Tongues are already wagging over the recent move of the Nigerian authorities’ enfant terrible Peter Obi from the African Democratic Party (ADC) to the National Democratic Congress (NDC). A rolling stone gathers no moss, they say. The Obi traducers think he is incapable of building a strong platform upon which to forge his presidential ambition, like Tinubu did. They see party switching as a grave act in politics.
What should occupy our minds foremost is not just the act of party-switching by numerous Nigerian politicians but the cause of it. Straight on, the relevance of parties in the politics is fast eroding.
I share a great deal in the dilemma Nigerian voters are going to face as the 2027 races towards us. Should we listen to the party or should we follow our heart with regard to the most impressive candidate in elective positions across the country? The answer to this question must be predicated upon the state of the nation, where there is rising security and economic tension, as well as mounting foreign debts and a widening chasm between the people and a government that continually pursues policies that do nothing but detach the masses from their leaders emotionally.
In a couple of months to come, parties would have gathered the results of their primaries, ready with the list of their candidates for submission to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). They have the options of consensus and direct primaries to pick their candidates. Both methods are not insulated from the disingenuousness of the smart Nigerian politician.
Ideally, the ultimate goal of election exercises is to fill positions of leadership with the right candidates who would deliver in their duties and make life easier for us. Fundamentally, the candidates can’t contest without belonging to political parties as the laws of the land and the tenets of our chosen democracy permit. What, if the parties we support fail to field the candidates of our choice?
Let’s pause for a while to ruminate on a scene in a church during the campaigns for the 2023 presidential elections. The pastor had asked the congregation whether they had any candidate in mind for the Presidency. They echoed yes. He now made a prayer, so powerfully, that God should grant that their children should take after the person they had in mind. There arose an uproar in the church as if the pastor was laying a curse on the congregation.
Naturally, a patriotic voter goes for the best man for the job, the one most admirable, the man that sounds convincing enough to get the country out of the woods. And if that choice candidate is admirable, the obvious prayer is that his children take after his hero candidate. Unfortunately, it does not work that way in Nigeria where ethnicity and religion are key factors that drive our politics. Character, Competence and Capacity do not find a chance in our choice of the people to manage our affairs. Need we ask why the nation is unstable?
Now, to our dilemma. Perhaps the twisted primaries have thrown up the candidate that falls short of the three Cs mentioned above. Should a loyal party man ditch the party’s choice to campaign for another candidate outside the party?
The absence of ideologies, a factor that usually bonds party members together, has caused a high frequency of party switching. In Nigeria, parties are no longer a congregation of minds set on the common good of the people. They have been reduced to mere vehicles that ride the big shots to power. Nigerian political parties, therefore, appear to be gangs seeking for power for their selfish ends rather than the good of the people.
In other lands, politics is seen as a game of wits backed by performance. Players appear at the turf donning their best apparel and ready to impress the audience by their presentations, in words and in actions. To them, the best candidate or party with programmes and policies sellable to the electorate carries the day when the balloting is over. The losers quietly retire to their abodes to re-strategize for the next round of the contest.
It is different in Nigeria, where politics is a duel. Our politicians dodge bullets that often fly at campaign grounds or at mere political meetings. In this season, the nation has witnessed violence visited on the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in several states. These attacks have been variously traced to the ruling APC.
Political power is hardly what it is supposed to be; a tool for the prudent management and equitable distribution of a nation’s resources under mutually agreed rules and regulations for the good of its citizens. Power, to the average Nigerian, is a tool for tribal subjugation and for the suppression of the weak. It is a gateway to stupendous wealth gotten from the rape of the nation’s coffers.
Since partisan politics have chosen to be amoebic in a sense, there is wisdom in shifting allegiance to the individual in matters of voting. Parties can be misleading.
The movement of Obi and his new-found love Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso from ADC to NDC is circumstantial. From day one, when he began his presidential bid in 2023, Obi had made it clear that his aim is merely to set Nigeria on a straight path economically as well as socially as subsequent governments had woefully failed in these areas. He insists he wants to move the country from being a consuming nation to a producing one.
His is an uncommon ambition comfortably seated on clean track records and verifiable integrity. He, as a former governor, has no skeleton in his board. His credentials that he feels absolutely not shy to flaunt is so attractive that only the crooked would turn a blind eye at them. Other politicians up in arms against him carry their tattered bags of integrity around, bags leaking so profusely that nothing of the priced commodity is left for them anymore.
Being the most beautiful prospective bride of the masses, others contesting for the love of the grassroots do not want him on the ballot paper come 2027. If switching party, which is hardly a crime in the Nigerian context, can take him to Aso Rock, why not?
Unseen evil persons had dogged him ever since his impressive outing with the Labour Party. The party had known no peace until he packed his bags into the ADC coalition. Again, ADC began to rumble while LP problem is gradually dying down. It would be wrong for Obi not to run for dear life, indeed do the movement more vigorously than a monkey darting across trees to evade the hunter’s deadly aim. Or, like the rider trying to escape from the hot chase of armed robbers.
Now that he has pitched camp in NDC with Kwankwaso and his Kwankwasia Movement, a combination of this movement and that of the Obidients is what to watch, especially as their names present an impressionable slogan. On a Candid Note, Let’s hope that Nigeria will be OK, come 2027.
Dr. Odu can be reached through [email protected], or SMS 07016722929.
