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2019: Expectations From Smaller Political Parties

Published by Leadership on Sat, 21 Jan 2017


In this report, Kabir Akintayo takes a swipe on the activities of smaller political parties in an evolving political climate.The 2015 general election may have come and gone, but its outcome still rings a bell in the heart of Nigerians, what with the defeat of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a party which hitherto, often boasted that it is the largest political party in Africa.It is almost two years since the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari of All Progressive Congress, (APC) as the president, yet PDP, which is the major opposition party in the country, is still yet to put its House together ahead of 2019.In what should have been a time to re-strategize and restructure the party ahead of 2019, power tussle has made the party almost prostrate as camps led by Sen Ahmed Markarfi and Sen Ali Modu Sheriff, await a court judgment to set the leadership tussle straight. Series of reconciliation attempts failed.The leadership crisis has held down the party, making it difficult to focus on 2019.Meanwhile, the ruling party is not left out of such brouhaha as the party is also battling for who gets what, when and how, hence, brewing supremacy tussle.The APC has been battling internal crises. The more prominent, it could be recalled, was when the national party leader, Bola Tinubu, called for the resignation of its national party chairman, John Oyegun.He made the call due to what he claimed were irregularities over the Ondo guber polls (which saw the loss of his preferred candidate, Segun Abraham) and the way Oyegun handled the matter.The motion was supported by the former vice President and National leader of the party, Alhaji Atiku Abubak ar.Perhaps, these observations are believed to have given breath to the rumored mega party formation, a party believed to welcome many aggrieved political actors from both the ruling and opposition parties, APC and PDP respectively.But while the dramatics personae in the mega party arrangement have since denied any links with the idea, pundits continue to wonder what the smaller political parties besides the two major partiesAPC and PDP- are up to.So far, there are 40 political parties in the country. 60 political associations are also waiting to be accorded political party recognition.The number of registered political parties rose from 30 in 2015 to 40 in 2016.The parties are: Better Nigeria Progressive Party (BNPP), Democratic Alternative (DA), Masses Movement of Nigeria (MMN), National Action Council (NAC) and National Democratic Liberty Party (NDLP).Others are Nigeria Elements Progressive Party (NEPP), National Unity Party (NUP), Nigeria Peoples Congress (NPC), Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) and Peoples Redemption Party (PRP).Before then the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had deregistered some political parties, following a new regulation that such parties must occupy a certain percentage of elective offices. Earlier too, INEC had stopped funding political parties.But following a court judgement against the regulation, INEC desisted from deregistering parties.Nonetheless, it would seem that the tradition in the political party community, is that most of them, particularly those that do not control elective offices, go into hibernation, pending the next election cycle, where they dust up their offices not to contest for positions but to endorse candidates of major parties.But while others argue that such alliances are not out of place and are indeed common practice all over the world, the concern has remained the lack of ideology prevalent in political parties in Nigeria.After the 2015 general election, the major impact made by political parties was the tussle for the chairmanship of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC). On providing sustained and critical alternative to the policies of the ruling party, these parties have been largely lacking, analysts opine.A clear challenge for these parties has been finance, particularly in a climate where politics is so cost effective. However, other pundits believe that small political parties should rather project counter ideas and seek offices at grassroots levels based on well thought out and tested ideology rather than focus on seeking national elective offices.Still, political parties besides PDP and APC, have shown preparedness ahead of the 2019 general election. The National Conscience Party, (NCP), participated at the 2015 general election, with Matins Onovo as the presi dential candidate.This time around, the party national chairman, Alhaji Tanko Yunusa, who expressed readiness of his party to be very visible ahead of 2019, has said there will be room for alliance in order to enhance the chance of becoming victorious.To us in the National Conscience Party, NCP, this is a time for sober reflection and rededication to the struggle for the real political change in the interests of the masses that would lead to the abolition of poverty.To the Nigerian masses and youth, it is clear that they have to rise up and take their destinies in their own hands.2017 is a year we urge everybody to get politically organized. Change would never drop from the sky. The first step of the liberation of the Nigerian masses is for everybody to get politically conscious and organized. Joining the National Conscience Party is a step in this direction. The NCP remains the only party of the Nigerian masses standing and the party has been behind all the struggles of the masses since it was founded in resistance to military dictatorship in 1994.The All progressive grand alliance (APGA), has also vowed to contest at the federal level, come 2019. This is coming after the nomination of its acting chairman, Ozo Nwabueze Okafor who made the revelation that the era of adopting another partycandidates at the Federal level is over. It could be recall that for both 2011 and 2015 presidential election, the party adopted the formal president, Good luck Ebele Jonathan as its presidential candidate.The party chairman also debunked the rumour of APGA forming alliance with other political parties.The APGAs message is on building the best economy and we have the potential of being the biggest political party. We will ensure that APGA spreads to all parts of this country. As a former national chairman of Association of Local Governments in Nigeria, ALGON, we will leverage on that to ensure that the contacts we have in all the 774 local government areas of the country are exploited. We are equally embarking on membership drive to move from the centre to the periphery he said.Reacting to talks of such realignments, national chairman of the PDM, Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim said every political party goes through a process of realignment and renewal after every general election.The PDM is not different. We are speaking to major stakeholders in Nigerias politics and they are speaking to us. The general consensus is that there is a dire need to find a third option to moving our nation forward and PDM is at a the centre of these discussions. It is too early in the day to tell what the end result of these discussions will be.National secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Dr Sadiq Gombe, said that the SDP which was formerly the SDMP was a champion of merger in Nigeria.He recalled prior to the 2011 election, we were the once who initially summoned the CPC of Buhari, the ACN of Tinubu and Atiku, the ANPP and APGA, to a meeting, to say enough of PDP misrule. That we needed to come together to salvage the situation. Unfortunately when the the merge eventually took place they did not invite us because they felt we did not have any major elected public office holder.They dont believe in smaller parties in this country and the only time you are a smaller party is when you dont win any election.He further added there are talks here and there that some people want to come in. But if people want to come into your house, you want to look inward and see what is in the house. That is how organize are you' How transparent are you running your affairs'However, political associations posturing to become political parties are also getting set to join the fray. On of such is Nigeria patriots.The association, in a recent press briefing, called on important political figures to join them which he regarded as the mega party.The head of the steering committee of the party, Chief Dosu Oladipo who made the call also added that a number of chieftains of APC, PDP, Labour party, (LP) and APGA are also part of the proposed party.Meanwhile, the youths are also clamouring for more space to participate in the political settings. This has led to formation of Young Progressive Congress, (YPC) Young Confederation Party, (YCP) and National Youth Movement, (NYM).LEADERSHIP Weekend gathered that all these youth-based associations are to form alliance ahead of 2019.Acting national chairman of YPC, Comrade Olajide Wolimoh, said that the youths are working together with the Senate in ensuring the passage of the billnot too young to run as he said, it will enable more youth participation in politics and also influence the sense of belonging at the federal level.Here we have the real Nigerian youths with new orientation. When people say even the youths are corrupt, I query their sense of judgement because they are only operating on the corrupt system laid down. They said if you cant beat them you join them, this time around, we dont want to join them, we want to leave them, open a new path, new system that will be driven by equity and justice. This new system will thrive on innovation.In addition, some youth activist expressed their grievances, saying that, the time of old ones using the youth to achieve their political ambition is over.One of the activists, Lukman Salahude enwho spoke to LEADERSHIP Weekend said,There will be a political revolutionary party which will unseat all old hands in power and replace them with young active patriotic and innovative citizens. The obvious failures of successive governments has proven that Nigerian problem is beyond party. We have to understand that Nigeria needs revolution to stabilize her fortunes, we are embarking on intellectual, political revolution which aims is to remove all old greedy and failed leaders from power corridors he said.However, the APC, is making frantic moves to reconcile all grudges within the party, and striving to satisfy the divergent interest of its leaders.Likewise, the main opposition party, PDP, battling with its reconciliation process, awaits the court ruling to help them move at a faster pace.So far so good, the only major threat to the ruling party, APC, analysts opine, remains the rumoured Mega Party, whether it would materialize remains a matter of conjecture.
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