By the tip of this yr, and even earlier, the All Progressives Congress, APC, Nigeria’s ruling occasion, might management 30 or extra of Nigeria’s 36 state governors. At the moment, the occasion has 29 state governors in its fold. Of those 29, solely 21 are APC governors by election, the others are APC governors by defection. The gale of defections has swept away eight of the 12 governors of the principle opposition Peoples Democratic Celebration, PDP, and disadvantaged the All Nigeria Peoples Celebration, ANPP, of its solely governor. The president, Bola Tinubu, is totally hands-on in his willpower to lure and co-opt just about all opposition governors into his occasion forward of his re-election bid in 2027.
However does anybody, not least the president himself, care in regards to the irreparable injury that the whirlwind of defections is inflicting on Nigeria’s occasion system and its electoral or consultant democracy? Any consultant democracy derives its legitimacy from the express consent of the ruled, and, thus, at its coronary heart are the electoral hyperlinks between these governing and people being ruled. If these hyperlinks might be so simply and flippantly severed, why then ought to anybody vote in elections?
After all, Nigeria is a rustic the place politicians behave with utter impunity, giving not a scintilla of consideration to the results of their behaviour. But there are penalties for a political system wherein occasion loyalty is so fluid or fickle, wherein political events stand for nothing ideologically and are mere autos for capturing the state, and wherein politicians ceaselessly change events after grubby behind-the-scenes offers in a “cash-and-carry” politics outlined by corrupt, transactional and patronage-based deal-making, with completely no regard for the occasion system or the voters.
The 1979 Structure expressly makes Nigeria a party-based democracy. It states unequivocally that nobody “shall be certified” for any elective workplace except “he’s a member of a political occasion and is sponsored by that political occasion”. In different phrases, there’s no room for unbiased candidacy. Whereas particular person character and recognition matter in any election, it isn’t private votes however occasion bulk votes, representing the express will of the voters, that get individuals into energy. Thus, elected politicians who arbitrarily defect from their occasion to a different occasion don’t solely betray the occasion that gave them their ticket to trip but in addition insult the voters whose votes gave them their mandate.
To underscore the centrality of the occasion system, the 1979 Structure prohibits an elected federal or state legislator from defecting from the occasion that sponsored them except the defection is “because of a division within the political occasion of which he was beforehand a member or of a merger of two or extra political events or factions by one in every of which he was beforehand sponsored”. Any legislator who defects with none of these situations being met should vacate his or her seat. Some nations have stricter anti-defection guidelines. As an example, in India, legislators are barred from altering events. Nigeria’s much less stringent guidelines are extra smart, if strictly utilized. The issue is: they don’t seem to be!
What’s extra, immediately’s state governors are usually not topic to any anti-defection guidelines. Through the Second Republic, from October 1979 to December 1983, the Federal Electoral Fee, FEDECO, because the nationwide election physique was then recognized, insisted {that a} governor should first resign earlier than decamping to a different occasion. Consequently, some principled governors resigned. As an example, Muhammadu Goni of Borno State and Abubaker Barde of Gongola State resigned as governors and left the Nice Nigeria Folks’s Celebration, GNPP, to affix the Unity Celebration of Nigeria, UPN, whereas Abubakar Rimi resigned as governor of Kano State earlier than defecting from the Folks’s Redemption Celebration, PRP, to the Nigerian Folks’s Celebration, NPP. Sadly, below the present dispensation, governors can change events on the drop of a hat with out penalties. Simply think about if, as within the Second Republic, governors should resign from workplace earlier than they will defect to a different occasion, what number of of immediately’s opportunistic and self-serving defections would have taken place? Maybe, hardly any! The lesson is easy: the place there are not any penalties for behaviours, impunity is inevitable.
However let’s be clear: defections from one occasion to a different occur worldwide. The primary distinction is that, not like in Nigeria, the place defections are pushed purely by ambitions, they’re largely pushed by ideological splits in most different climes. As an example, over the previous few months, 5 members of the UK parliament have defected from the Conservative occasion to the brand new Reform UK occasion. They believed the Conservative occasion was not powerful sufficient on immigration and different right-wing points; so, they joined Reform, a very right-wing, anti-immigration, anti-diversity-inclusion-and-equality occasion.
Against this, in Nigeria, politicians don’t change events for ideological causes as a result of political events are usually not based mostly on any ideology; moderately, they’re constellations of continually shifting elite networks, united by the frequent objective of capturing energy. The APC, even at its formation in 2013, was made up, to a big extent, by defecting PDP leaders. The PDP itself has been a revolving door for politicians from different events, notably the APC. What in regards to the African Democratic Celebration, ADC? Nicely, it’s a hitherto dormant occasion hijacked by disgruntled and/or bold former PDP, APC and Labour Celebration members who’re making an attempt to breathe new life into it within the hope of turning it into an election preventing machine to wrest energy from President Tinubu and his occasion in 2027. So, all of the events are simply particular function autos, with no soul, no spirit, no philosophical underpinnings.
But, deceptively, Nigerian political events use meaningless occasion labels or nomenclature. Probably the most generally used, but bastardised, is “Progressives”. As an example, Nigeria’s ruling occasion calls itself “All Progressives Congress”. However there’s nothing progressive in regards to the occasion’s outlook, politics and insurance policies. Progressivism is a philosophy based mostly, as John Stuart Mills put it, on the thought of “liberating the human thoughts and enhancing the human situation”. In his memoir, A Journey, Tony Blair, a former British prime minister, mentioned that progressive events at all times imagine that if they’ve energy, “they may use it for the good thing about the individuals”. However ten years in energy since 2015, the APC has deepened poverty, distress and inequality in Nigeria. The so-called “progressives” in Nigeria get pleasure from entrenched privileges, behave like feudalists or aristocrats, and use the poor as plebs and serfs. Moreover, whereas progressives are true democrats who imagine in aggressive politics, Nigeria’s “progressive” ruling occasion is utilizing all kinds of inducement, together with incumbency and patronage powers, to lure just about all opposition governors into its fold to consolidate energy and win one other time period in workplace.
Lately, whereas attending the launch of a guide on a PDP governor, Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State, an APC governor, Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, advised Fintiri: “My brother, you’re working like a real progressive governor, and I dare say you could have the APC in your DNA.” Then, brandishing a Tinubu trademark cap, he added: “I’ve include a cap simply in case His Excellency is considering of one thing related. I can put on this cover on you, and I believe we are able to go forward.” After all, that was not humorous. First, Sule insulted the voters of Adamawa State, who elected Fintiri into workplace, by telling the governor in his state to betray his mandate. Second, there’s no progressive occasion or a progressive politician in Nigeria: it’s all self-interested, transactional, cash-and-carry politics!
Reality is, Nigeria have to be a real consultant democracy and a real multi-party system, with penalties for opportunistic defections. In any other case, there’s no motive to vote in elections.
*Dr Fasan is the creator of ‘In The Nationwide Curiosity: The Street to Nigeria’s Political, Financial and Social Transformation’, obtainable at RovingHeights bookstores.
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