INEC, I Need My Own Political Party Too

ARINZE IGBOELI

Before I delve into the thrust of this piece, let me share a story that happened in the 2003 elections. That day been April the 19th 2003, had been fixed for the 2003 presidential and guber elections. I had gone as a strong willed student to cast my vote for General Muhammadu Buhari’s ANPP in a contest that paraded  20 presidential candidates. At the entrance of the polling unit, I saw my neighbour and pal of mine looking distraught, quick greetings and the question turned to why he was standing there looking sad. He then asked me who I intended to vote, I quickly quipped “General Buhari”but wondered what that had to do with his sombre looks, before he then told me that he had intended voting for the candidate of the Justice Party, the bombastic Reverend Chris Okotie but had in error voted Pere Ajuwa of the LDPN, thus his standing there was to see if anyone was harbouring the intention of voting Ajuwa’s LDPN  that he may inform the person not to bother but rather vote for the JP! Hilarious right? But this was from an educated young man who had only 20 political parties to choose from, today, the number of political parties in Nigeria is 68 and still counting as the  electoral commission, INEC has recently announced that it is considering the request  of 30 more associations to be registered as political parties. Thus we are looking at an unwieldy number of 98 parties jostling for political space in an already dense political system or structure of ours as we head into the 2019 elections.

What are we to do with 98 parties in a country where the democratic culture is below par even among its third world peers? I am given to fall into a brooding on why we always seem to make a mess of everything we do, whatever it is, there is no succinct description for such an exercise which is bound not to help much.

In a country where  the mention of ideology is but a fleeting illusion, where political parties and most  politicians are more interested in holding offices and winning elections than in governance, what good will a near hundred political parties offer to the voter?  In a country where literacy is till low and political participation rustic, I am indeed at a loss on how the registration of more parties will strengthen our democracy.

Why? First of all, a look at a number of our political parties in Nigeria will show that they have no ideology, what many claim to be ideologies are a combination of mere words and  meaningless paradoxes. Even the parties that claim some form of ideological puritanism still end up courting candidates who are the very antithesis of what such a party stands for. For example, the Labour Party which ought to be a workers party with the profession of  a socialist ideology has romanced the likes of Joshua Dariye, Ifeanyi Ubah, Femi Pedro and Paulen Tallen, Ovie Omo Agege  and Great Ogboru, people who are core capitalists!

Even the names of such parties suggest a poor play of alphabets, others send an immediate alarm: Names like the All Blending Party reminds me of certain culinary functions, to the extent that one must ask what are they seeking to blend? Others such as the Justice Must Prevail Party,Sustainable Nigeria Party   Mass Action Joint Alliance and Modern Party leaves one confused as to what really are the intentions of these parties.

Truth be told, a number of these parties cannot muster the crowd to seriously contest  and win elections, they are merely tools meant to contrive some political arithmetic; as they end up endorsing one of the candidates for some form of gratification which may run into millions of Naira.

By this time they would have led astray a many a good citizen who may have owing to the superfluous nature of  mantras/ slogans  such as
“Power to The poor”, “Ezigbote Oringo” , ” Let’s Slay Together” , identified with them, this not only strains the political conversation but also create an onerous and noisome debate.

My dilemma may however be an academic one as INEC itself is not to blame. This is owing to the Supreme Court ruling  in 2003 which favours a plethora of parties as well as an Appeal Court judgment which balked at the idea that INEC could deregister parties that failed to win seats or elections.

One largely understands the underlying tones for such judgements, which are in order if we are to preserve our democracy from coming under a one party state or civilian dictatorship, however the abuse of such judgements stare us in the face with the concurrent baggage of problems mentioned earlier.