The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has just axed 28 parties for their poor showing at elections. Their leaders have threatened court actions. Will the INEC’s action stand? Deputy Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU asks.
The de-registration battle has moved from the court of public opinion to the court room. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had stirred the hornet’s nest when it axed 20 registered political parties. The commission’s chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, complained that the affected parties merely warmed the agency’s register, adding that they had only participated in periodic elections in vain. Jega also threatened to delist more parties from the register in the future, if they maintain their unimpressive showing at future polls. The decision to remove the names of the mushroom parties from INEC list enjoys the backing of the National Assembly and federal government.
Following the de-registration, leaders of the fragile parties have been pouring venom on INEC. Threatening fire and brimstone, the chairman of the polarised Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Alhaji Balarabe Musa, described Jega as a fascist. He said the commission erred in law, adding that it was acting out a diabolical script to scheme the affected parties out of 2015 general elections . “By virtue of Section 40 of 1999 Constitution and Section 78 of the Electoral Act, INEC cannot deregister political parties. It does not have the right”, said the former Kaduna State governor.
Fresh Democratic Party (FDP) leader, Pastor Chris Okotie is in the same shoes with Musa. His party has been contesting elections for more than eight years, but with nothing to show for it. But the cleric-turned-politician says the platform has the right to exist and canvass for votes. To him, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was afraid of other parties ahead of the forth-coming elections. Unlike Okotie and Musa, the national chairman of National Conscience Party (NCP), Dr. Yinusa Tanko, said mere threats would not resolve the hurdle. He told reporters that the matter would be decided in court, advising INEC to allow the case to be decided by the judiciary before applying its hammer.
In the past, NCP founder, the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi had sued the commission and federal government to court over the registration ceiling. He won the case, thereby paving the way for the registration of more parties in the country. Frowning at Jega’s pronouncement, Tanko said, “the court will interpret this again”. Echoing the same sentiment, Progressive Action Congress (PAC) national chairman, Mr. Charles Nwodo said INEC was playing smart by not waiting for the decision of the court on the matter. “We are going to test our strength again at the court of law. It is against the law of the land and undemocratic to deregister 28 parties”, he fumed.
Former factional leader of CNPP, Dr. Olapade Agoro, whose party had already been deregistered, lamented that INEC had become lord to itself. He said the agency was set up to conduct elections, which it had often failed to do lawfully on many occasions, stressing that certain PDP elements were pushing the commission to do the wrong thing. He faulted the claim of INEC on the performance of the party, saying that it is subjective. Agoro, a lawyer, said the so-called big parties had often rigged the smaller parties out at every contest. “If Tinubu had not stood up in the Southwest, there would be no ACN today and then, you will be talking about de-registration of the party. So, you want to deregister parties that cannot rig in favour of parties that rig. It will not stand. It lacks the backing of the 1999 Constitution, which guarantees freedom of association. The court will sort things out”, he added.
Opinion is, however, divided on the de-registration. For example, many Nigerians questioned the rationality for the inclusion of many tiny, fragile and distressed parties on INEC’s list, despite their predictable failure at the periodic elections. Analysts have contented that out of 62 registered parties, less than 10 are electorally viable. Many agree that he proliferation of political parties underscores the debate over their utility as democratic agencies of the society. Should the non-performing parties be struck out of the INEC register or merely allowed to exist without the potentials of making any electoral impact in the future? The protagonists of deregistration claim that party formation is part of the framework for interest articulation and freedom of association and assembly. They argued that the democratic space should become widened as democracy grows.
However, the antagonists perceive some of the owners and directors of the failed parties in two lights. They see them as eminent Nigerians who are seeking relevance outside the big parties where they could not rub shoulders with entrenched big wigs. Others describe those younger elements floating never-do-well parties as smart guys banking on the periodic grants to parties contesting for elections. The argument for their de-listing became more compelling following the outcome of the recent governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states. Not up to 15 parties participated in the two exercises. In fact, the second leg of governorship debate was narrowed down to only three parties in Ondo State, namely the PDP, ACN and Labour (LP).
Jega’s INEC has consistently maintained that the failed parties should fizzle out. On some occasions, he had disclosed that the commission had the backing of the law to outlaw them for non-performance. The agency objected to the drawing of grants by the unhealthy parties prior to elections, only to come up with dismal failure. In INEC’s bid to wipe the poor parties out of existence, it had relied on Section 75, Sub-Section 2 of the Electoral Act. But older politicians, eminent political scientists, legal luminaries and civil society groups have often disagreed with the commission on the contentious issue. In their view, the umpire is not sensitive to compelling reasons for the multiplicity of political parties in a diverse and plural society like Nigeria.
During its last national congress in Lagos, NCP had cried out that INEC was up to a mischief. One of its leaders and Lagos lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) rejected the move, saying that it was undemocratic. He said the functions of political parties are not restricted to fighting for power in elections. “There exist in other mature democracies local parties that exist to pursue local matters peculiar to the community, group or society and they may not be interested in fighting for national or federal power,” he submitted.
It is not the first time INEC will be embroiled in the controversy. Thus, Falana reminded the commission of a subsisting judgment in a suit by the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, against INEC and federal government. “The Supreme Court has ruled that political parties cannot be deregistered by INEC or federal government because it would imply a gross violation of the freedom of association”, Falana recalled. But the twist to the on-going controversy is the parliamentary support for INEC. In the suit pending in court, the National Assembly counsel, Oluwatosin Apata, had prayed the court to disregard the prayer of the protesting political party, pointing out that the commission is empowered by law to take the drastic action.
Actually, lawyers argue that the amended electoral act gives the INEC the nod to delist the fragile or failing parties, although some of them said the law is in bad faith. But it has been difficult for INEC to implement it because it would be trailed by outcry from a section of the political class. Observers also felt that the controversial clause could not be tested in the past, apparently because of the lack of will or consciousness about an imminent conflict with the 1999 Constitution, which is the guarantor of the freedom of association in the country. The fear is that, once the deregistration commences, there would be no looking back by INEC. If the hammer is dangled, only six parties would escape at the end of the day. The six top flyers at the last general elections were the ruling PDP, ACN, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), LP, All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).
PDP has maintained its hold in 25 states by winning the governorship and majority seats in the state and National Assembly. Trailing it is the ACN, which retained Lagos State and bounced back in other four Southwest states – Oyo, Ogun, Osun and Ekiti. In addition, it is still the ruling party in Edo State. APGA won Anambra and Imo States. CPC installed its lone governor in Nasarawa State. ANPP cleared Bornu and Zamfara States. LP’s influence is limited to Ondo State, where it installed a governor and many legislators. INEC has also declared LP winner of the recent governorship poll in the state, although the victory is being challenged by the ACN. PDP also struggled hard in Oyo State to give ACN a fight. It won a senatorial position and few House of Representatives seats in the state. ACN made inroad into the North, winning a senatorial seat in Benue State. It also won some House of Representatives and state Assembly slots.
Other parties are shadows of themselves and their electoral activities pale into window dressing. According to analysts, they are merely crawling at snail’s speed. Perhaps, the exception to this description is the Accord Party (AP), which has eight House of Assembly and four House of Representatives members in Oyo State. One state lawmaker has defected to the ACN. The Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), which was supported by former Governor Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State, could only win one seat in the House of Assembly.
In 2011, during the general elections, other fledging parties were like spectators. Many of them refused to field candidates for the polls. Some lacked visible offices or secretariats. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo once derided them as parties being operated in the bedrooms of their founders, and with their wives, children and other relations as party officials. Mocking the parties, Obasanjo said relations serve as their chairmen, secretaries, financial secretaries and treasurers. In the reckoning of the retired General, political parties were operated as business outfits yielding profits to their founders.
Across the states, many of these mushroom parties are eager to form alliance with the dominant ones. Sources said that their officials are handsomely paid for the offer of imaginary collaboration and subjective alliance. After the general elections, they are never had again. Even, they refrain from fielding candidates for local government elections.
These mushroom parties do not mirror the small parties of the First Republic, whose foundations were erected on solid political principle. For example, the Dynamic Party of Chike Obi was respected for its ideological stand. So also was the Farmers and Workers’ Congress of Dr. Tunji Otegbeye. Even, during the pre-independence years, the Mobolaje Group, which became Ibadan Peoples Party (IPP) won the first five regional legislative seats in Ibadan metropolis in 1952. Also, the Niger Delta Congress, Bornu Youth Movement and Mid West Party were small, but popular and relevant in their localities.
A wide gap separates the small parties of old and private parties of today. The parties fretting under the INEC’s hammer include Action alliance (AA), Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Alliance for Democracy (AD), African Democratic Congress (ADC), All Peoples Liberation Party (ALP), Action Party of Nigeria (APN), African Political System (APS), African Renaissance Party (ARP), Better Nigeria Progressive Party (BNPP), Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), Community Party of Nigeria (CPN), Citizens Popular Party (CPP), Democratic Alternative (DA), Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA), Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), Fresh Democratic Party (FRESH), Hope Democratic Party (HDP), Justice Party (JP), Liberal Democratic Party of Nigeria (LDPN), Movement for Democracy and Justice (MDJ), Masses Movement of Nigeria (MMN), Movement for the Restoration and Defense of Democracy (MRDD), National Action Council (NAC), Nigeria Advanced Party (NAP), Mega Progressive Peoples Party (MPPP), New Democrats (ND), National Democratic Party (NDP), Nigeria Elements Progressive Party (NEPP), National Majority Democratic Party (NMDP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Nigeria Peoples Congress (NPC), National Reformation Party (NRP), National Solidarity Democratic Party (NSDP), National Unity Party (NUP), Progressive Action Congress (PAC), Peoples Mandate Party (PMP), Progressive People Alliance (PPA), Peoples Progressive Party (PPP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Peoples Salvation Party (PSP), Republican Party of Nigeria (RPN), United Democratic Party (UDP), United Nigeria Peoples Party (UNPP) and KOWA.
Many of them sprang up because their leaders and founders were edged out of the seemingly big parties. Indeed, crises have often polarised the major parties, making aggrieved chieftains to float new platforms. Party sources also said that many leaders of the big parties are the brains behind the small parties, which the money bags in the big parties deliberately form as a sort of “Plan B”. Thus, it has also been argued by observers that the paper weight parties were products of abuse by the elite locked in bitter competition for power and relevance. Sometimes, the sharing of the election fund in the small parties often lead to hot argument and party men drag themselves to court over the right of control. The multiplicity of the opposing parties has been to the advantage if the ruling conservative PDP, which had inadvertently encouraged many of them to spring up and create disunity in the progressive fold, thereby weakening the progressive challenge of the status quo.
Besides, the smaller parties, it has also been alleged, have promoted the business plan of packaging endorsement programmes, in partnership with dominant parties, especially during governorship and local council elections. Indeed, as alleged by leaders of the scattered parties, many of them became an appendage of the PDP, which penetrated into the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), divided the fold and reduce the capacity of the many opposition parties to play the role of watchdogs. When CNPP broke into two and they were led by paralleled executive committees, it was alleged that it was the PDP at work.
Political scientists and legal scholars contend that this awful picture contrasts sharply with the previous multi-party arrangements of the First, Second Republics and early part of this Fourth Republic. University of Lagos (UNILAG) teachers; Prof. Akin Oyebode and Dr. Derin Ologbenla, lamented that the lack of ideology has reduced the parties into platforms without substance. They conceded to individuals and groups the right to freedom of association, but they maintained that parties should have ideological directions. “Political options become possible and people are able to make their choices during elections, if the ideas, principles and ideologies of then parties are clear and understood”, said Ologbenla. Berating the political parties, big and small, for lack of sound ideological orientation, Oyebode advised them to emulate the few ones among them conducting political education for members.
In the previous dispensations, two features of political parties were distinguishable. The existing parties, which were rooted in ideology, were actually on ground in their strongholds. Besides, they have always proposed alliances along two parallel lines, which ultimately make the polity to become disposed, in principle, to two party system, which was eventually imposed on the country in the ill-fated Third Republic. In those earlier dispensations, analysts argue that party administration was comparatively superb and no party existed without a cardinal goal.
Despite these realities, many are of the view asking the unhealthy parties to wind up is counter-productive. But in a previous interview, Lagos State ACN chairman, Chief Dele Ajomale, disagreed. He said the number of parties on the INEC register is an embarrassment. He supported the deregistration on the ground that many of them are only faking their existence. “Many of them are just existing in name. Some of them don’t even have secretariats. Some of them don’t even have members, except three or four of them who claim to be chairman, secretary and financial secretary. The address is not existing. So, how can you they continue like that? If it is three or four parties are formidable, let us have them, instead of this hundred that is useless”, he advised.
However, former CPC vice-presidential candidate Pastor Tunde Bakare said “you cannot stop people from grouping”, adding that, in the United States, political parties flourish without restrictions. He said some parties are only interested in local elections. Describing the deregistration as a non-issue, he also faulted the claim of poor performance, submitting that “no political party has won hands down without the cooperation of other parties”.
Former Afenifere Publicity Secretary Yinka Odumakin agreed with Bakare. He said the whole issue contradicted the freedom of association. “Parties should be allowed to flourish and die naturally on their own. In a heavily monetised environment like Nigeria, results of elections cannot be a valid assessment of parties’ strength”, he added.
Ekiti State ACN chairman Chief Jide Awe disagreed with both Bakare and Odumakin. He said the the stipulations by INEC, which guide the electoral process, is the beginning of sanity, adding that INEC can punish political parties for violating the rules. “INEC should move further by meting appropriate sanctions to any politician who violates the rules that guide the process of ensuring healthy electoral process in our country. It should not end with parties. I think a new order is here, if we can sustain the drive”, he stressed.
