Against the backdrop of the back and forth over the mega party project by the promoters since 2015, KUNLE ODEREMI writes on the stumbling blocks.
Malawi, Ghana, Senegal are among countries in Africa where opposition has humbled the ruling parties at the polls in the last few years. Similar upsets were recorded before recent times in a number of other countries, including Zambia, Republic of Congo, Benin Republic, The Gambia, Tunisia and Cote d’Ivoire, on the continent in the last two decades. For instance, in 2016, Nana Akufo-Addo of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), defeated incumbent President John Mahama. On March 25 this year, opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye won more than 54 percent of votes in Senegal’s presidential election to emerge president. The 44-year old achieved the feat barely 10 days after he regained his freedom from prison. Before then, Malawi had made history as the first country in Africa where the opposition won a rerun. The rerun was necessitated by the initial May 2019 vote that returned Peter Mutharika to office, a decision that was challenged at Malawi’s constitutional court by the opposition on the grounds of “widespread, systematic and grave irregularities, including the curious use of corrective fluid in voting tallying. The court ordered a rerun within 150 days. In 2015, Beji Caid Essebsi defeated interim leader of Tunisia, Moncef Marzouki. In 2015, Major Gen Muhammadu Buhari (retd) of the All Peoples Congress (APC) defeated Dr Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party. In 2016, Adama Barrow of the United Democratic Party defeated Yahya Jammeh of Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction of The Gambia. In March this year, Senegal became the latest country in the continent, where the opposition created an upset. In felicitating with the 44-year-old, then President Macky Sall, described the “smooth running” of the election as a “victory of Senegalese democracy.”
At home, main opposition parties are gradually going back to the starting blocks with the 2027 general elections in focus. Their major preoccupation now is how to build a coalition that can transform into mega party capable of giving the ruling APC a good fight at the poll. Incidentally, three cities: Lagos, Abuja and Kaduna have become the point of convergence for the arrowheads of the ‘mass’ movement, with most of the gladiators being the familiar faces behind the drive. Are there lessons the promoters of mega parties could learn from other lands?
Lessons from other lands
Beginning from tomorrow, some of the promoters are to converge on Kaduna to plot the graph for the programme that would dovetail into the next general election in the country. The gathering at the Arewa House in the city is under the Kaduna 2024 Summit with the theme: Solid Political Party Structure Critical to the Sustainability of the Democratic Process, which the organisers confirmed is part of their contribution to the survival of the democracy in the country. Leaders of the Accord Party; National Chairman of Peoples Redemption Party (PRP); KOWA Party; Social Democratic Party (SDP); All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Labour Party and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) are involved in the renewed move to form the mega party, with the national chairman of the Accord, Alhaji Muhammad Lawal Nalado presiding at the two-day summit, while the keynote will be delivered by his counterpart of PRP, Alhaji Falalu Bello. The chief Guest of honour is the chairman, Inter-Party Advisory Council, Alhaji Yussuf Dantalle. The special guests of Honour are national chairman of SDP, Malam Shehu Gabam; National Chairman of APGA, Sly Ezeokenwa; National Chairman of NNPP, Dr Ajuji Ahmed, and National Chairman of Labour Party, Mr Julius Abure.
In shedding light on the summit, ADC National Chairman Dr Ralphs Nwosu, said it is imperative to bring about a purposeful leadership in the country, hence “ADC has continued to champion collaboration, coalition building and alliances to birth a new Nigeria.”
Having amassed a significant number of votes in relative to the figure that gave the ruling APC victory in the 2023 presidential poll, some chieftains of the PDP, LP and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in particular, believe the opposition remain a potent force if they come together as one. For instance, the final Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) tallies on the poll from all states and the federal capital Abuja (FCT) indicated that APC scored about 36.6 percent or 8.79 million of valid votes, while PDP followed with 29.1 percent or 6.98 million of valid votes. From 2015, the current move is the fourth deliberate efforts by the opposition parties to coalesce into a mega party after the APC emerged as the governing party in the country. The successive attempts collapsed due to lack of compromise by the core stakeholders and promoters coupled with the absence of shared values on what exalts a nation. These factors made the project of building a mega party capable of winning power vulnerable and susceptible to the antics of forces in control of the lever of power and governance.
The camps of Atiku, and Obi are trying to play down on the belief in certain circles that their meeting bothered on the quest to close ranks with aim of presenting a common front in 2027. Obi was Atiku’s running mate in the 2019 presidential election, but he joined the Labour Party to run for the presidency in 2023. In November last year when the former vice president hosted the national executive committee of the Inter-Party Advisory Council Nigeria (IPAC) led by its national president, Yabagi Sani, Atiku had espoused opposition parties forming a mega party ahead the 2027 elections.
In January this year, Utomi was quoted to have said that he had “talked to several of the presidential candidates in the last election about this track we are traveling. I have had conversations with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, I have had conversations with Engineer Rabiu Kwankwaso, I have had conversations with Peter Gregory Obi and people like Ralph Okey Nwosu of ADC and some of the people who probably constitute the base. I had said to them, it is not about you, it is about Nigeria, it’s about the ordinary people in the street, it is about truly moving from this business of sharing from trickles of oil sales to how we can become one of the most productive economies.” According to Utomi, the new party will be a clean start, lamented that there has not been a real political party in the country since 1999. He said, “It is actually a clean start. You have to start from the premise that Nigeria has not had a political party since 1999 and let’s be very honest with ourselves, what we have managed is to create platforms that enable machine politics from which to grab power usually for the purposes of state capture. We want to calm down now design a real political party with clear ideas of how you will become part of it, what you will do in it and therefore you accept to do or not to do before you come into it. It is where there will be clear agenda, a party plan that the day you arrive in office, everybody from Permanent Secretary to Level 8 Officer know what to do every day to move Nigeria to a certain level, you don’t do it you get fired.”
In a spontaneous reaction, the APC dismissed Utomi’s plans to form a new political party. Mr Felix Morka, APC spokesperson, said Utomi’s previous plans to float political parties never materialised. “As a serial promoter of mega parties that never materialize, Professor Pat Utomi’s statement cannot be taken that seriously. In 2021, Professor Utomi and his collaborators disturbed the airwaves with plans to launch a people-centered ideological mega party under the auspices of the National Consultative Front (NCFront) to dislodge the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). That plan did not go past the news headlines.
“Now in 2024, Professor Utomi is touting a possible merger or collaboration between the Labour Party (LP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and the PDP, vastly the political parties, according to him, that are bereft of any ideological orientation or did not manage to create an alignment with the Nigerian People to improve the quality of their lives. One can only infer that Professor Utomi may be positing that his personal involvement in the proposed alliance will transmogrify the same parties, he has adjudged to be decadent and anti-people, into bastions of political and economic liberty for Nigerians.”
Previous scenarios
On September 21, 2021 and preparatory to the 2023 general election, some prominent Nigerians also proclaimed a third force, Rescue Nigeria Project, RNP, to give Nigerians an alternative platform to the APC and the PDP, with former governor of Kwara State, Ahmed Abdulfatai, Utomi, Professor Tunde Adeniran, former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, Senator Lee Maeba, Usman Bugaje, Professor. Attahiru Jega, Ambassador Nkoyo Toyo, Yomi Awoniyi, Dr. Rose Idi Danladi, Dr. Sadiq Gombe among others as the core promoters. “We want to salvage this country and see how we can fix the mess. We want to set a template and key criteria leaders must have before they can attain any political position,” one of the leaders said then.
Also, in 2018, the Nigeria Intervention Movement (NIM), promised to rescue Nigeria in 2019 by providing an alternative to the APC and the PDP. The group paraded ex-Governor Duke, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) now Anambra governor, Charles Soludo, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, Tafawa Balewa, Utomi; former Education minister, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, ex-Information minister, Frank Nweke Jnr, Col. Abubakar Umar (retd), Ayo Obe, Rabiu Ishyaku Rabiu, former presidential adviser, Akin Osuntokun.
Scepticism
There is growing public skepticism about the sincerity of purpose by those who usually drive the idea about the formation of a mega party. This is because a few of them have either jumped from Party A to Party B, in their quest for elective or appointive offices, in the past. Others, who belonged to one of the main opposition party worked for another opposition party in the last elections only to come back to their initial party to seek its ticket for governorship in the pending offseason elections coming up this year. Besides, some pundits claim that the fringe parties tend to demonstrate total lack of capacity and tenacity of purpose necessary for the formation of a merger a party, because they cringe before the main parties during the build up to and post election periods. According to such pundits, it was not unexpected that during the consultative meeting hosted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), the IPAC gave an indication that it will seek an amendment of the Constitution to accommodate grant for political parties. The sceptism about the mentality of the Nigerian politicians is also of a serious concern to a former vice chancellor of the Ajayi Crowther University, Professor Dapo Asaju. He strongly believes that they fall short of ideological inclination and discipline of true statesmen. He said: “Our leaders at the moment have no ideologies, no educational erudition, no finesse of charisma, no agenda, no character nor integrity, no principles nor discipline; just fashion shows, rather than ideologues and pragmatic developers. There are no more thinkers in Nigeria. The authors of inspiring political books are gone. We can count not less than 10 books authored by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, a typical Philosopher king.” He added: “We should all pray and work towards the peace and unity of Nigeria. We are better off as one unlimited nation. We suffer at the moment from chronic lack of credible and progressive leadership in all the ethnic nationalities. After the exit of the founding fathers of Nigeria, we have not succeeded in growing or grooming replacement of charismatic, knowledgeable and disciplined leaders with Spartan lifestyles and philosophical erudition.”
As the promoters of the formation of a mega party step up their campaign, some Nigerians argue that the solution to the problems of the country goes beyond the prism of political parties. One of such observers said the dramatis personnel has remained the same project within the political space terms of giving fillip to the Nigerian project, , but that they have failed to give hope to the citizens. He stated: “It is still the same set of politicians, who have taken us to where we are today will form the so-called new mega party until we realise that party is not the problem but the people who are in the party are the problem. Seventy percent of PDP politicians between 1999 and 2015 are in APC today.”
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