Tag: ward

It is increasingly getting clearer that democracy on these shores is in very dire straits. As one political event comes and goes, indications are that our politicians have neither learnt any lessons nor are they prepared to learn any in their dispositions and attitudes to the rules of the game. This may seem a damning assertion but it has become a sad reality of the politics of this country.

Each time such infractions occur, our political actors are quick to rationalize them on the dubious grounds that we are still in the learning process. We may continue this learning process ad infinitum if conscious efforts are not made by both the political parties and politicians to guarantee the participation of the ordinary people in the electoral process.

Before now, the greatest challenge has been how to guarantee free and fair elections by eliminating those unwholesome practices that mar our electoral process. We had in the past been treated with rigging, falsification and outright writing of election results in hotel rooms and sundry hidden places. The brazen subversion of the electoral process had been such that the electorate had started loosing confidence in it. It took copious assurances from the government and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for some modicum of confidence to be restored as elections began to reflect the collective will of the people as expressed in the ballot box.

But even as this little progress can be admitted, increasing signals point to the direction that politicians are relapsing to their decadent political practices through their disregard to extant rules and regulations. And if care is not taken, the little gains so far recorded by way of the electorate having their way in electoral matters, may be completely wiped off.

Or, how else do we explain the embarrassment that was the outcome of the ward congresses of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP conducted last weekend? Reports emanating from a congress that was meant to elect three ad-hoc delegates were a huge embarrassment to all lovers of democracy. From Rivers to Cross River, Imo to Benue states, the outcome was a litany of woes as voting materials were hijacked by politicians and results written without any input from party members who had thronged their various wards to elect their delegates. Ever since, the party has been inundated with complaints as key leaders and stakeholders have been very vocal in passing a damning verdict on the outcome of that congress.

A member of the Board of Trustees BOT of the party from Akwa Ibom State, Chief Donald Etiebet came out strongly to lampoon the electoral panel sent to the state and the outcome of that congress. Hear him: “I want to tell you that I am not satisfied with the conduct of the ward congress in the state on Saturday. It was a farce and there was no congress conducted in the state”.

He accused the chairman of the PDP electoral committee of bias.

The views expressed by Etiebet mirror very vividly the outcome of that congress. It is not surprising that since then, the PDP national secretariat has been inundated with complaints from aggrieved members from across the country. Some of the complainants want the congresses cancelled and a repeat conducted. But the PDP national chairman, Adamu Mu’azu was reported to have said that the complaints were normal in such political activities. According to him, such complaints arise as politicians positioned themselves to take advantage and undo others. He would want to attribute these to rivalry among politicians.

Mu’azu’s views appear an oversimplification of the matter. He could also be accused of trivializing the very serious infractions that marred those congresses. It is not a matter of politicians positioning themselves to take advantage. It is not just a matter of rivalry among politicians. They go far beyond these and are at the very heart of the real essence of democracy.

Complainants are saying that there were no congresses in any of those states or where there were, they did not conform to the rules of free and fair conduct. They are angry that no voting took place at all in many of the wards and that election results were written in hidden places and submitted as the verdict of party members. They are piqued that ordinary party members were denied participation at that rung of party organization where politicians should have demonstrated their popularity by allowing the rules of the game to run their full course.

Politicians who are at home with their people have no business subverting such rudimentary engagements as the ward congresses of their parties. They ought to have submitted themselves to the rules of that game. That is the real issue here.

Moreover, if ward congresses and party primaries which are internal affairs of political parties are that rancorous, can those thrown up from that fraudulent process be trusted to play by the rules of free and fair elections? That is the poser that has been elevated to the front burner by the outcome of that congress. Ironically also, it is the same PDP government that is being looked upon to superintend over the conduct of free and fair elections. The minimum expectation given the foregoing was for that party to position itself as a shinning example in internal democracy. Sadly, this basic expectation was only observed in its breach during that ward congress. It is sad that we are at this point once again. Given events of our recent past culminating in the implosion in that party, the minimum expectation was that the party should have learnt from some of its mistakes by now. One of the issues which its members who defected to the All Progressives Congress APC had against the party hinged on its scant regard for internal democracy. And with the coming on board of the APC, it had been the hope of all lovers of democracy to see the PDP a reformed party.

That has failed to happen as the ward congresses have vividly shown. Even before the formation of the APC, most of those who left the party cited the absence of internal democracy as their main grouse. Many of them have even had to go back to the party when their initial grouse had not been addressed. At the heart of all this, is the obnoxious notion that the party is the surest route to political ascendancy.

The PDP must purge itself of this ruinous notion that it will continue to disregard the sensibilities of its members at the grassroots without dire repercussions. It is no longer business as usual now there is a strong opposition party. But it is a matter of choice for that party.

The main opposition is there to take advantage of this lapse. But the activities of one of its governors Rochas Okorocha may turn out a negation of this optimism. Okorocha is reputed to be running for the presidency under the APC. Till now, no person has indicated interest to run for his current seat in his party and you dare not. The impression is that he reserves that position for himself should presidential ticket elude him. If and when this happens, we would be left with the same issue.