In the season that we are in, I think it is very important for
political parties to x-ray their operations and honestly examine their
motives to see if they are contributing to peace or to tension. This is
because people are more likely to advocate their passions through
politics than through violence, if political parties have internal
democracy whereby it is possible for one to have upward mobility without
being connected to the right people.
It is also important for the maintenance of a stable society for the
public to see political parties as coalitions of people with the same
ideology instead of a coalition of people with the same hegemonic
ambitions.
Political parties shouldn't just exist as a vehicle for people with a
desire to secure political power. They ought to be a place of common
ground for people who share the same broad ideas for the advancement of
human civilisation within the sphere of influence of the city/state or
nation whose citizenship or residency they hold. And a political party
can only bring about positive change when it offers people common
ground.
Where a political party does not offer a common ground, it will
inevitably become a battle ground. And sometimes, there is the danger
that the battle ground continues to widen and may eventually result in
collateral damage to the people that are meant to be served.
Let me go deeper.
In my experience, whenever politicians come together to form a union,
they unite in one of three types of relationships. They either unite as
friends, constituents or comrades and I have listed these relationships
in the descending order of their attachments to each other.
A friend is somebody that is for you. He is not for what you are for or
what you are against, he is just for you. You can count on the support
of a friend irrespective of whether or not you have common interests or
common enemies.
A political party can hardly be built on this foundation but a
political movement within a political party can be built on this
premise. This is the premise upon which the original Peoples Democratic
Movement (PDM) founded by the late sage, General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua,
was built on. This is the reason why PDM functionaries like Chief
Anthony Anenih continue to wield political influence irrespective of the
political order of the day.
A constituent however, is someone who is for what you are for. In
other words, you share common interests. You can count on the loyalty of
a constituent as long as you share the same interests. A party built
on this foundation is stable and cohesive only if the interests are
stable and cohesive. If for instance the interests in question are
economic, then the party can not be stable because economic interests
are not stable. If on the other hand such interests are stable, such as
a national interest, then the party will be stable.
The African National Congress (ANC) and the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) are both built on the foundation of national interests which is
why one is the oldest existing party in Africa while the other is the
oldest existing party in Nigeria. Finally, a comrade is not for what
you are for, neither does he share the same interests as you. A comrade
is simply one who is against what you are against. In other words, you
are bound by a common enemy.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) is a party founded on this
premise. Those who are enemies of president and the PDP gathered
together to form a party whose foundation is their common enemy. They
share no ideological connection, neither are they friends. In actual
fact, they may even hate each other, only that they hate the president
and the PDP more and are wiling to temporarily suppress their hatred for
each other in order to gang up against their common enemy.
In my experience, it is better to have a party built on common
interests than to have one built on a common enemy. This is because as
even a political novice will tell you, there are no permanent friends or
permanent enemies only permanent interests. Now, if the above is true,
what would happen to a party that is built on a common enemy? Parties
built on this foundation last only as long as the enemy is in power.
Once their enemy is no longer in power the party disintegrates.
Can Nigeria ever be safe in the hands of those who see politics from
the prism of enmity rather than the prism of friendship or even
interests? Where a political party founded on friendship or interest
will see a challenger as a rival, a party grounded in enmity sees a
challenger as an opponent. Where an interest or friendship-based party
sees politics as love by other means, an enmity-based party sees it as
war by other means.
This is why they will spare no ill or foul language in describing a
gentleman like President Goodluck Jonathan who has repeatedly said that
"I have no enemies to fight". With all that has been said about the
president and his party, the PDP, if you focus on the facts and not the
propaganda, you will realise that the president's peaceful mien has
permeated his party and that the PDP has been a reflection of peace and
friendship.
Where is all the political violence in Nigeria taking place?
When was the last time you heard of politically motivated violence in
PDP states? PDP states look up to the president for inspiration and
having seen his peaceful mien, they have followed suit. The PDP is not
peopled by those who spend all their time and invest considerable
intellectual capacity on imagining negative things to tweet, BB and
Facebook because it is a party built on a foundation of friendship with a
president who believes in accommodation.
So, while many are keen to change the narrative and focus the minds of
Nigerians on the negative, I urge Nigerians today to soberly reflect
and ask themselves who but President Jonathan would have shown the
restraint and maturity in the face of such undeserved hostility? This
is a man with nothing to hide. He signed the Freedom of Information Act
into law so that Nigerians could see that he is an open book. How many
of the so called progressive states have domesticated this Act? As I
write to you, there is not a single political prisoner in Nigeria and we
are one of the few countries in Africa where you have freedom of speech
and freedom after the speech.
This analysis is necessary to show that a gathering of friends will
achieve much more than a gathering of enemies and it is high time that
we moved our politics away from the battle ground to the common ground.
