Political alignments in Nigeria

Unlike some other British colonies like Gold Coast (now Ghana), Kenya and Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Nigeria did not have a truly national party with broad support across the country when party politics started during the colonial era. During this period, Gold Coast, now Ghana had the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) under the legendary Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. In Kenya, there was the Kenya African National Union (KANU) led by the charismatic Jomo Kenyatta. Tanzania also had Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) under the frugal Julius Nyerere. Over here in our country, the National Council of Nigerian Citizen (NCNC) formed by Herbert Macaulay and led after his death by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe initially approximated to a national party but unfortunately due to high wire political intrigues fuelled by tribalism, it degenerated into a tribal/regional party. Thus by the time Nigeria attained independence in 1960, it had three main political parties which were no more than tribal/regional parties. The parties were the Northern Peoples’ Congress (NPC) which as its name implied, was based in the northern part of the country, and drew its political support from that region. The NCNC after its regression to a tribal/ regional party had its support mainly in the eastern and western parts of the country. The Action Group had its base in the western part of the country where it was supported by the Yoruba people of that region, although it had some support from the minorities in the northern and eastern parts of the country.

The demographic configuration of Nigeria made it difficult then for any tribal/regional party to rule the whole country alone and so it was imperative for any political party who wanted to rule the country at the federal level to forge political cooperation with other willing parties. After the federal election of 1954, the NPC based in the north and the NCNC with majority support from the east and west formed a coalition government, while the Action Group which performed below expectation at its base in the west became the opposition party in the federal parliament. The same political alignment took place after the 1959 federal election that ushered in the Nigeria’s independence in 1960. With this arrangement, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa of the NPC, the senior partner in the coalition became the first Prime Minister of the country, while Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the renowned nationalist and leader of NCNC, later became the ceremonial Governor General. Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the leader of the Action Group and the acclaimed planner had to settle as the leader of opposition after he failed to convince Dr. Azikiwe for a political arrangement with his party, an arrangement that could have made Dr Azikiwe the first prime minister of an independent Nigeria.

Nigeria witnessed tremendous political upheaval between 1959 and the time of the next federal election in 1964. In the west of the country, a section of the ruling party, the Action Group felt that the party should stop wasting away in the opposition and that it should enter into political arrangement with the NPC so that the Yoruba too could have a voice at the federal level. This segment of the party was led by the deputy leader of the party, Chief S. L. Akintola who eventually left the party to form another party that metamorphosed into a new party called Nigeria National Democratic Party (NNDP) which formed an alliance with NPC. Meanwhile, there was tension in the NPC/NCNC coalition government at the federal level and the political confusion that characterized this period led political realignment of the parties into two broad political groups. The groups were, the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA) made up of NPC from the north, NNDP from the west and some minor parties from the minority areas of the country, and the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA) made up mainly by the NCNC from the east and the Action Group from the west. This was the political situation before the contentious 1964 federal election. The broadly based national government after the election was formed by the NPC from the north, the NCNC from the east, and NNDP from the west. The Action Group as usual formed the opposition party despite its alliance with the NCNC in the UPGA. The presence of the NNDP in the government allowed the Yoruba to be represented in the government at the federal level for the first time after independence. The seemingly intractable political situation in Nigeria then brought the Balewa government to grief by the January 1966 coup. This coup and others that followed it stifled political development of the country until 1979.

The political dispensation midwifed by the Obasanjo military administration saw five parties contesting the 1979 presidential elections. The parties were the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), the Nigerian Peoples Party, (NPP), Great Nigerian Peoples Party (GNPP) and the People Redemption Party (PRP). All the parties were supposed to be national in outlook but the results of the 1979 presidential elections showed the opposite. The NPN with main support from the north formed a partnership with the NPP from the east and the two parties became the governing parties while the UPN supported mainly by the Yoruba people of the southwest like in the previous political dispensation was in opposition. This government again collapsed in 1984 and there was another military interregnum between 1984 to 1999.

The self- styled military President Ibrahim Babangida between 1987 and 1993 organized a transition to civil rule and out of 13 political associations, he decreed into existence two parties. These were the Social Democratic Party (SDP, which he labelled ‘a little to the left’ and the National Republican Party which he labelled ‘a little to the right’. To many observers, these parties became truly national parties as the parties drew their support from all over the country unaffected by any odious stain of ethnicity, tribe, religion and geographical location. This was a glorious moment in party political formation in Nigeria and it led to the staging of the best presidential election ever held in Nigeria. The election held on June 12, 1993 was won by the late Chief M.K. O. Abiola of the SDP who was given a pan-Nigeria mandate through this election. Unfortunately and for reasons still shrouded in mystery was annulled by Ibrahim Babangida. This unjustifiable annulment and the proscription of the two truly national parties brought Babangida’s name into infamy in the history of Nigeria irrespective of his other contributions to the development of Nigeria.

The unprecedented crisis generated by the unpatriotic annulment of June 12, 1993 election led the military to extend their hold on the governance of the country to 1999. The political dispensation put in place in preparation for the civilian rule in 1999 saw the emergence of three major political parties. These parties were the Peoples Democratic Party of Nigeria (PDP), the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP). The PDP and the ANPP had a semblance of national spread throughout the country while the AD to any unbiased observer was limited to the Yoruba southwest. The 1999 elections both at the federal and state levels showed that the PDP was the dominant party.  It also won elections in 2003, 2007 and 2011. At a time, it appeared that the party’s hold on governance was unassailable and many of his exuberant supporters felt that the party would rule Nigeria for unbroken 50 years. The PDP was able to hold on to power during this time because the parties that could challenge it were localized without national spread and they were divided.  However, this changed on February 2013, when the AD which then known as Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), under Bola Tinubu, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) under Muhammadu Buhari, the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) and a faction of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) based in southeast formed a mega party called All Progressive Congress (APC). This was a political masterstroke as this new party dislodged the PDP from power in the election of 2015. This election was unique as this was the first time a governing party would be defeated in Africa. It also allowed the dominant political group in Yoruba land to be involved in governance at the federal level for the first time since 1954.

For the forthcoming elections, although 91 political parties are registered by the INEC to contest the election, only the APC and the PDP have any chance of winning the elections and thereby be able to produce the next president of the country. Other parties no doubt have good candidates for the post of the president but these parties seem to have no structures and financial muscle to propel their candidates to the exalted position.  From the configuration of the two leading parties, can it be said that the two of them are truly national parties like the defunct NRC and SDP?

In my candid opinion, we are not yet there.  When the PDP was in power for 16 years, it drew its support mainly from the north, south- south and southeast with the exclusion of southwest. The southwest was marginalized in many areas during this period hence the stringent call for restructuring from this part of the country.  The APC in power now has its support from the north and the southwest without much support from south-south and southeast, which claimed to be marginalised in the present dispensation. The present spread of the two major parties shows  that political alignments in Nigeria is still work in progress and  it is the hope that we will get it right as we progress in our democratic journey. We missed the boat with the proscription of the SDP and NRC in 1993 by the Nigerian military/political Maradonna who called himself inappropriately as the ‘Prince of the Niger’.

• Professor Lucas writes from Old Bodija, Ibadan.