Okenyi Kenechi
Events that led to the 2015 general elections are still fresh on our minds. The country’s political space was littered with disagreements over who gets what and which region should give way for another region to preside over the affairs of the country.
It was never about competence but where the president came from that mattered. Political mathematicians went to work, marshalling out political figures that will work for or against who. But at the core of the whole political dribbling, the betterment of Nigeria was never taken into consideration.
It was perhaps the progressive governors led by the then governor of Rivers State and current minister of transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi moving of their supporters from the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the then opposition All Progressive Congress, APC that shook the country.
Amaechi had had series of disagreements with the then president, Goodluck Jonathan, over the seceding of some oil wells to Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom States. He was also at loggerheads with the wife of the president over the demolition of the waterfront in Port Harcourt which was said to have belonged to the Okrika people where Patience Jonathan comes from. Then came the then Rivers State Commissioner of Police who was used by the FG to embarrass the governor, making sure that Amaechi, sometimes, had his movement restricted.
Well, underlining the FGs treatment of Amaechi was the candidacy of the current governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, who had been anointed by Jonathan as the sole candidate of the PDP. Amaechi’s defection was a deadly gamble which helped to sink the PDP and ended the Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency. However, if it had failed, the minister would have been in a political exile by now.
The same event is playing out with the President Mohammed Buhari-led administration. While the economy has nosedived under his administration, the killings by the president’s kinsmen, the Fulani herdsmen, have not in anyway helped matters in bridging the rancour that existed between farmers and herders. The president’s denial and lack of action have even made matters worse.
President Buhari was never in support of the Senator Bukola Saraki’s Senate presidency and the Yakubu Dogara speakership of the house of representatives. Buhari merely tolerated both men for the time that he did because, well, he had no choice.
The lack of support for their positions also led to the several infractions between the executive and the National Assembly which led to some of the president’s appointees not being confirmed by the legislatures.
Ibrahim Magu, the EFCC chairman whom the Senate had refused confirmation twice was at the centre of the whole issue. The framing of some senators using the police equally created enough room for such discontent.
Intimidation of opposition politicians using security agencies and the militarization of some parts of the country led credence to the belief that the president has not shed some of his beliefs which made him run into trouble waters in 1985.
These also show that in Nigeria’s political space, there are no ideological leanings along party lines. There are no shared beliefs within parties as people are there to win elections and if conditions become unfavourable, they jump ship and move to another party where their election interests are taken care of.
This also shows that the presidential system of governance is not suitable for Nigeria. It has been proved ineffective in handling our nation’s diversity. However, a parliamentarian system will be the most ideal going by the recent development where individuals align with other parties to form a government and derail the president.
Going by the recent trend in which politicians jump ship at the slightest provocation, we are building a democratic system that has no basic structure. One can only imagine the American Republicans decamping to the Democrat just to spite president Donald Trump. No nation develops without a strong democratic structure anchored on strong ideologies and beliefs.
That is why politicians need to stick to their party and strategize with people’s oriented policies and projects. If the party sinks, they sink with it. If the party succeeds, they succeed with it. However, the policy of jumping from one party to another in a presidential system will only negate the principles of democracy which ensures that the interests of the people are taken care of.
The masses are the ones losing in these political games of chess. This is how President Buhari found his way to power and have been struggling to find a balance ever since by his inability to manage the affairs of the APC and the country due to the fact that members do not share the same ideology.
