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The founder and president of the Oodua Peoples
Congress, Frederick Fasehun, yesterday, said his organization will
resist the rise of political dynasties which became apparent after the
primary election of all political parties in the country.

Mr Fasehun, while addressing journalists on what
he called “Wake up series: calling Nigerians to order,” also called for
a rallying point to preserve the sovereignty of the people from
impending loss. “Is democracy synonymous with the ‘Selectocracy’ that
now determines the emergence of parties’ candidates for elective
positions?,” he said. “How can we subject ourselves to being ruled by
those who us no allegiance whatsoever because of the prejudiced,
unfair, and undemocratic process by which they emerge? How does a
servant serve well who has not been mandated to serve and how do you
expect peace from a situation of social injustice?”

The fault

According to him, “the abuse of the wish of the
majority by party leaders is caused by the failure of the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) to resolutely stamp its feet on
the nation’s political landscape as a non-partisan regulator it is
supposed to be.” “Consequently, the obvious trend in the nation’s
politics is that of supremacy of godfathers rather than the wish of the
people,” he said. Mr Fasehun said that true democracy cannot be the
nation’s lot as INEC, which he described in its present state as a
“toothless dog that can only bark but not bite”, is already laying the
foundation for a new era of rigging through its “ongoing systematic
official disenfranchisement.”

“This goes to show that Nigeria’s problem is not
the militants, but the politicians who find it difficult to provide
good leadership and social justice,” he said. “Or what is corruption if
we don’t count godfatherism, selectocracy, and rigging as its
attributes? Is institutionalization of [political] dynasties a feature
of democracy?” He added that more Nigerians need to actively speak
against social injustice because “our prophets – Fawehinmi, Beko, Chima
Ubani, Bala Usman, Enahoro – are getting fewer in numbers but we pray
the echoes of their prophecies will soon produce a worthy leader for
our currently leaderless 140 million people.”

Way forward

Mr Fasehun advised INEC to find a way to sanction
all political parties that have compromised internal democracy and
produced unpopular candidates. He expressed his reservation against
political litigations and advised the electoral commission to “open a
Department for Direct Public Complaints, where aspirants robbed of
their candidacy can file an appeal and reclaim their due mandate.” He
proposed a strict sanction for any political party that has, at least,
ten percent of its primary elections disputed. He also advocated a
statutory provision that will compel political parties to reserve at
least one third of their total candidates for women.