Former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Ondo State, Mr Sola Ebiseni, speaks with KUNLE ODEREMI on the registration of more political parties and its implications for the country. Excerpts:
INEC recently announced the registration of additional political parties making a total of 67. Does Nigeria, in your view, need more political parties?
The right to associate, including forming and belonging to a political party, is guaranteed under section 40 of the Nigerian 1999 constitution. Therefore, whatever view one holds on the number of political parties cannot stop individuals from seeking to form parties or the INEC from registering same provided the conditions set by the constitution and the Electoral Act are met. That is the constitutional or legal aspects of it.
Speaking politically, I am of the view that if political parties are ideologically-based or oriented, there are enough political parties to address ideological views of the citizens or as the basis for society’s management or governance. Historically, Nigeria has always gravitated towards a two-party system notwithstanding the avalanche of political parties. The dominant parties in the First Republic were the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC), Action Group (AG), National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) and Northern Elements Progressive Union). Before the first military coup in 1966, Nigeria was heading towards two broad alliances. The Ahmadu Bello-led conservative NPC was dominant in the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA) with the Samuel Akintola’s National Democratic party, which splintered from the main AG proving the southern link. In the United Progressives Grand Alliance (UPGA) were Awolowo’s AG, NCNC, UMBC and so on. The second Republic started with NPN which was essentially NPC reincarnate, the Awolowo UPN, Azikiwe’s NPP and Ibrahim Waziri’s GNPP and Aminu Kano’s PRP. Towards the end of the Republic all these were already in the processes of a progressive PPA alliance versus NPN. The third Republic had the government formed SDP and NRC. In the present Republic, whether you like it or not appears now to have settled for two broad parties of PDP and APC.
Is anything wrong with the existing parties and why?
The difference between the parties in the previous republics and the present scenario is that the past ones were largely ideologically-oriented while there’s no difference between the present ones in spite of pretences. Apart from the fact that their constitutions are virtually clones of one another, the initial pandering to ideology has given way to rapacious defections which have blurred all identifiable cleavages. Besides, days of political juggernauts whose well-researched views even as opposition leaders used to shake the nation. He spoke not at random nor defended not what was indefensible in the name of partisanship, the time and quality of his intervention are well considered. They are memorable with quotable quotes by friends or foes. The present scenario has dislodged the historical movement and process of the nation’s political evolution and the Yoruba is worse for it. The north oriented NPC has finally convoluted into the APC. Its historical scheme to appear like a national party, which even the Samuel Akintola alliance could not oblige it in the West, was inadvertently supplied by the ACN, a butterfly pretending to be Awolowo’s eagle. They’ve now realised that there is no viable deputy in the presidential system. The core Awolowo disciples remain very high on integrity and ideological purity but appear incapacitated by the idol of money in Nigeria politics. Intellectual politics no longer has significance. The leadership of the PDP appears not to be able to capitalise on this in spite of its original balanced geopolitical equations. Many years of power monopoly makes the party so complacent alienating critical stakeholders in the unfounded belief of invincibility and since out of power still unable to return to the reality of geopolitical imperatives of Nigerian politics. In spite of all these, I don’t see the emergence of any viable national third force. The feat that Dr Olusegun Mimiko performed with the Labour Party in Ondo state is still unprecedented yet it can only be limited to a state. The clout of Ojukwu was what gave APGA a little edge in Amabra and Imo which has since receded to and stuck in Ojukwu’s Anambra.
What do you think is responsible for the current urge by people to register more parties?
Share greed and political indiscipline. When ideologically-oriented personae like Gani Fawehinmi of blessed memory fought for the liberalisation of access to party formation it was so that such parties even when not in power will form the bulwark of citizens’ defence against oppression, shenanigans and bad government. What you see these days are mushroom parties on INEC register used to negotiate with politicians who lose out in the primaries of their parties. They create scenarios of disagreement within their nonexistence National Exco in order to extort more money from those who seek their platforms.