Does Nigeria Have Political Parties?
Does Nigeria have political parties?
Recently, the senate president, Ahmed Lawan, called on the Akwa Ibom state governor Udom Emmanuel, to dump the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and join the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
Before this invitation, President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated the Ebonyi state governor, Dave Umahi for finding the courage to jump ship, moving from the Peoples Democratic Party on whose ticket he won election as governor, to the All Progressives Congress which holds power at the centre the invitation to Udom Emmanuel and the defection by Dave Umahi represent a phenomenon in Nigerian Politics that raises the question, Does Nigeria have political Parties?
In the 1951 Western Nigerian Parliamentary election, the National Council for Nigeria and Cameroon, NCNC won the majority seats. However, before the parliament was inaugurated on January 7, 1952, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who was unhappy with the outcome of the election by which the NCNC would have formed the Western Regional Government, convinced five members of the Ibadan People Party, an affiliate of the NCNC to switch allegiance to the Action Group, Awolowo Political Party. In this circumstance, the NCNC became a minority party and Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, who would have become premier of the Western Region, because he was the leader of NCNC, lost out.
Apart from the introduction of tribal politics which that singular move initiated and which has remained a challenge to Nigerian politics till today, the carpet crossing by those NCNC supporters to the Action Group also raised the question about what informs the formation of political parties in Nigeria. Experts say that political parties are organized groups whose members share political beliefs or ideologies needed for the orientation of party members. This gives party members a sense of common identity and belongingness and empowers them to evaluate issues in the polity. Ideology also helps a party, when it gets into power, on how to allocate power and to what end power should be used. Nigeria’s ever-increasing tribe of political ship jumpers and decamped seems to query if political parties in Nigeria serve the purpose of shared belief, a sense of common identity and belongingness and conviction to evaluate national issues from a common understanding. Additionally, structures, offices and positions created in Nigerian political parties raise doubts about their purpose. The individual or group empires with natural leader, maximum apex leader or are they mass movements to serve mass purpose?
The ruling All Progressive Congress says its ideology is portent and economic nationalism. This is supposed to translate into accommodation of abroad spectrum of views in addressing any national issues. It also means that APC will run an economy that supports state intervention instead of giving market forces free reign. Would this ideology support the position of the party in the thorny issue of subsidy on petrol which the party promised right from inception to remove and which it still insists must be done away with?
The People Democratic Party says it has an ideology of national Social conservatism and Economic Liberalism. This ideology is supposed to translate into a strong Nigerian national and cultural identity in a nation where religion is given a space in the public sphere. PDP’s economic governance is supposed to be driven by the private sector with market forces allowed to play a key role and government only regulates to protect the consumer. Unfortunately, these major political parties run shy of the ideologies which they have set out for themselves and only concentrate on winning elections and holding power. Prof. Ogbimi described these parties as political machines, which do not represent the ideas, aspirations and hopes of Nigerians a situation former American president Dwight Eisenhower called a mere conspiracy to seize power
