A breath of
political fresh air
Political
representation in public service is a call to serve the general populace with
emphases primarily centred on individuals within a given political
jurisdiction, then the national space as a whole.
But
at what price should such representation be to individuals within a political
party at signifying their interest to serve and transform the ideologies of the party
into individual manifestoes to the good of the electorates when granted the
privilege to serve sequel to victory at the polls.
With
the multi-party system practiced in Nigeria entailing over 90 political parties
registered according to the electoral body – Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC)– the competitiveness of politics is monetarily muscled and
has over the past 19 years since the current civilian dispensation largely been
a two horse race, emphatically PDP being the more consistent side of the coin.
The
other side of the coin, the ruling APC - formed in February 2013 - vis-à-vis the
alliance of the –‘three strongest’ opposition party at the time – the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All
Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and a faction of the All Progressives Grand
Alliance (APGA) was founded due to the need to unseat the then ruling party,
Peoples Democratic Party.
The
strategy, well implemented with the word ‘Change’, resonating across the length
and breadth of the nation, a mantra timely used when the lot of Nigerians were
bored by the political inadequacies of the PDP, with leadership efficiency frustrated
by corruption. Indeed, the people wanted to have a breath of political fresh
air, something different from what was breathed some sixteen years prior to the
2015 general election. The failure of
the PDP led government to effectively deliver the dividends of democracy was
the genesis to the revelation that Nigeria was at the verge of witnessing a new
chapter to its political helm. And truly the strategy worked.
The Value of
Candidacy
But
what moves a party are its members, the value of its candidates. With news
filtering of the price tag set by the PDP and APC for party members keen on
representing the respective party at the national and state levels, the reiterated
thoughts beaming my mind is should the value of candidacy be performance or
monetary based?
Performance based: This is rooted in having
representation with very minimal monetary value attached to the nomination
form. Here, each interested candidate is mandated to bring forward his or her
plans and manifestoes in line with the Party ideology. Should there be more
than 10 candidates, these are closely screened to 5, with the best 5 made to have
an open debate and party members made to vote for the candidate of their
choice.
Then
the individual with the most practicable and insightful thought is selected to
represent the party at the national level as members are made to vote for the
candidate that performed best in the course of the debate.
This
approach if rightly carried out would have the following benefits:
·
True
participation across the party
·
Mitigation
of god-fatherism in politics
·
Familiarity
with party representative
·
The
high level chance of producing an effective government
Monetary based: This, the type obtainable in
Nigeria at the moment is all about the money sharing
to party delegates. The shortfall include
·
the
more likelihood of the party system favouring God fatherism
·
it
supports the emergence of a corrupt government
·
government
ineffectiveness could take centre stage due to the best candidate not emerging
·
a
misplacement of party ideology
Beyond
these shortfalls, to my mind, no benefit exists in the monetary based approach.
As
culled from vanguard
Nigeria, “at the last nationwide vote in 2015,
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of then-president Goodluck Jonathan charged
22 million naira per nomination form. The All Progressives Congress
(APC) of the eventual winner Muhammadu Buhari asked for 27.5 million naira just
to stand in the party’s presidential primary. Now, as both parties
prepare for polling in February next year, the APC wants an eye-watering 45
million naira ($125,500, 108,000 euros) per presidential primary candidate,
according to newspaper adverts on Wednesday. Individuals wanting to be selected
to run for a governorship post have to pay 22.5 million naira, up from 10
million naira last time round. The PDP has reduced the cost of its presidential
candidate forms to 12 million naira and the selection for a tilt at a
governorship from 11 million naira to six million naira
Whilst the PDP’s drop in the cost of nomination of interest form
is a welcome, it is still out of the reach of many party faithful and citizens
with the right interest.
However,
the Nigeria Senate are on the verge of passing
the electoral act amendment bill into law with a view to limit or control
campaigns excesses. This indeed, is a welcome development but the missing piece
is pegging the cost of the nomination form as the performance based approach to
party candidacy and representation at the polls positions the party with a more
focused chance at producing more creditable individuals when compared with the monetary
based approach currently being obtainable in Nigeria.