The madness of political parties in Nigeria

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Written by Emmanuella Nduonofit

Saturday, 29 May 2010

The views that will be expressed here will be that of an ordinary layman (laywoman), not that of a political scientist or a student or graduate of Political Science. This viewpoint would have been entitled THE MADNESS OF POLITICAL PARTY CREATION IN NIGERIA, but that would be too lengthy.

As I was going home one day, I was offered a free pamphlet containing all the flags of the present political parties in Nigeria. This was given to me during the electoral period. The colourful presentation of these flags brought a smile to my face, and I laughed because some of these flags have semblances to other flags of various countries round the world (U no say for naija, we fit do anyting). I commend the efforts of those artistes and graphic designers who made these party flags and I fervently hail their individual niche for creativity applied to the making of these flags. To show the extent of my happiness, I shared this pamphlet with my younger ones at home. Written at the top of this pamphlet was KNOW YOUR POLITICAL PARTIES.

Showing me the flags of all the political parties we have here in Nigeria does not in any way make me know them. This only tells me that they exist somehow. Colourful as these party flags may be, life has taught me that colours fade with time. In this case, the colours of these flags will fade within a very short time, mark my words. When I say “a very short time”, I mean before five years from now, or much more less.

While watching a programme right after the network news called THE SUMMIT, my mother and I had a very good laugh. The presidential aspirants of MMN, NAC, NMDP and NDP were being interviewed and given a short time to present their manifestoes to the nation. The NDP candidate believed in equal distribution of wealth to all individuals from the national coffers, but with all the statistics he uttered, he did not stipulate on how that could be achieved. The NMDP candidate was so sure the wealth of the Niger Delta region was sufficient to take care of the nation, but he gave no proper logistics on how that can be achieved. The NAC candidate believed that if he was voted into power, he could distribute wealth the way God gave the Israelites manna from heaven. Well, only he knows whom he would fool. The MMN candidate believes that she is the messiah of the masses, the downtrodden and poverty-stricken people only. Let me add here that the studio audience was very cosmetic in nature with one highly unsure of the media houses and organisations they represent. It was a one full hour programme of laughter galore.

The growth and development of the Nigerian entity is very much likened to those incredible tides beach surfers dive into and those oceanic waves that appear when the moon shines powerfully. Since history, Nigerians have been moving in and out of aim. And the one thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history.

I am so certain that many of these political parties will wither away like a crowd of flowers grossly unfed. Even the major political parties look ridiculous in the midst of all of them, all carrying major and deathly cracks on their walls. PDP is the ruling party which still wishes to rule for many more years, believing that it is yet to achieve what it is set out to do. It was very obvious that all the PDP campaigns at the governorship and presidential levels were all about money and influence and chosen crowds to enjoy them, while the rest suffer. The outgoing president said that the polls will be a do-or-die affair, and that was what happened. He even said that elections can never be perfect, and that was what happened as well in these past elections.

I personally cannot say that the emergence of these many political parties is an evolution. I see the process of evolving more in a positive light, even though a human being can evolve to become a bad person. To me, evolving is a spiritual action. In my candid opinion, the emergence of these plenty political parties is madness. Just see all these fifty political parties intent on ruling Nigeria and Nigerians, most of them selfish, few of them true.

It was highly annoying and wearisome to hear those four presidential candidates utter easy promises on live television for almost one whole hour. I quote Professor Chinua Achebe from his book The Trouble With Nigeria: “Our inaction or cynical action are a serious betrayal of our education, of our historic mission and of succeeding generations who will have no future unless we save it now for them. To be educated is, after all, to develop the questioning habit, to be sceptical of easy promises and to use past experience creatively.”

Now, how hard is that, eh? How hard can that be? It isn’t even easy, either. Can we say we are grossly uneducated?

I believe we know the marionettes in government affairs of all levels, from local to federal, when we see them. I am sure two of those four presidential candidates are expecting compensation from government knowing deep down that they will never win the presidential election.

The road to a sincere, true, concretised and everlasting development in Nigeria is a very slow and very long one. So, let us drive well. If your car is bad, get it fixed properly and continue driving. We cannot have “leaders” who leave us still groping around in a dark, perennially lengthy tunnel of no end.
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