THE PRICE TAG OF PARTY REPRESENTATION: NIGERIA’S POLITICS IN RETROSPECT

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.

The Radiance of My Balance (POEM)

Joy, your thoughts buried by distance

Resurrected in memories shared

Never lost in the absence of your presence

Your fragrance, a radiance of my balance

As a stance to dance, but with my lance

Not the last chance I fight my plight

As slow as a snail, the feeling of meeting you grows

Faster than the pace of a ‘cheetah’

As the riches for your crave pave’ the way for you with no cave

With Joy, I stay younger in the morning

Grown into noon but older at night

Like the brightness your beauty glows from a picture

The newness of everyday

Eclipsed by the darkness at night

Right for the renewed Joy all day like a play made for all ages

On my mind, the locus of your focus stays always

As a course not log’ into with a password faded by expiry

The words read pass the message with no age

Dedicated to Joy, a sweetheart in a million.

Written and composed by Kehinde Taiwo

The Tripartite Angles to Mitigating Flood

Here is my full response to the question on approaches to mitigating flood which was posted by ThisDay newspapers, Nigeria. Excerpts of this  piece was published on page 35 of THISDAY, 18 October 2018. (Picture of the newspaper page herewith)
Get your copy of this week's ThisDay (Thursday,  for excerpts of my thoughts which would be posted in full on my blog.  E

… Much as it is pertinent to note that the poor drainage system poorly networked  across the length and breadth of the nation is primary to blame, the anti-environment friendly waste disposal attitude of Nigerians is largely to be pointed at.

Similarly, the poor adherence to the geographical development and regional plans on land use is the third to be discussed.

These three above are critical angles to my mind, that need to be consciously addressed. But how?

Before getting into the HOWs, I opine that the earlier 3 highlighted causes should be grouped into 2 as thus; Causes 1 and 2 being the Citizenry or Individual Influenced Causes and the third, Government Influenced Cause.

1. The poor waste and anti-environment friendly waste disposal attitude of individuals: 

Culture, they say is the way of life of individuals within a given geographical location. In line with the subject of concern, the waste disposal culture in Nigeria is incomparable to what is obtainable in the Western world. So having a turnaround on the waste disposal attitude of Nigerians would be achievable when; the government embarks on campaigns to educate and enlighten Nigerians across all tiers of government on the need to embark on environment friendly waste disposal culture as well as the health hazard risks and pollution exposure. This way everyone would know that him or her would be to blame should there be environmental hazards arising from unfriendly waste disposal practices. One may interject, but everyone should know? My simple response is, with the ineffectiveness of VisionScape, one should have a second thought. The endpoint of the campaign is making widely known, the respective sanctions to individuals that flout the environment hygiene rules and regulations. 

2. Poor drainage  system: The drainage system should not be disjointed but well laid out to connect with and to one another thereby having a smooth pathway to the drainage endpoint. Regular cleaning and clearing of the drainage should be encouraged in every community as the contrary should be frowned at.

3. Poor adherence to the geographical development and regional land use plans: The government over the years have overtime had reasons to demolish buildings due to such structures being allegedly erected against the regional land use plan. The thought behind this is that it only shows that the government lacks regular monitoring at ensuring full adherence to its laid down geographical development and regional plans, It is of utmost importance that the government sets up an effective monitoring team so that such illicit structures are arrested prior to its erection. Demolishing comes at a cost and with effective monitoring, such wastages to individuals and government would be avoided.

From these, irrespective of the number of waste disposal bins spread across an environment, it is the attitude of people at using the bins that is key to avoiding blockage of the drainage and more so, the effectiveness of government is measured by its timeliness at disposing the waste bins without necessarily waiting for it to get filled up.

BLINDED THOUGHTS

Blinded thoughts, seen but misunderstood

Rushed by sight, crushed into the mind

Flushed in emotions but brushed by doggedness

Chained with passion depicted

Depicted thoughts unseen, foreseen pictures fought

Wrought in the struggles, green with drought

Caught by imperfections unforeseen

The flame for success, a passion’ aim claim’d for direction at home

But the botch’ scare abroad, the recess from failure beacons

Home memory drain’ into oblivion

Abroad the clairvoyance rain into obtrusion

Water deep in the ocean, horn beep from the steering

Dreams steered into the sky, flying colours climaxing

Success peaked, a swift flip

The Cry fall down like a quake beneath the earth

Earth, clothed as warm as a shirt over the body

The body warmth unprotected by the earth without ozone

The sun melted by the coldness of the fire

Burns, frozen with no ice

Early into the night, late into the morning

Time, a reflection fight against failure

But bright the success plights all day

Dreams, the cream to passion

A rub on the mind for its freshness

Like the anxiety for a prey by a cub

A predator’s reality made a pub

Written by Taiwo, Kehinde Oluwaseyi

The Den of Slavery (POEM)

Every new day, the slavery nightmare made new

Younger by newer sufferings

Older by days in confinement

Strengthened by the chase for breath

Freedom chase, a refinement faced with death

Humans turned commodities

Traded as gold and silver

Recycled and treasured for masters

But valued as wastes thrashed in shreds

Weather felt hot in the cold

The Cold melted by inhuman exposure

The greener pastures chase

Brain drain, the pain at home made gain abroad

Paint’d by hopes of opportunities

Faded by slavery reality

Like a dashed future

Potentials leaked into the bleakness of obscurity

Abroad, the greener pastures we seek

But a reek from the blood of the chain of slavery

Rapture, the capture made to feel

A crave for death, a wreath to fulfilment

But bewilderment to loved ones left at home

The World We Live In

Day and night, raced by many

Grace, the trace to being at pace

Lace’ with faith to face the world

A wake up call not late but

Awaken in the found ambitions in lost times

Abroad not always green but redder by the den of slavery

Dedicated to all victims of slavery, especially foreigners caught up by the den of slavery

Written and composed by Taiwo, Kehinde Oluwaseyi