One of the many academic exercises I love in Social Science research, is “Conceptual Clarification”. It brings to the fore, sometimes, not the ‘actual’ meaning of concepts, but the researcher’s intended meaning and mindset concerning a phenomenon, construct or concept, as the case may be. And this can be very academically interesting.
While I may not want to bother you with the intellectual rigmarole associated with academics and the razzmatazz of scholarly exercises, I will however, state clearly here that the present Nigerian Byzantine type of Party politics, nay Democracy, has taken collective reasoning and political thoughts to another ridiculous level.
The homogenisation of party politics and the intentional emasculation of the opposition in Nigeria’s Democracy of today, is a cause for concern for every lover of democracy and majoritarian rule in Nigeria.
The whimsical but tacit application of the iron law of oligarchy by the ruling Party, led by the Party’s power apparatchik, is nauseating, to say the least. The “De-camping” to the ruling Party by key political elites in the opposition has become a safety net for those who want to remain relevant in the scheme of things come 2027.
For us in Nigeria, Democracy ceases to be the government of the people, by the people and for the people. It is now the government of the mightier, by his cronies and for his ultimate socio-political and economic interests, to the detriment of the rest of us. How sad! This “new” concept is the reason for the deliberate emasculation of the opposition, while promising the “forgiveness of sin” when one crosses over to the “sinless” political divide, as it were.
The political concept of Progressivism has been given a new meaning by the ruling APC government in Nigeria. It is now equated with unalloyed support with the government of the day, with its shenaniganry, warts and all. And I found this very disconcerting and concerning.
Anybody that owes a contrary opinion about the ruling Party and her opaque policies today, is labelled as a non-progressive. Thus, progressivity in the Nigerian government and politics, have been reduced to the ability to launder the opposition from her crimson colour to that as white as snow. This is why every state governor that is not sure of reelection in 2027, easily gets attracted to what seems like a “renewed hope” in the dark horizon.
Patriotism in Nigeria today, is far from the love for one’s Country. It is more of a feigned love for the leaders of the day and their cronies than the altruistic love for the motherland. When patriotism becomes the love for national leaders who are yet to demonstrate their own love for the same nation by their actions or inaction, then the concept has taken on a new garb unknown to political thought or History.
This is our dilemma in Nigeria today. The overt shrinking of democratic spaces by overzealous and rapacious politicians is gradually taking Nigeria to a One-Party State. This inorganic mutation of statehood in Nigeria, driven by greed and personal ambition of these individualistic political actors will do us no good.
Rather, it will give the world a new way of looking at us and our politics, in a most derogatory manner while the masterminders of civil misrule, opaque governance and self-acclaimed and widely proclaimed Democrats reign. We must never allow this.
The dearth and death of formidable opposition in our Country today is worrisome. The orchestrated crisis in almost all opposition parties in Nigeria today is not accidental or a mere coincidence.
It is a carefully woven crisis, aimed at undermining the rise of alternative voices, by the self-acclaimed lovers of Nigeria and her Democracy. Opposition in Nigeria’s Democracy must be seen to be captured or depleted by a robust ideological supremacy and not by mediocre threats, brawn or political bravado. Let the Nigerian ruling Party allow the rest of us to breathe.
