Our political parties’ problems – Details Emerged

By Adeleye Kunle

The 18 political parties in Nigeria are the most important stakeholders in the electoral process. They are the primary beneficiaries of elections because they field candidates and run for elective offices. To some extent, Nigeria’s political parties fit the classical definition of political parties. They are mostly organized by people who share similar viewpoints. They run for office and run candidates. They are similar to special-purpose vehicles and platforms for recruiting leaders who will then run for office. They survey specific platforms and programs. And they give the voter a variety of candidates to choose from.

To some extent, they follow Maurice Duverger’s iron law: apart from the synthesis or nexus between a party system and an electoral system, we have also witnessed in our country a party system in which two parties, namely the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have emerged as political hegemons.

Our political parties have fallen short, apart from playing the aforementioned pedestrian roles, and most of the time in the breach. And their flaws are so numerous that Duverger, the uber-theorist who wrote THE POLITICAL PARTIES in 1951, would rue his intellectual efforts, if not turn in his grave. Our political parties are so ideologically void and directionless that they were once derisively referred to as rallies. With the exception of the Peoples Redemption Party, which has followed a consistent pro-people ideological path, virtually all of our parties are sadly not founded on some sublime or uplifting concept.

In 1989, a seasoned lawyer reportedly wrote the constitutions and manifestos of three major political parties as he migrated from one to the others in dissatisfaction. The fact that the constitutions and manifestos of the three parties appeared to be similar was irrelevant to the leaders of the three parties! It’s no surprise that a disgruntled politician could switch from one party to the other without any qualms or the sense that he was committing political apostasy.

Despite the fact that Nigeria’s political parties write and leave behind constitutions and manifestos, they rarely follow them. The letters and spirits of these otherwise sacred documents are only seen in the breach. When it is convenient for the parties, these documents are discarded entirely. This explains why valid primaries are so rare. Or, if a semblance of one is held, the highest bidder or deepest pocket receives the ticket. Candidates are occasionally arrogantly foisted by the party machinery.

When political parties impose candidates on them, they pay little attention to the delivery of good governance or democratic dividends. The welfare of the political office holder takes precedence over the welfare of the voter. As a result, people’s well-being is rarely considered. Infrastructure is scarce, and the preoccupations of office holders are self-enrichment and reckless pillaging of the public till. The result of this insensitivity and indifference to people’s plight is the sorry state we’ve reached.

Nigeria is not only on the verge of state failure; it is also trailing in every aspect of national development.

Whereas in other countries, political parties actively engage and educate voters, particularly about the functioning of the political and electoral systems, in Nigeria, these critical tasks have been delegated to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the National Orientation Agency, NOA, and Civil Society Organizations, CSOs.

True, the Electoral Act requires INEC to provide voter and civic education as well as “promote knowledge of sound democratic election processes.” This onerous task, however, is not left to the Election Management Body, EMB, and its other partners in other jurisdictions. Political parties play an important role in this. We saw how the Democrats and Republicans outdid themselves in galvanizing and mobilizing voters in the last American presidential election. They not only bombarded the media with messages urging voters to vote for their respective candidates, but they also drove voters to polling places! It would have sufficed if our political parties were simply inept and uninterested in voter education.

Unfortunately, we have seen instances where political parties worked tirelessly and cooperatively to undermine the EMB. Shortly after the enactment of the Electoral Act 2022 and the publication of the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Elections, which were literally set in stone (due to being undergirded by salient provisions of the Act and the Constitution), political parties were unanimous in calling for the extension/adjustment of timelines pertaining to the conduct of primaries!

Apart from deliberately making INEC’s tasks more difficult, we have also seen an increase in the heinous practice of vote-buying by political parties and their candidates. Compounding this despicable behavior, which undermines the integrity of our elections, political parties rarely provide avenues for their members or followers to be briefed on the implementation of party programs/policies or to make additional inputs into them. Once candidates are elected, voters and political party members are left to their own devices.

As a result, a chasm has formed between leaders and followers. As a result, there is a significant disconnect between leadership and followership. The former is unable to accurately assess the latter’s emotions. Furthermore, because followers and voters are arrogantly ignored, the party is unable to seek financial support or succour from its members, necessitating reliance on deep pockets and godfathers. The numerous dysfunctions and gaffes of political parties are deeply concerning. They also have serious implications for good governance, people-pulling, and the sustainability of the democracy project itself.

INEC, the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS; the National Democratic Institute, NDI; the International Republican Institute, IRI; the European Centre for Electoral Support, ECES; the International IDEA; and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, IFES have all been helpful in providing content to political parties.

They have also encouraged them to play their traditional roles in voter education and mobilization, as well as interest articulation and aggregation, through a series of capacity-building workshops. But there is still a lot of work to be done. Political parties must reform in accordance with international best practices. It is not a path they will willingly take, nor will they follow INEC’s lead.

As a result, in order for political parties to reform, pressure must be applied to them. They must be persuaded, in their best and most enlightened interests, to deliver on good governance and democracy dividends. They should be prompted and encouraged to develop ennobling characteristics. Politics should be driven by service rather than profit. And political parties should limit access to their platforms to people of character who extol vision and competence.

“It is the media and civil society’s concerted pressure on INEC since 2008, as well as the prolific reforms in the electoral process that it effected, that have resulted in the stellar elections that the Commission has conducted in recent times.” Civil society, the media, and our intellectuals must all exert similar pressure on our political parties.

The parties must reform – and reform quickly. Otherwise, we’ll continue to see shell organizations masquerading as political parties. Otherwise, rather than jockeying for power on the basis of uplifting and progressive ideas, political parties will be content with either horse trading or queuing behind the larger parties for filthy lucre on Election Day. We are entitled to better.

*Dazang, a public affairs analyst, sent an email to nickdazang@gmail.com.

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