Nigeria Content Online

Recently, state governors and key members of the
political elite stormed the National Assembly to demand legislation
imposing a two-party system in Nigeria. They decried the proliferation
of parties in the country and asserted that the current 57 registered
parties is an unworkable system.

The Nigerian ruling class has always dreamed of
the desirability of a two-party system that divides the political class
into a simple equation of a ruling class and an opposition that will
remain out of power. The high point in this regard was the 1964
elections when the Northern Peoples’ Congress brought in the Yoruba
elite of the Nigerian National Democratic Party and the Niger Deltans
of the Midwest Democratic Front and the Niger Democratic Congress into
the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA).

Obafemi Awolowo then took on the mantle of
organizing the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA) into a
formidable opposition front with the Action Group, the National Council
of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) and
the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU. It was a coalition that
could have won if free and fair elections. Premier Ahmadu Bello and
Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa were frightened, they rigged the 1964 and
1965 elections and the result was coup d’état, civil war and the
militarization of Nigeria.

We returned to politics in 1978. In that year, the
barons of the defunct Northern Peoples’ Congress, repeated their act.
The former secretary of the National Party of Nigeria, Uba Ahmed,
recounts in his thesis on the history of the party defended in the
University of Birmingham how they got A. M. Akinloye with his Oyo
Parapo group, T. O. S. Benson and K; O. Mbadiwe of the NCNC group and
Akanu Ibiam of the Igbo Forum to join them in forming the winning
coalition that was to be the National Party of Nigeria.

By incorporating Joseph Tarka of the UMBC, Aminu
Kano of NEPU, the Igbo elite split between K. O. Mbadiwe and Akanu
Ibiam, Awolowo was to be denied the capacity to lead a viable
opposition. The late Ibrahim Tahir boasted in the New Nigerian
(27/10/1978) that they have now achieved what De Gaulle did for France
by uniting all the political elite into one unbeatable political
formation.

The late political scientist, Billy Dudley
described the great joy of the Northern elite when they assembled in
Sokoto in 1978 for the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the late
Sultan of Sokoto, Sir Abubakar where the final deal on establishing the
NPN was sealed.

It did not work out that way. Nnamdi Azikiwe
repositioned the Igbo elite into the Nigerian Peoples Party, Aminu Kano
was humiliated out of the NPN and was successful in delivering Kano and
Kaduna states to the Peoples Redemption Party and of course Pa Awolowo
demonstrated he still controlled his turf. The NPN was shocked to
discover in the 1979 elections that it controlled only seven of the
nineteen states and needed legal chicanery in the Supreme Court to
pronounce Shehu Shagari as President.

The NPN went back to the drawing board. They
actively organized factions in all the other parties, got the Federal
Electoral Commission (FEDECO) to recognize the pro-NPN factions and
rigged the 1984 elections. On the last night of 1984, a certain General
Muhammadu Buhari, took over power on the grounds that Nigerian
democracy had been violated.

Then came the PDP, the current ruling party. Last
year, Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State visited a certain Ogbulafor
who held sway in the PDP to proclaim that he had no regrets about the
statement that his party intended to rule the country for the next
sixty years. He asserted that no party in the world would willingly
give out power to another. He concluded on the note that “my duty in
PDP is to go and destroy our opponents”.

What our history teaches us however is that
destroying political opponents is a sure route to dismantling our
democracy. The irony in Nigeria is that as the number of political
parties in the country increases, the movement towards a one-party
regime accelerates. The fear of one party rule has however consistently
destabilized our democracy.

As we think about political parties for the
future, we should remember that what Nigerians are crying for are
parties that are concerned about their welfare and the provision of
public goods. Parties that they can remove from power when they are not
satisfied with their performance. In essence, what Nigerian democracy
requires is a new type of party that believes in and respects
democratic values.