The July 14 governorship election have come and gone with battle now shifted to court room.However, there a lot of talking points arising from it. Prior to the election, there was palpable tension in the land with comments from both parties which were suggestive of threats and rejection of the outcome in the event it did not go their way. But, there is surprise calm in the state. What amazes me most is the unnecessary tension created by the dramatis personae Ayodele Fayose and Fayemi. They made the election look like a personality clash where old scores needed to be settled as against contest of ideas, philosophy and projection of party manifesto. This has become the template for most aspirants at all levels and parties in this dispensation. If the issues are not the zone to produce the candidate, it will be turn of the family to rule or the tribe to get elected. Where lies party ideology, manifesto and philosophy?
Its time we changed the political party formation and modus operandi of running political parties. I had argued in another forum about “Not too young to run” bill that was recently signed into law by Mr president on political expediency as opposed to necessity due to its unnecessary media hype it got.I rather would have loved the NASS to expediently pass a bill like “How not to run a political party” where clauses like disallowing party leaders to suo moto substituting a winner of a party primary with an anointed godson or changing delegate lists over night or party members collaborating with another political party to forge an alliance for selfish reasons as was the case in the election of principal officers of the NASS in 2015.I want to see a law that will strengthen political parties making them stronger than individuals as in the current situation where political parties are at the mercy of stupendously wealthy politicians.
I wasn’t excited with the “Not too young to run” law because prior to now, nothing spectacularly preclude a young man from aspiring to govern especially those who fall within the so called age bracket, forget the reduction of the number of years in the bill. What is particularly important is laying a proper structure that will be fair to all through a platform that will encourage propagation of ideas to govern as opposed to monetization of the process which is what is obtainable now. Two examples will suffice here.
There are two very young governors currently occupying offices in two of the states in the north central, as at the last time I checked, their performances are far below average to the extent that they have scandalously become a reference point on “Why power should not be given to youths”. Lest I digress, the Ekiti election was not particularly issue driven and this is where I challenge Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to write his name in gold by convening an inter-party summit with a view to proposing a bill to the NASS on party politics. Part of the proposals should include but not limited to the following:
- All parties should henceforth conduct direct primaries.
- Debate should be made compulsory, so that every aspirant should tell the party faithfuls his program and be elected or rejected on the basis of his/her proposed program.
- Disqualification of an aspirant on the basis of monetization of the process.
- Legal protection to any one declared winner who may not be the candidate of the power broker.
- Publication of names of party members on ward basis on the party’s website.
I have taken time to outline this because what happened in Ekiti could have been avoided if parties are properly guided by law. For instance, 30,000 police, aside Civil Defence personnel and Army officers were mobilized to the state. If elections were to take place simultaneously, would it have been possible? No. But if the primaries for the two major parties were transparent, electorate and analysts would have been able to project the likely winner thereby reducing the tension as it were. However, there are few lessons to be learnt.
Governor Fayose did not get the necessary support from his colleagues unlike Fayemi who had four governors in the state more than 24 hours to the election. Similarly, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, arrived the state on Sunday before the election and stayed through Wednesday alongside Bisi Akande, Segun Osoba, Niyi Adebayo all former governors and Pius Akinfuyele.There were able to turn things around for Fayemi. No leader in the mould of the aforementioned were there for PDP.
Second, these same set of leaders ensured no APC aspirant defected after the primaries unlike PDP that lost Shola Adeyeye, Senator Razaki and FHR members and SHA members. While these were on going, the governor continued to live in denial of his popularity and never pushed forward the capacity and capability of the candidate.
Eventually, that was his undoing as Adeyeye was able to neutralize the difference in votes garnered by PDP candidate in his local government area-5000.
Juxtaposing Fayose’s campaign lyrics with party discipline I talked about earlier, was PDP’s undoing since he became bigger than the party, having significantly played a major role in the emergence of NWC members.
My final take: Let us redefine party politics in Nigeria as was the case in the first and second republics where party members defer to party leaders like Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Azikiwe, Waziri, Aminu Kano et al. Then, the new generation and current youths will learn leadership. Otherwise, I’m afraid, should the current scenario continue on this score, we my be going round and round without necessarily moving forward. This in my humble opinion will be achieved if we institutionalize our political parties through legal means thereby empowering the national leaders.
– Sylvester Ojogbane wrote from Abuja
