Discursive on Nigeria’s politics (part one)

POLITICAL PARTY ORGANISATION has somewhat almost been fully discussed in my last piece titled, Poll Rigging: Party registration to the rescue (see www.vibratingaustin.blogspot.com). However, apart from the membership requirement of a minimum of one million and the effective checks and balances they are to carry out on one another at the wards levels, it is here suggested that the entire membership of each of the political parties including those elected on it platform from the respective wards, serves as delegates for the purpose of nominating the party’s flag bearer for any election, or ratify any proposal from the party’s leadership. This cancels out a situation where an individual employs a combination of factors to capture the entire delegate from his state and uses same as bargaining chip.

Provided each of the aspirant have met the party and constitutional requirement for the post they intends to fly the party flag for, he/she is to be allowed to workout how to meet with the delegates, whether as individuals or groups. That is for aspirants and his team to figure out. In meeting the delegates, they are to present their résumés to each one of them and focus broadly on their qualifications and visions and missions during talks with the delegates.

After a period of marketing their suitability to the delegates, a certain date is to be fixed for the delegates to start collecting ballot papers. This will run for a period of two weeks. On this ballot papers are to be found all the regular features like serial numbers and the names of the aspirants and their photos. However, there will be two spaces for thumb prints- both for voting for their preferred candidate and for validating the ballot paper issued to them. When this is issued to them, a corresponding entry is to be made in a record against their names that they have been issued with the ballot paper. This they are free to take home, consult properly with their conscience before thumb printing. This would be possible since the period of vote casting would be for another two weeks immediately after the collection of the ballot papers. However, those who would want to cast their vote immediately would be free to do so and then register this fact against his/her name in the record as having returned theirs. The same applies to those who would return theirs later. For those who would want to cast their vote before the official two weeks marked for the exercise, the venue would be the police station.

The party should encourage any of it member intending to vie for elective office to go out and test his or her popularity amongst members independently by commissioning a poll to that effect .this would save a lot of troubles and needless financial commitment to a battle, lost even before it got under way.

The national conventions of the parties should be a time for together and networking amongst party faithfuls. All nominations for positions are to be concluded, at the wards of the party. The idea is not to ever be a time when the entire party delegates/members would be assembled for any purpose other than partying. Nominations must always be at the wards levels.

Currently, there are too many parties in the country. Majority of the peoples of this country have problems getting through their names let alone what they represent, in terms of ideology and philosophy. Historically, we have always had the progressive—those who believe in adopting laws and development to time and place— and the conservatives—who believe in preserving what has worked in the past and little alteration to those that are not working well, they could be called old men who are slow to adopt to the realities of today— and then, something in-between—those who try to combine the best of both world, believing in changing those that are not serving any recognisable purpose in the present and retaining those that are doing so. But somehow, the south, particularly, the south west whose elites are predominantly, progressives, have tended to portray those on the other side of the divide, through the power of the media, as backward character who are feeding fat on the common purse. This is not entirely the truth.

Presently, it would be somewhat difficult to get the parties to re-brand. But with a re-registration exercise as already discussed, the parties would be forced to tell the intending members what they actual stand for— What federalism means to them, who should be in charge of the resources found in ones farm land, how the derivation principle is to be applied, indigene ship, quota system and merit, which should drive the engagement policy of the country and Pension. Truth is, there are a lot of issues agitating the minds of Nigerians and for which they are prepared to follow any party that expressly promise to frontally deal with it once elected and there is no good or bad side to these issues, it only depends on who is defending or attacking them. Read Obama’s, the audacity of hope and you will understand this. Party slogans—like PDP’S power to the people— should come from their philosophy. Not just something snatched from air. It is the first interface, apart from the name, between the party and it target members. It should therefore, capture the mission of the party in the polity.

Returning to anchor able issues for the parties, one can still talk about the privatization and commercialization of public enterprise. This is one issue that can easily attract membership to a political party whether it is for or against it. Another is autonomy for the universities. These are issues that can separate members of the same family into different political camps; if the parties expressly states their positions on it raht5er than allow a cacophony of yes, no voices within its rank on the same issue.

As it is today, irrespective of the dominance of PDP, no political school of thought—liberalism or republicanism—is dominantly driving the policies of government. It is very important that the emergent parties becomes a specialized vehicles for promoting known political beliefs, and with 1 million registered mouthpiece properly educated for the job of marketing their party positions to the electorate, the job of the often promoted idea of an institute to teach Nigerians democracy would have been undertaken by the parties.

Lets meet @ www.twitter.com www.facebook.com