As we begin the count down to May 29, a special day in our history, the bread and butter politics comes forth, larger than life.
I’m talking about the nature of our party politics, where the opposition stoops as the
enabler fertilizing one party participatory democracy, hence the clarion call for credible political parties.
Left, right, centre, security remains everything. Back to bread and butter politics.
Is anyone surprised that PDP is haemorrhaging so badly? I do not think so. The gale of defections from the party to APC is the way the cookies have always crumbled in our national politics. The winner takes it all, leaving nothing but chaff or even bare crumbs for the losers. Trust Nigerian politicians. Even the crumbs do not come free for the losers.
Anyone who goes from fat, rosy cheeks to the sunken cheeks and pockets absent the Naira, in this time it takes to say, PDP, not not to wait to be instructed on the pragmatic political wisdom of joining the winners. That is where the chop is; that is where the choppers are and that is where some struggling politicians are instantly and miraculously transformed into billionaires. Ah, God is God and life is good.
Bros, this is about bread, buttered bread. Personal political interest always trump the airy nothings such as principles or politics of conviction in our kind of political gerrymandering. Blame no one. Criticise no one. No one has ever owned another an apology for his political survival.
I tell you most solemnly, pragmatic politics has an interesting and chequered history in our country. If you do a cursory check, you would count the number of people who have remained in one political party since 1999 with the fingers of one hand. To-ing and fro-ing is the defining character of Nigerian politics.
PDP, the party bleeding badly now from desertion, was in power at the centre and most of the states for sixteen years.
It was the party then and worth belonging to. When the going was so good and no one saw the possibility of another party with the capacity and the popularity to shove it off its perch, PDP chieftains began to dream and to believe in their dream that the party was destined to rule the country for ever. Its chieftains bestrode the nation like the colossus they were. PDP leaders virtually turned the country into a one party state. In their euphoria and fantasy lsland, it never occurred to them that the one – party state is patently anachronistic.
The then national chairman of PDP, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, grandly predicted that the party would rule for 60years. I think he failed to consult the gods. His prediction fell flat on its face in the 2015 general election. It had 44 years to go.
The party that once called the shots in our country for sixteen good years has become bad news to its leaders and members. Its once arrogant chieftains are more or less sneaking around town, squeaking like the field mouse. There is a good English word for it. Yes, pathetic!
The APC chieftains are highly and mighty pleased with what is happening to PDP. It is not the fault of APC that PDP members are destroying it by deserting it. It gains what the PDP loses. The defectors are rubbing the nose of their once beloved party in the murk or its own electoral misfortunes.
Instead of PDP to do a hard- headed post mortem on its losses, its leaders chose to indulge in mutual recriminations
But APC must watch it. What is happening to PDP does not call for a permanent outing of champagne flutes. We must look beyond that
The gale of defections is deleterious to our national political health.
It is a potent retardation of our political development. It reinforces instability in the system. Party politics thrives on stability, political stability is a process of political acculturation and the commitment to an ideology that drives the party itself.
Two things are important here. The first is that the to-ing and fro-ing is beyond PDP.
It predates the party. Remember Western House of Assembly in 1954. Nigerian politicians have always found the Prospects of being left in the desert positively disconcerting. The oasis of political fortune always beckons.
The opposition should get their act together.
The desire of Nigerians for virile opposition parties that can articulate alternative policies and offer constructive challenge to the current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is fast becoming a mirage.
The opposition that is supposed to offer alternatives and by so doing, enhance transparency and accountability in governance. This is how to keep opposition on their toes.
They are rather weak and very uncompromising. The real danger is the absence of credible political parties anchored on the rule of law and popular participation. We need a new political culture with issue based with clear ideologies and healthy road maps. Credible new political parties highly needed.
Written by Iyke Ibe, From Owerri
