Democracy as a system of government can be as exciting as it can equally be intriguing. For a developing nation like Nigeria, a lot is obviously at stake at all the tiers of government. The political parties seem a bit lost about the value of democratic choices. The two biggest political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have been following the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s pre-election timetables.
Political parties are the vehicles through which political political actors can access the offices they seek. This is why intra-party democracy is very important in ensuring that the voice of the people is allowed to speak at all stages of the electoral processes. Sadly however, since 1999, the Nigerian political parties seem to have had a history of a few individuals sabotaging the will of the people in different political parties through their interferences with the emergence of party candidates.
While we acknowledge the historical impact of the military in the Nigerian political space since after independence, the Roundtable Conversation believes that the civilian politicians ought to have weaned their psyche from the stranglehold of the military sensibilities. The idea of political party leadership, the presidency and governors acting like king-makers for Nigerians has brought a lot of problems to the stability of Nigerian democracy.
We can recall former President Obasanjo insisting on installing a late Umaru Yar’Adua even when he knew he had health challenges. He died in office. We can recall how governors and party leaderships became too powerful that they determined who gets to win some primary elections for both state and federal legislature. Then we watched the battle between governors and the National Assembly members in ways that almost destabilized some states.
From Abia state then, we saw the rivalry between the then governor Orji Uzor Kalu and then Senate President Adolphus Wabara, Ebonyi state had the then governor Sam Egwu, now Senator at daggers drawn with former Secretary to the government and then Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim. From the Ebeano governorship of Chimaroke Nnamani, it was daggers drawn with his former mentor, former governor of then Anambra state, Chief Jim Nwobodo and a whole lot of others.
Make no mistakes about it, deft politicking goes on in all democracies but in Nigeria, due to systemic flaws, there seems to be some out-of the line interferences by individuals who on being inaugurated into offices swore to protect the constitution but end up not doing that. The idea of usurping the role of the people in a democracy has dire consequences as we can see with the level of violence during elections, apathy of voters, myriad of post-election litigations that often affect the performance and finances of the nation at various levels.
As we prepare for the 2023 general elections, it is interesting that the party primaries are fast approaching and Nigerians expect that the elected members of the different political parties will understand democracy and play by the rules. Choice is an integral part of valid democracies and the Nigerian people deserve the right to elect people who they want. That way, they can be happy to vote and hold those they vote into office to account.
