MEGAFORCE is raising an issue today which exposes the fundamental weakness in the Nigerian polity. From the dawn of independence, elections to control the centre have been FIXED, somewhere before the election. The political parties which will take over the centre have not at any time been properly organised for the national cause.

Those FIXING the rulers of Nigeria at the centre are not interested in the welfare of Nigerians. They will look for those whom they could thumb-control to place at the head of the country. They are not interested in holding office, but they are the reapers of the so-called dividends of democracy.

Now tell us, thou bright and honest Nigerian politician, who are the 13 Nigerians lifting oil? What is their annual income? What effort have they expended to merit the concession? By what criteria were they chosen?

Now tell us thou brilliant Nigerian politician, who are those selling solid minerals in Nigeria? Where do they obtain their licence and how? How much profit are they making and how much tax are they paying? Now tell us thou human rights operative?

Yes, you make a noise and sometimes your noise is too much. Who are those receiving concession or patronage for the importation of cement, sugar and other commodities? What is the percentage of revenue that enters into Nigeria’s purse from their operation?

What is the percentage that is lost to fraudulent oil transactions or bunkering? Who is supervising the lifting of oil?

In 1969, Megaforce received a report that those placed in the monitoring sector of oil exploration, have been compromised by the international oil companies which deposit some paltry sum into foreign accounts for these poorly paid civil servants.

The complainant was giving direct evidence. He saw what was happening, he refused to compromise and was removed by his boss, who had compromised. That is the Nigeria we are citizens of. A place where rogues national and international control the wealth of the land and use it as evidence of the success of their companies, even though most of that success is by fraud.

Do you think that the multi national oil companies will stay in Nigeria if they are not deriving fat illicit bonus from their presence in the Nigerian oil fields? They will ensure that the man to rule the place the centre is their buffoon and if he attempts to be too patriotic, they will get him out.

Mosadeq in Iran and others in South America.
Nigeria is not an exception. Let the oil wells dry up, and see whether the IMF will invite Nigeria to take any loan.

*Camouflage
Political parties were put together as a camouflage.

What is a camouflage?
A camouflage is a disguise intended to hide the real thing we have planned to accomplish.

In this context, what is intended to be accomplished by this faceless group, is the control of the central authority in Nigeria, where all the plum jobs, offices and positions exist and where the national treasury is located which could be used at will.

To achieve this purpose, certain institutions are imported from the western world like political parties, which are so foreign to our indigenous culture that none has ever been and could ever be managed successfully.

However, they serve the required purpose. Our people (most of whom do not THINK AT ALL) jump into the trap, thinking that they could become president, governor, senator, etc, whereas those who will be “elected” have been pencilled down by this group with the intention that the best candidates do not win.

Now, let us ask our UNTHINKING ambitious brothers who want to displace the president, the governors, the senators etc, where is the country over which you want to become president, governor, senator by hook or crook?

There is no such country around this area. Nigeria is not such a country, it is a kind of quagmire which will devour you whether you win or not. Why don’t you find time to ask the incumbents what they are undergoing in silence.

Let us consider this case. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is in power at the centre. They produced the president.

The next political party in the National Assembly is the All Peoples Party (APP), and the third is the Alliance for Democracy (AD). The head of each political party has come from the North. Majority of the members of the federal cabinet and the National Assembly are from the North. When the issue at Sharia became controversial, APP joined PDP to produce a common front.

The Alliance for Democracy which, draws its membership mainly from the South and a few southerners from the East in PDP and APP are in opposition and that is the situation.

The Nigerian political parties have been used as camouflage to cover the real issue in Nigeria-the plot by the North to dominate Nigeria and convert the country into an Islamic Republic like Pakistan, among others.

*Political Parties as Illusion

What is an illusion? An illusion is a false show; a kind of misleading appearance. That is what the whole process of forming political parties amount to in the context of the Nigerian situation.

In 1959, there were three political parties viz Northern Peoples Congress, Action Group and National Council of Nigeria and the Camerouns.

The national election was held on 12 December, 1959.

Action Group for over two years had made solid preparations for the election. We, the members, paid for the campaigns from our meagre resources.

Chief Obafemi Awolowo used helicopter to cover every village in the country, especially in the North.

On Friday, 11 December, the situation in the North changed abruptly. Northerners were told to alter the jumat prayers that they should not cast their vote for any party other than the Northern Peoples Congress.

That meant that all AG and NCNC supporters must cast their votes for the NPC candidate and the district head was empowered to go to the polling stations to ‘FORCE the ORDER.

They made sure that the polling booth was covered from the floor so that the feet of the voters could be seen when they came to cast their votes. The ballot boxes were arranged alphabetically, AG, NCNC, NPC.

Any northerner entering the place who stopped at the first polling booth will be dragged out and thrown into jail after severe caning.

The result was that Action Group, which had done much of the campaigning, according to western standards of party politics, had the least votes.

At the counting stations in the North, it was “Action Group BAKODAYA” meaning that, no vote was cast for the party. Even southerners in the area were not allowed to enter the polling booth by the northern district heads.

Those of his, who have passed through that harrowing experience can never forget that the organisation of political parties in Nigeria is an illusion.

*Political parties as mirage

What is a mirage?

Those travelling in the desert often see at a distance. It appears as a stream or river. You get to the place only to discover that it was an optical deception. Nigerian political parties are mirages in the political desert of Nigeria.

None of them can survive one election by the look of things. The PDP, is a conglomeration of irreconcilables, the APP is looking for shelter, the AD is struggling to avoid being choked up.

There are many other registered and unregistered political parties seeking relevance, some who cannot even win anything in their own compounds but that is the beauty of democracy.

The people will decide which political party will satisfy their perennial needs and they will vote but in the end, another set of political parties will emerge as in 1999, in the same manner that the lives of AG, NPC and NCNC expired in 1966 and that of UPN, NPN, NPP and GNPP expired in 1983. Where are the SDP and NRC of Babangida’s left, right and centre experiment?
Political parties without ideology?

From our experience, no organisation can call itself a political party without an ideological concept from which membership is derived.

In America, the Democrats are believed to be the anti-slavery campaigners in American history, while the Republicans are the pro-slavery campaigners in American history.

Although, slavery has disappeared in America, the fallouts still haunt the landscape in the form of Republican hard line attitude towards the blacks and the Democrats’ soft approach to the African-American question.

In the United Kingdom, the conservatives derive their ideology from their feudal ancestors, while the Labour Party seem to have derived their inspiration from the refusal of the Serbs to remain in subjection to the feudal lords in perpetuity.

When Karl Marx introduced his controversial catechism of working class power, Labour Party accommodated all working class people who did not understand the reason they were poor and others rich.

There is no such historical foundation for the formation of Nigerian Political Parties. It was only the UPN which formulated an ideology of welfarism known as, the four cardinal programmes.

“Free Education, Free Health, Rural Development and Gainful Employment”. This ideology has taken root in the South-West where the UPN had its root and as of today, it has been inherited by the Alliance for Democracy governments in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti states.

Apart from this, no other political party has any ideology or the oracle which teleguides the executives and party operatives in every aspect of government.

These other organisations are not political parties, they are at most political organisations in the process of incubation into political parties, hence, the total absence of discipline and restraint in the utterances and activities of their members.

How can we explain the do or die campaign of Rimi or Awoniyi against a president elected under their own party platform, if not an outward sign of an inner void in the PDP as a “political party”?

This updated article was first published on Wednesday, December 4, 2002.

Source: Nigerian Tribune.

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