Renowned Historian, Professor Akin Adegbola Alao, has said that if Nigeria will live up to the bidding of being the giant and power house of Africa, it must begin with a repositioning of her political parties for relevance.
Speaking at a sensitisation programme in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, Alao stated that political parties are only concerned with supporting aspiring candidates for political offices on their individual merit and not as official representatives of the parties in government to ensure the implementation of party programmes, policies on the different sectors of national life and indeed party manifesto and pact with the electorate.
Prof. Alao of the Obafemi Awolowo University stated that ‘’ It is therefore convenient to parties that are in fact partly funded by the government to abdicate the role of soliciting and priotizing needs and policy in line with the needs, wishes and aspirations of the their members and supporters”.
Nigerian parties, he noted, no longer educate voters and citizens in the functioning of the political and
electoral systems and in generating correct political values, adding
that what they do at best is to criticize the activities and programmes of government appointed and funded electoral supervising authorities.
He pointed out that they neglect the role of educating and training party
members and leadership on a continuous basis.
Said he, ‘’members are only called upon during elections and compromised with what is generally known as empowerment, dividends of democracy or even the more recent terminology of stomach infrastructure; whatever that means. Nigerian political parties no longer care about balancing opposing demands and converting them into general policies because they seem to lack intellectual premise or foundation.
” Unlike what obtained in the first republic when every intended government policy enjoyed very robust debate and trenchant analysis by party members, our politicians no longer have time for such niceties. This , according to them, is because such intellectually stimulating exercises waste precious time and resources”.
Today, he submitted that the Nigerian political culture has been so mismanaged that it could hardly be described as coming close to anything scholarly or intellectual.
‘’This negative development has produced a situation in which
political parties can no longer activate and mobilize citizens toward political participation or transform public opinion into viable policy options for the government in power. Respective ministers and heads of government agencies and parastatals are now left almost alone to design and implement policies without the input of their political parties and with scant regard to the aspirations of the citizens’’.
What is even more worrisome, Prof. Also stressed is the inability of
political parties to recruit and train candidates for public office.
According to him, ‘’as if standing common sense or logic on its head,
candidates now shop around and finance political parties to ensure the
realization of their selfish and narrowly defined political agenda.
“There is a complete breakdown of order, discipline and system.individuals within political parties now loom larger and more influential than political parties.
“They easily subvert popular will
and subsume the general will of the real owners of the process under
their own inordinate ambition’’
He urged leaders of the various political parties to have a second thought on the mandate of their parties, its role in a democracy, its obligations to the citizens of the country and it can
use the agency of these political parties to develop a progressive, dynamic and participatory political culture which will be capable of producing correct political values and attitudes.
He asserted that, ‘’if Nigeria will live up to the bidding of being the giant and power house of Africa, it must begin with a
repositioning of our political parties for relevance. Political Parties are the engine rooms of change and are responsible, in the main, for the development of government programmes and policies that are capable of transforming the Nigerian society. It is indeed your patriotic duty to rise above pettiness and bickering to do what is right and noble and for which you will be eternally remembered’’.
Prof. Alao went on, ‘’the election year 2023 is just a couple of months away. Nigerians will soon be on the match again, looking for Mr. President and other office holders.
“By your position as leaders of
political parties you stand on a platform of enormous advantage to cause that change and compel your parties to assume ownership of the political process so that elected members of your parties will adhere strictly to the manifesto and political platforms of your party. We must do away with personality cults and focus on mass political participation for meaningful development.
‘’There is yet no provision for independent candidature in the
Nigerian constitution or electoral law and to that extent, candidates for all elective positions are candidates of their respective political parties. Constitutionally, political parties contest and win elections not individuals per se.
“The winners are therefore responsible to and accountable to their parties and must submit to the dictates of the party will while in office’’.
The Political Historian however counsel political parties that, ‘’as we approach the time for the adoption of candidates, I implore you as political party leaders to kindly ensure that you support the interest of those candidates who will abide by the dictates of the party and recognise that they owe their mandates in trust for people’’.
He warned that ‘’a situation where certain individual office holders will assume the role of the party must not only be discouraged but out rightly condemned and abhorred. The vexatious malady of unwarranted carpet crossing of senior and ranking members of the party for personal political agrandizement should be outlawed completely through constitutional and extra constitutional provisions.
‘’It is an anathema to talk about carpet crossing in the United States from where the Nigerian presidential constitution is borrowed.
” It is unimaginable that a member of the Kennedy or Clinton family will change party to embrace the Republican Party or any member of the Bush family to identify with the Democratic Party. Even in Britain, the Tory will never cross the carpet to join the Labour Party. Fidelity with or faithfulness to the party is a major factor in maintaining discipline and supremacy of the party in every instance’.
