Chris Nwedo
“Hypocrisy, disloyalty, falsehood, deceit and moral relativism are increasingly becoming parts and parcels of official interpretation of democracy in Nigeria. The functions of the opposition party groups as checks on the parties in power against abuses of instruments of the state have become twisted. Opposition parties no longer add values as bulwarks against misuse of power but treasure in thoughtless false accusations and meaningless propaganda.”
The culture of political absolutism and unruliness among the elites are actively suffocating the measurable strides of Nigerian state to a long-term socio-political stability and economic development. In fact, an affirmative political culture is gradually becoming impossible in Nigeria due to seeming acceptance of rebellious attitudes of blundering political elites. Hypocrisy, disloyalty, falsehood, deceit and moral relativism are increasingly becoming parts and parcels of official interpretations of democracy in Nigeria. The functions of the opposition party groups as checks on the parties in power against abuses of instruments of the state have become twisted. Opposition parties no longer add values as bulwarks against misuse of power but treasure in thoughtless statements, false accusations and meaningless propaganda. The irresponsible behaviours of the political classes are insurmountable obstacles to Nigeria in various ramifications. The development easily provides explanations as to why the giant of Africa is demobilised and unable to make significant progress politically, socially and economically. Nigeria has been failing below standard achievements as a nation profusely endowed with some of the most valuable human and material resources.
Immediately after 2011 general elections, politicians who failed to win ignited fierce fires of social upheaval that ended in ethnic and religious wars in the north. Most cities in the north were irreconcilably divided according to ethnic and religious lines. The palpable fear of insecurity is the reason for this unhealthy divisions. The divisions are deepening as the fear continues in intensity because the people orchestrating the disasters are never made to face justice. It is regrettable that the satanic tirades that lead to the unfortunate development in most parts of the north have not been curtailed. The harbingers of the doom are boldened by lack of punishment for the abominable crimes. The suggestions have always been that the ways law enforcement agencies work encourages crime and various levels of violence. Does it sound unbelievable that Nigerian Police takes instructions from whoever gives them greater incentive? In some communities the criminals have upper hands and demonstrate the power over the police by dictating the manner of its operations. The police is inclined to wrong directions as long as enforcement of the laws are concerned. This eagerly explains the reasons why criminality has become endemic in most parts of the country. The police and all other arms of security formations remain the way the are thanks to the profligacy of the wrong and powerful Nigerian elites of all colours and shapes,
It is in the name of democratic elections and free choices that Nigerians are killed, maimed, displaced from their homes and sheltered in ignoble refugee camps. The victims’ known crimes are supporting and voting their choice candidates and parties. The unprincipled politicians wreck their communities in the seasons of elections and rule the survivors afterwards. It is pitiable to imagine the ordeals of the internally displaced in refugee camps. The camps made them more vulnerable to those that caused their pains. Having been forgotten in the camps, the displaced Nigerians are falling into the hands of their predators repeatedly. They have chances of being remembered only Christmas or related religious celebrations. During the time the politicians visit them for selfies and publicity stunt.
Due to enduring common interest, Nigerian politicians are archenemies before elections and affectionate friends afterwards. At the stage neither ethnicity nor religious affiliations affect the common aspirations, pillorying of the people and expropriation of the resources. Nigeria has hundreds of exceedingly paid legislators who used their positions to defend themselves and their colleagues. They bound themselves in various ways including through marriages. We have governors who behave like Emperors. They are uncontrollable, rebellious and reckless as they fight for political survival. These governors are inclined to literally tie the communities on their waists as they hunt perilously for political relevance.
For severally decades now Nigeria was invaded and ceased by treacherous politicians and has been led irrationally. Politicians and politics are today in Nigeria subjects of repulsion among average Nigerians. The apathy is deep and threatening. Politics as far as these citizens are concerned is a treacherous game of calumny and incrimination of rivalries, a game of mendacity and deadly manoeuvrings. The people are repulsed that the political elites use unjust structures in the polity to pillory divergency. And when out of power they are perfidiously rebellious as they desperately clutch on any weed like a drowning man to come afloat to power.
The happenings in the nation’s political party groups show matter-of-factly that we are further degrading politically as a nation. The intra – party hostilities and fictionalisations, the inter party re-criminalisation, the invectives, the ethnic emotionalism, the desperation to take over, the subjectivity of morals, the false propaganda, the mischievous politicisation of critical national questions are leading to a distinctive conclusion that the nation is calculatingly railed to a slaughter pit in the name of democratic expression. The characters of Nigerian opposition parties at the national or state levels are not only puerile but perilous. Opposition groups are becoming purely tactless stone – throwers, pestiferous and subversive.
Today in Nigeria, there are no constructive or effective opposition parties, but we have abundance of those perpetually shouting to avoid imminent political extinction. These are discordant voices of groups of disoriented political power seekers conspiring to tense the polity for phantom political gains. They are neither positive about the people they are scheming to rule nor articulate about what to do with the power. It is perhaps only political neophytes that may take the idiotic protestations of some opposition groups in good fate. They have unconsciously made their frequent attacks and protestations against the parties in power less credible and less objective. It is revealing that these political antagonists were the yesterday’s oppressors who are the reasons for excruciating national pains of today, the pains of retrogression in our nationhood. We are in an era of ” blind politicking”. Power seekers criticize imprudently and with evident malice. The criticisms of these nature do not pretend their lack of substance and short sightedness. On the most issues that concerned a state or the nation the critics prefer to harp the negative and defective parts in their assessment. It is often the case that tactical approaches by parties in power to critical issues are unimpressive.
Surely, neither the opposition political parties nor parties in power have done enough to earn sufficient support and confidence of Nigerians. It is on account of this that most political analysts believed that Nigeria’s democratisation effort is gravely impaired. Since 1999 Nigerians were promised responsible government and improved socio-economic infrastructures as evidences of constructive transformation, but regrettably we are witnessing unprecedented levels of corruption and political lawlessness. The aftermath of these developments is continuous impoverishment of Nigerians, insecurity and political upheavals.
However, the ruling parties at various levels claimed to have worked or working so hard but there seemed nothing sufficient for justification. There is no infrastructure to support individual economic efforts, most economic policies of the government seemed elite oriented. Today, the living conditions of most Nigerians are impoverished instead of improved. With the growing rate of poverty and crime, Nigerians scamper to stay connected to the political power track for safety. This is why it is less and less flabbergasting that Nigerians are becoming eager human shield for corrupt and irresponsible politicians. Elections are brutal warfare where only the most treacherous survives.
Powerful politicians fight ruthlessly to cease the political parties’ administrative structures to ensure absolute control. This control is absolutely essential for unilateral decisions on all that concerns the party. They use the absolute control for imposition of candidates among other unjustifiable actions. The imposition of the candidates and the tilting of the electoral processes to favour the candidates are the reasons why the elections have never been free or fair. And there is characteristically no fair and credible political contest since the democratisation starts and ends in imposition of wil1 by myriad of political god-fathers. Nigerian society is ruled unchallenged by proxies. Ours is leadership system devoid of partnership with the people, ‘sole leadership’. ‘Sole leadership is leadership that vigorously carries on without the assent and collaboration of the subjects. This style of leadership characterizes nations conquered in absolute terms by the ones in command and who intend never to relinquish power in spite of the cost.
Logically, credible election processes are not supported nor imagined by a regime determined to remain in power and in total control. Even when such elections are organized, they are simply ritualistic tools to redeem and legitimize the firm grips on power.
Elections summarily represent an opportunity to decontaminate the tensions for imperative political reform. These despots are inclined to demonize democratic values and inclusive leadership. They criminalize authentic clamour for change and liberalization of collective political fortunes. For these autocratic democrats, elections must be won at all costs to maintain the destructive hold on power. In most cases, they concoct reasons why elections must not be held-when they are unsure of absolute victory. About half of the states in Nigeria have never had Local Government Council election for upward of two decades. This is because the governors are afraid of betrayal by poor performances score cards. What this implied is that the governors use unconstitutional and illegitimate means to administer the Council Areas. Elections ảt the local level are deepening element in any democratisation process. By hanging the elections indefinitely, the third-tier mobilisation process is abridged and impaired because the process is incomplete.
It is incontrovertible that governments cognisant of democratic compulsions are more likely to complete the process of democratisation. Democratization is ‘democratic deepening’, the continuous ability of democratic institutions to improve political participation to make the process more open and inclusive. Deepening democracy describes those active steps taken by the governance in collaboration with the citizens to make it more functional and proactive to the political needs of sundry participants. It is consolidating the processes of inclusive politics through various platforms. Political parties, free media and bills constitutionalising freedom of association are such platforms.
For some political scientists, ‘consolidating’ democracy ‘is the process of achieving broad acceptance such that all significant political actors, at both elite and mass levels believe that the democratic system is better for their society than any other realistic alternative they can imagine. ‘Democracy is all about inclusiveness. If there is no provision for people’s inclusion in the party, there may be little participation since one begets the other.
Inclusiveness stresses how wide the circle of party decision-makers is. In the most inclusive parties, all party members, or even all party supporters, are given the opportunity to decide on important issues, such as the choice of party’s leaders or the selection of party’s candidates. Due to the fact that inclusiveness is a matter of process and formal rule, more inclusive parties will offer more opportunities for open deliberation prior to the decision stage. Democratic consolidation revolves around inclusiveness, accountability and dedication to platforms indispensable for making the processes secure, extending the life expectancy, ‘making them immune against the threat of authoritarian regression and building dams against the eventual reverse waves. For Nwankwo A. (1992), ‘democratization is a process of political renewal and the affirmative acceptance of the supremacy of popular will and consensual obligation over the logic of elitism and parochialism. It embraces both the shift in the disposition of individuals and classes towards the polity and institutionalisation of genuine representative political structures and organs of mass mobilisation and conscientisation
Political indiscretion is a brand in the politicking culture of Nigerians. The tendencies to remain in power and control perpetually even after an apparent expiration of strength and wits of particular politicians are weird and wonderful. The people making waves in the two most outstanding political parties in Nigeria are collections of tired but still firing retired military officers, ‘finished’ former civil servants and ‘expired’ political tacticians. Hanging on to power beyond relevance is a problematic legacy the national political community needs to renounce. The old apparatuses are not compatible enough to the vagaries of the contemporary political demands, the productivity proved the points. As a nation this is a time to deal vigorously with the developmental problems of Nigeria.
This article was published in Cross News January 2014 P.11
