By Taiwo Adisa, PhD
The Cisero of Esa Oke, the late Chief Bola Ige, perfectly captured the political setup under the regime of the late General Sani Abacha, when he called the five registered political parties of the era the ‘five fingers of a leprous hand’. The five parties which took over from the two party system founded by the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida-the Social Democratic Party(SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC)- included the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP), the Congress for National Consensus (CNC), National Centre Party of Nigeria (NCPN), Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN) and the Grassroots Democratic Movement(GDM). In 1998, the five Abacha parties adopted the then head of state, General Sani Abacha, as their presidential candidate, thus marking the first time such a mischievous unity of purpose was achieved in a pluralist country like Nigeria.
But the political opposition of that time, led by the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), knew that the feat was not achieved with ordinary eyes. They knew that a drummer was certainly doing the beats for the leave you see dancing palongo on top of the river. They all knew that the so-called consensus was a product of the machinations of the dark-goggled general, who was at the time residing in Aso Rock. But as nature would have it, Abacha did not live to fulfil the wishes of the ‘five fingers of a leprous hand’ as he gave up the ghost before he could fix a date for the transmutation.
Immediately, his successor, General Abdusalami Abubakar, took power, he dissolved the parties and instituted yet another multi-party transition programme. He registered three political parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the All Peoples Party (APP, later All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and the Alliance for Democracy (AD). NADECO leaders and leaders of Afenifere, who stood apart from Abacha’s ‘five fingers of a leprous hand,’ saw the need to do away with participants of the infamous Abacha politics. The negotiating team, led by Chief Bola Ige, had to move from the PDP to the APP and eventually anchored on the AD. The reason was simple: after dropping the PDP manifesto, Bola Ige and his team discovered infiltration by Abacha politicians. They abandoned the PDP and landed in the APP. After a while, they also discovered that Abacha politicians had also made the APP their abode. They fled again and landed in the AD, a party firmly rooted in progressive ideology.
Why did the NADECO and Afenifere leaders run away from those parties? It wasn’t because they detested working with broad-based groups. Their fear was the debilitating consequences associated with the frontliners in Abacha politics posed to the sanity of the nation’s political system going forward, but, despite the efforts of the leaders, who tried as they did, at the start of Abdusalami-midwifed democratic transition, they were only able to sidestep the dreaded Abacha politicians. They were unable to exorcise the spirit of Abacha politics from the practitioners. Events in today’s polity have clearly shown that practitioners of Abacha politics are very much in our midst because the leaders of NADECO were unable to quench the fire of Abacha politics when Abdusalami flagged off his transition. Meanwhile, the brand of politics christened as Abacha politics is characterized by high-stakes sycophancy, disloyalty to the rules of the game, Janus-like dual character, and conduct antithetical to normal human reasoning. We saw this in practice when Youths were earnestly asking for Abacha, when the same youths, who were uncared for by the system, were running the streets in the name of one million marches, and we saw how five political parties were loyal to one man, and at the same time, one man was loyal to five parties. It is easy to conclude that such a setting doesn’t need to have more than one political party, because all tendencies are woven into one. Even the Chinese Communist Party projects far more plural tendencies than such so-called multi-partyism.
Compare the scenario of the five fingers of a leprous hand with what the nation experienced just before Abacha’s politics set in. There was SDP and NRC. Both were founded and funded by the government. The SDP projected socialist tendencies, with the Babangida administration describing it as a little to the left. The NRC was described as a little to the right of the centre. Even though those parties were formed and nurtured by the government of Babangida, there was an attempt at idealism. The other advantage was that it somehow coerced the usual Nigerian tripod to work together in one political ensemble. Instead of having a party with bases in each of the regions-North, West, and East-as we had it in the First Republic, the North, the East, and the West were forced to work together in the two political tendencies. Yes, there was serious contestation for political offices, but the sanity of clean political air was guaranteed. There were no undue court cases, and no one was standing at the door of one party and placing a leg at the window of another.
In the current setting, there are 21 political parties registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). That did not just come by, though. Chief Gani Fawehinmi, the fiery Lagos lawyer, fought tooth and nail to have the political space liberalized. When Abdusalami registered three parties and excluded his National Conscience Party (NCP), Fawehinmi went to court and demanded justice. He didn’t win the case easily, but he was tenacious, and by the 2003 election, his party was allowed to contest the national election. By then, the Supreme Court had affirmed the liberalized political party registration process contained in the 1999 Constitution. Fawehinmi’s altruistic legal battles have, however, become a source of unwholesome business by some reincarnated Abacha politicians, who probably were good members of the UNCP, GDM, or CNC of those days. In recent times, I’ve heard of party leaders who were part of a decision of the executive committee of their party, turn around weeks later to claim that their signatures were forged. They talk glibly about such a criminal act as if it were the latest fashion in town. Meanwhile, our laws recognise forgery as a criminal offence, and for anyone to raise such an allegation, whether in an affidavit or in a media interview, they must be ready to prove the allegation. Failure for which he should be prosecuted for a false allegation. What is adding to my confusion on this matter is the position of the courts on some occasions. I’ve seen some courts grant injunctions in favour of such claimants who merely alleged that their signatures were forged, even when there are no attempts to fish out the alleged perpetrators.
The African Democratic Congress(ADC) is one party that has been a victim of Abacha-type politics in recent times. We saw the other day where a former presidential candidate of the party took up arms to claim that he was not consulted by the leadership of the party before the switch of leadership to the coalition led by Senator David Mark. You want to wonder where it is written in any party’s constitution that flying a party’s flag elevates a candidate to the membership of its National Working Committee (NWC) or the National Executive Committee (NEC). There are rules contained in every party’s constitution on who can serve in those positions. In fact, it is the NWC of a party that perfects the day-to-day running of its affairs, while NEC meetings are held in accordance with the intervals granted by the party’s constitution. One would think that a return to a two-party system with an opening for independent candidates would help the polity and save it from the acts of political jobmanship that are flooding the political scene. In the same ADC, you have the case of a member of the House of Representatives dragging the party to court for failing to inform him of a leadership change, and in Adamawa State, up to three factions have emerged immediately after Atiku Abubakar landed in the party. It is not difficult to deduce that some faces behind the upheavals in the parties are either being prompted or are prompting themselves to do the bidding of other parties who may want to reward them for a good job. A two-party system will guarantee firmer membership management that would ensure discipline. Even the celebrated case of Nafiu Bala Gombe in the ADC is another matter that teeters on the brink of Abacha politics. The video of Bala was shown at the meeting where the Markled executive was unveiled. He was there without raising objections, but rose from his bed weeks later to remember he could lay claim to the leadership of the party. It is good that his claims and those of others are before the courts for proper adjudication. The case of Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party(NNPP) is another matter that throws up antics of Abacha politicians. This was the face of the party in the 2023 presidential election. Suddenly, factions emerged in the party claiming to have expelled the man and his massive Kwankwasiyya movement. You even have the case of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Abia State, which claimed to have expelled its only elected Senator, Enyinnaya Abaribe. Parties are supposed to treasure their assets, but where crowd pullers like Kwankwaso or Abaribe are being tossed around by political parties, one would not need to go far to see that the forces behind such developments are seeking death, rather than the growth of the party.
Right now, there are 21 registered political parties, but only a handful are active. Immediately, a notable political face joins the party, and the political jobbers within would start orchestrating a crisis. These are merchants of political crisis, and we need not allow them the space to market their wares. To terminate such shenanigans, we should amend the constitution to allow the registration of only two parties with options for as many independent candidates as possible.
