By Niyi Akinnaso
The “them” in the title refers primarily to three groups within the Nigerian political elite, namely, (a) the political parties; (b) the elected representatives and political appointees; and (c) pseudo-politicians, that is, those who hold no elective or appointive position but are nevertheless close to power as contractors, consultants, or friends of government.
However, four additional groups also have a role to play. These are (d) the elite, especially the professional class—doctors, engineers, architects, accountants, university professors, and so on; (e) traditional rulers; (f) religious leaders; and (g) the press.
True, the electorate and civil society have a role to play as well, but the life and death of our democracy is more in the hands of the above-named groups, more so in the hands of groups (a)-(c), because they operate within the political theatre. Groups (d)-(g) only have a supportive role, because their ability to influence political developments is often defined or at least influenced largely by the elected representatives. Even more importantly, as we have witnessed in this democracy, they are subject to manipulation by the political leaders, particularly the President and Governors. Moreover, for various reasons, many of them don’t even vote. Clearly, the stakes are now much too high for electoral indifference to prevail.
Also subject to manipulation is the Independent National Electoral Commission, which is in a class of its own, although it is answerable to the presidency. Its supervision of elections, in collaboration with security agencies, should guarantee free and fair elections. However, the Commission has hardly had a clean record of service due to corruption and collusion with particular candidates.
However, I focus here on the role of political parties in the light of Pastor Bakare’s call on President Muhammadu Buhari to work on a succession plan for the 2023 presidential election. True, as the leader of the All Progressives Congress, which brought him to power, Buhari has a major role to play in the election of his successor.
Nevertheless, the leading players in the succession game are the political parties. I shall return to this later.
But, first, it is necessary to clarify Bakare’s call to Buhari on succession. Contrary to insinuations on social media and even in the mainstream media, Bakare did not ask Buhari to choose, name, anoint, or impose a successor.
Nor did he require Buhari to have a particular candidate in mind. Rather, Bakare’s charge is for Buhari to build a strong legacy, facilitated by what he termed “accurate succession”. By this he means that Buhari should “institutionalize systems of accurate succession” in which “looters” will not highjack the nomination of the party and eventual election.
In this regard, Femi Adesina, Presidential Special Adviser on Media, got it right in his discussion on Channels TV Politics Today, hosted by Seun Okinbaloye on Monday, January 6, 2020. By suggesting that the President will not “manipulate” the system or “pick” a successor, Adesina provided an oblique commentary on a former President who did just that. It was President Olusegun Obasanjo, who inserted himself so prominently into the selection process in 2007 by imposing a successor in ailing Umar Yar’Adua on his political party. The danger in Adesina raising the issue of manipulation and picking a successor is the impression he inadvertently gave that Bakare wanted Buhari to do just that. Far from it.
However, Adesina was right in emphasizing that Buhari should be interested in his successor by ensuring that “there will be a free, fair and credible process and nobody will come to use money and resources to bamboozle his way to the leadership of the country”. This precisely is the import of Bakare’s charge on succession.
Specifically, he wants an electoral system that would filter out those he categorized as “looters”, to whom he devoted a substantial part of his State of the Nation sermon.
The fact of the matter is that the President’s hands in the election of a successor should be tied by the Constitution and democratic norms. The Nigerian Constitution and the Electoral Act make it clear that the power to nominate candidates for election rests with the political parties and “No association, other than a political party, shall canvass for votes for any candidate at any election” (Section 221 of the 1999 Constitution).
Presidents in virile democracies do not impose themselves on the electoral process. This is particularly so in a presidential system. Nevertheless, they should be interested in ensuring a fair process. Just recall President Barrack Obama’s role in the presidential primaries in the United States in 2016. True, it was highly speculated that he wanted Senator Hillary Clinton to succeed him, but he did not make it known.
However, he invited Hillary’s closest rival, Senator Bernie Sanders, only when it was clear that Hillary was close to victory. His goal was to prevent the bitterness of the rivalry from affecting the general election. Similarly, he remains aloof to the buildup to the 2020 presidential primaries with over 20 candidates vying for the Democratic ticket. He only came in briefly to implore the candidates to focus their campaign on President Donald Trump rather than engage in destroying one another.
Therefore, it was an aberration, if not a violation, of democracy for President Olusegun Obasanjo to have inserted himself so prominently in the process the way he did in 2007, and we blame him for it till today. That’s why Bakare’s charge should have been to the political parties and the party bosses.
It is at the level of party primaries that the role of political parties is paramount. Their duty is to screen the candidates to ensure that only those who are qualified and fit for office are presented to the electorate during the primaries. It is at this stage that political leaders seek to manipulate the process the most to the advantage of their chosen candidates.
President Buhari’s role as the leader of his party is to ensure that this process is free and fair. That’s why he should fulfill his promise of reforming the electoral process. He is also under the people’s watch as to his role regarding the direction in which the pendulum of nomination will swing in his party between the North and the South in 2023. His legacy as a leader may well hang as much on this issue as it does on his performance in office.
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