they act very differently. No other section makes so much issue from unity like the north, it is the zone that suggested rotation of the presidency between “north and south” and they made it as vague as it is. They canvassed it was necessary at least for some time but the group insisted the measure was not good enough to be inserted into the rule book. It was their argument that it should be left for political parties to decide. What came out of this is that today the parties are singing different tunes.
Now they formed a party All Progressives Congress (APC) and the party goes silent on such important matter as rotation of power. The north in 2015 nearly killed President Goodluck Jonathan from southern minority extraction for appropriating what they considered their turn. A northerner is almost on the verge of completing two terms of eight years yet we hear the next is free for all. The South West that had served most recently is already throwing up aspirants. A plural society in crisis cannot recover playing the card of one unit superior to another. Our politicians do not help matters when they act duplicitous on serious matters of state.
Many of them have been long on stage and by now, it ought to be very clear to them that antics as principle have not served us well and would not. The mentality of lordship is not helpful either. What we require is a sense of belonging anchored on social justice, equity and fairness. It is not only at the federal level that this should apply, it is a cardinal requirement in states and local government areas.
