Absence of political ideology, bane of Nigeria's democracy

LINUS ALEKE writes on the effects of absence of political ideology among the political class on Nigeria’s nascent democracy.
The All Progressives Congress, APC-led administration in the country rolled out drums to celebrate its one year in of­fice and 17 years of unbro­ken democratic journey in Nigeria, after several decades of military occupation of the political space, by holding ‘Town Hall Meetings’ across the six geo-political zones to engage Nigerians; show­case its achievements in the past 12 months, get first-hand feedback on what the perception of Nigerians are about the current dispensa­tion, sensitise the citizens on the measures been put in place by government to alle­viate the excruciating pains they are currently undergo­ing, as well as reel out short, medium and long term mea­sures to revamp and revital­ise the ailing economy.

The celebration which started with President Mu­hammadu Buhari’s address to the nation on May 29, as part of activities lined up to mark the nation’s return to civil rule, has sparked a fierce debate among political pun­dits in the country regarding the successes or otherwise of the country’s democratic gains and reasons for the perceived stagnation among others.
While some are pessimis­tic and antagonistic of the current pace of develop­ment and democratisation of democratic institutions in the country, some others are contented with and optimis­tic of the progress thus far made.
To the pessimists, Nigeria’s democratic journey thus far is compared to a ship on a high sea without a clearly de­fined destination and whose captain lacks the requisite knowledge of how to use the compass to navigate the sea, thereby moving round the maritime, waiting for an un­foreseen circumstance that will wreck the vessel.
They argued that the coun­try is like a man, who does not know where the rain started beating him and who will likely not know where his drenched cloths dried on him, while also querying the destination Nigeria is head­ed in term of democratic progress.
Those that share the fore­going sentiment also likened the nation’s democracy to a wife, who went to the market to buy ingredients to make her husband’s favourite soup, a day after their weeding but lacked the knowledge of the required ingredients she needed to purchase to pre­pare the soup.
They further draw another inference to illustrate their position by comparing the brand of the nation’s democ­racy to a builder who builds a house without foundation, stressing that ‘he who fails to plan, plans to fail.
This group argued that unless the country imbibes certain tenets of democratic norms like obedience to rule of law; protection of funda­mental human rights of citi­zens, especially free speech; adherence to defined po­litical ideology on the part of the political parties, the country will continue to sail round the high sea without any hope of getting to the democratic promised land.
The pessimists equally ob­served that undue interfer­ence of political actors on judicial decisions, muzzling of the press, harassment and intimidation of opposition by government forces are evil winds that will blow no one any good.
However, contrary to this gloomy picture by this school of thought, the optimists be­lieve that the nation is on the right track but quickly observed that a lot more needed to be done by the political class to navigate the turbulent times. This school of thought argued that devel­opment and advancement in life takes place in stages.
They argued that advance­ment in all facets of life is lik­ened to the ‘embryo’ which undergoes several stages in the process of developing into adult Homo sapiens.
They averred: “The jour­ney of every human starts in a womb of a woman, the baby sojourn in the womb for nine months to enable the entire organs to develop before birth. After birth, the baby starts the journey of survival and further de­velopment into childhood, adolescent and adulthood by feeding on liquid before solid food, learning to seat before crawling, before walk­ing and subsequently before running.
“The child cannot run be­fore crawling or eat rice be­fore breast milk or even go to the university before kinder­garten. Anything contrary to this natural process enumer­ated above amounts to mira­cles and such miracle is rare to come by.”
This school of thought however, call on Nigerians to be patient with the system as no nation of the world ever gets to the top without going through the different stages of development.
They further posited that United States of America, USA, which every analyst in the country makes reference to while criticising the sys­tem, was worse than Nigeria when she was in the same stage of development that we are currently battling with.
Lending voice to the raging debate, the executive gov­ernor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Emmanuel Udom, in a keynote address at the 2016
 Democracy Day Lecture put together by the Save Democ­racy Group Africa, SDGA, posited that “the major chal­lenge in our march towards democratic consolidation has been the lack of clearly defined ideology among the two major parties: the Peo­ples Democratic Party, PDP and the APC.”
Represented by the deputy governor of the state, Mr. Moses Frank Ekpo, at the oc­casion, Udom further gave a graphic detail of how the United States of America built its politics around two dominant political ideolo­gies, counselling political leaders in the country to learn from the USA example.
His said: “In the United States, the bastion of democ­racy, the two main political parties are illuminated by clearly defined ideological currents. The Democratic Party tilts to the centre of the left of the political spectrum while the Republican Party is to the right. The Democratic Party canvasses an active role of government in the affairs of the people, main­taining that government is a force for good, and that in the discharge of its sacred re­sponsibilities, it has a moral duty to provide safety nets against the vagaries of nature to the people.
“That government must provide a hand to lift the peo­ple from the abyss of poverty and deprivation through the provision of free education, free medical health care, un­employment benefits, and that as the hegemonic power of the world, America should exercise such powers not as a hectoring bull but as a gentle giant who appreciates that there are other powers that must be engaged and con­sulted in the advancement of the Westphalian norms that has defined international politics since 1648.
“On the other hand, the Republican Party hearken­ing to the Hamiltonian prin­ciple of mercantilist society, places deep accent on indi­vidual. The Republican Party believes that success is a state of the mind and that we are all born to be great and that government has no role in providing safety nets to any one; that all you need to suc­ceed is in you, government’s only role should be to pro­vide the level playing field.
“Market forces represent the solution to all prob­lems. The Republican Party believes that the founding fathers did not create a so­ciety for its citizens to be dependent on government; that they came to the New World, not knowing where they were going to lay their heads or where the next meal was going to come from, but they were not deterred. Through such resilience and faith, they were able to create a nation of doers and not a nation of indolent citizens. Today, America represents the vision of its founding fathers; therefore, individual must aspire and dream. The Republican Party believes in the ascendancy of the indi­vidual over the collective.”
He further gave other fea­tures of Republican Party, saying: “In international politics, the Republican Party believes that America is an exceptional country and thus must stamp its im­age and values all over the world. American power must be seen and felt and there should be no apolo­gies for using such powers to advance American strategic security and economic in­terest. While the Democrats believe in engaging other powers, Republicans most times want to unilaterally impose American will on the world. These two distinctly ideological currents shape the American political space, and when you meet a Demo­crat or a Republican, you can right off the bat, know where he or she stands on issues. It makes it easier for electorate to make informed choices on who and what platform to support or identify with.”
The governor however la­mented the absence of the above narrated scenario in the country, saying: “In Ni­geria unfortunately, there is no such clearly distinct ideo­logical bent. If I may ask you here without indicting any platform: what does the PDP or the APC stands for ideo­logically? You may be hard put to provide an immediate answer because, in my opin­ion, the two parties represent an assemblage of ideologi­cal strange bed fellows who may not be joined together by a shared set of values and ethos but by certain interests - group or personal.”
He explained that the lack of ideological bent in the country has resulted in party indiscipline, adding: “In 17 years, we have seen such lack of core values and discipline across the political parties. Defections across party plat­forms are common place. If a party in power loses an elec­tion, there will be a gale of defections by the losing side to the wining party, and once the lustre or the sheen is seen to be diminishing in the new party, another gale of defec­tion will occur.”
Governor Udom traces the rationale behind mas­sive defection by Nigerian politician thus: “The reason why this is commonplace is because politicians are not guided by common values. The Republican Party has been out of power for almost eight years in the United States, yet the party structure remains the same. They have accepted defeat and have re-strategised with the hope and expectation of winning the next election. We can replicate this in Nigeria and the time is now for this con­versation to begin.”
On whether the country has made progress in the 17-year democratic journey, Udom aligned his view with the optimists.
He said: “Now the follow­ing question begs for sincere answers: 17 years after, how has the journey been? Can we honestly say that our de­mocracy has deepened?
“My honest answers is that in spite of the fault lines that unfortunately have been magnified over the last 17 years, in spite of a lack of clearly defined ideological affiliations, in spite of lack of party discipline, in spite of the initial apathy that greeted our journey, our democracy has come to stay, and that by itself is a huge accomplish­ment.”
On his part, the National Coordinator of Save Democ­racy Group Africa, Dr. Ifedi Okwenna, explained that the lecture series creates a plat­form for a meaningful dia­logue which will help deepen the democratic culture and experience in the country.
He said: “The Nigeria De­mocracy Day Lecture was instituted to commemorate our return to constitutional Democracy in May 29, 1999. It is a non-aligned platform created to engender dialogue among the political class across political parties on public policy issues.”
He added that “the plat­form provides for an in-depth assessment of per­formances of public policy objectives with the overall aim of stabilising and en­hancing Nigerian democ­racy. It is usually a gathering of Nigerian political lead­ers and an important media event. It is usually attended by serving and former Ni­gerian leaders, prominent political stakeholders, lead­ers of political parties, leg­islators at national and state levels, members of the diplo­matic missions and interna­tional organizations, devel­opment partners, religious and community leaders, civil society and community based organisations, women and youth leaders etc.”