A REVIEW OF PARTY 'POLITICKING' AND THE NIGERIA STATE: PROGNOSTICATION INTO 2015

A REVIEW OF PARTY 'POLITICKING' AND THE NIGERIA STATE: PROGNOSTICATION INTO 2015

*Hate speech, a veritable tool of disintegration ahead 2019
The undermentioned includes some of the fundamental cardinal functions of a political party; Leadership recruitment and training, Agent of socialization, Constitutional recognized platform to take over government, that is, a platform for people to elect their leaders, and to form government, runs it wills and ideas. Political parties also, try to protect what the state desires, by propagation of ideology such as, socialism, capitalism, communism, welfarism and even mixed economy.
The sustainability and continuous survival of any political system to ensure national integration and development depends on the nature, characteristics and the internal composition of the political parties in that country. A good example of such parties that come to mind; the Democrat and Republican party in U.S.A, the Congress and Labour party in Britain etc. The germane question is, where are the political parties in Nigeria, in line with the aforementioned argument?
Just as in other Africa countries, where political parties/movement, such as the Mau Mau Liberation Movement in Kenya, the National Liberation Front in Algeria, the Convention Peoples Party in Ghana, the first generation political parties in Nigeria, the Action Group (AG), Northern People Congress ( NPC) and the NCNC were able to fight against colonialism and won political independent for their people and were accorded some level of success.
However, shortly after political independent was achieved in Nigeria, these first generation political parties withdrew into their regional, tribal and ethnic cocoons, jettisoned the fundamentals of independence ( economic advancement, social justice etc). This was because, the political parties were bereft of the functional state philosophy and ideology. They ( political parties) turn to champions of primordial and parochial sentimentalism.
The end result of this apolitical jamboree to the Nigeria state was/is the high level of nepotism, favouritism, poverty, mal-administration, repression, oppression, infrastructural decay, insecurity, youth unrest, corruption, institutional fragility, political intolerance, witch hunting etc. Thus, fertiled the conducive atmosphere for the "khaki boys" to struck a deadly blow on our body "politik" and declared its funeral and internment of the first Republic.
It is so disturbing to note that, as if the lessons from the requiem sermon of the first Republic and the first generation political parties were not enough, the second generation political parties with their acclaimed national wide spread, enshrouded themselves in that very debacle that brought about the tsunami that cut short, the untimely existence of the first Republic. The nonchalant, lackadaisical and the institutionalized political immaturity displayed by the political parties prompted "the return of the military".
However, more worrisome, is its 'episodorial' into the fourth Republic. The fourth Republic is best captured with the analogy of, 'the sheep that saw nine of its kind fell into a ceaseless pit of extermination, yet wants to jump into the same pit' even with appeals from observers.
One of the recent casualty of the failure of the Nigeria political parties is the Nigeria military. The security challenges in Nigeria has hand twist the military, portraying it (military) as a weakling, in curtailing the infamous sect (Boko Haram). The Nigeria military that is known to had won so many laurels fighting across the globe, maintaining and sustaining peace and security in different International Organisations for peace keeping mission, is being frustrated by the activities of Boko Haram. What an irony! No thanks to the political parties that had debased the military, by the process of politicization.
Further contribution of the political parties to the security challenges in Nigeria, was the testimony of the former National Security Adviser, late Gen. Patrick Azazi rtd, who stated that, the activities of Boko Haram and other insurgency in Nigeria, is a fall out from the dissatisfaction arising from the undemocratic nature of political parties primaries. Thank God, he ( Azazi) did not went to the grave with this upsetting revelation. What more evident do we need to convict our political parties.
Political parties that has helped other climes to build and sustained political system for over centuries, have become cancerous to the fibre of the Nigeria political system, fanning the embers of inevitable instability, whose woes spread across the social, economic and cultural system.
As we await the 2015 general elections, it is worthy of note, that political parties in Nigeria, are not the best platform to shop for those that will manage our collective resources. Going by the antecedent of the political parties, they are disappointment to the Nigeria state. Unless the behavioral composition of the Nigeria political parties is tailored towards universally accepted norms, the personal or individual attributes of the candidates should be the option for election/selection. For the political parties, as it stands, lack the credibility and capacity to engender a political system with a democratic values and ethos for nation building.
At the time in which the above subject matter (party politicking) was being considered, that is before the 2015 general elections, the futuristic enormity of the vicious nature of hate speech, as a veritable tool to execute political strategy was not imagined. The recent outburst of persistent hate and reckless speeches that tend to threaten the very foundation of Nigeria unity and integration, as advocated through ethnic, regional and religious lines, do not represent the true feelings of patriotism.
"If you are emotionally attached to your tribe and political leaning to the point that truth and justice become secondary considerations, your education is useless, your exposure is useless, if you can not reason beyond petty sentiments, you are a liability to mankind", late Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman (1945-2005).
It is furtherance to this divisible tendencies of hate speeches, that is capable of causing dissatisfaction among Nigeria, that I want to juxtapose the above Yusuf Usman quote and comments from the likes of Mr Femi Fani Kayode, those Northern youth group and other fathomless ethnic and religious bigots, that are funding and sponsoring hate campaigns capable of truncating our 'nascent democracy', if only it spares the disintegration of the Nigeria State.
The incessant irrational, reckless and incitement of vituperation from mien like Fani Kayode and his co-travellers is uncalled for. Comments such as;
* a voice from the grave
* corpsocracy
* bad luck, tragedy, bloodshed, disaster, tears etc
* may that strange voice from the grave be forever be silent and may our nation be ruled by the living and not the dead,
* Igbos should quit the North within three months etc,
is not statesman like, it's not only thuggery but irrational for a sane mind that crave for peace and unity for the Nigeria state.
At least, we are not oblivion nor alien to the antecedent and activities of these hate speech polemicists, while I totally agree with Dr. Aliko Dangote, when he described them to be a jobless people, I will like to also, enjoined all Nigeria to condemn every provocative incite statement, capable of threatening the unity and sovereignty of the Nigeria State.
Let me conclude, by borrowing from the words of the former governor of Kaduna State, Ahmed Makarfi, " Nigeria as a Federation has come a long way and it is our duty as individuals and a whole to ensure that it endures and indeed surpasses the dreams of our founding fathers, every step we take, must be as the American would say, 'towards a more perfect union'".
* This article was first written in 2014 before it's revision