When I was asked by the Department of Political Science of this premier university to share my thoughts on internal democracy in Nigeria’s political parties, I first wondered whether somebody wanted to get me into serious trouble with my party. But knowing that this is an issue that I have canvassed for a long time and have suffered for, I understood that they meant well.
Not being a political scientist, I cannot claim expertise on the topic of internal party democracy. However, I am a practicing politician, who has played prominent roles in the formation, development and management of political parties in Nigeria since 1992. I was a founding member and major mobilizer for and leader of the Peoples Front, the Social Democratic Party, the People’s Democratic Party, and the Action Congress. I have made presentations to various panels on the issue, as well as the broader question of electoral reform as well as spoken on it at other fora. And you may still remember that I was privileged to hold the office of Vice President in our brand of democracy. I am, therefore, aware of some of the imperatives of internal party democracy and the perils of its abdication in the political process. In fact, as many of you know, I bear the scars of the absence of internal party democracy or what you might call the dictatorship of anti-democratic forces in our party system.
As you may recall, the struggle to get the military to withdraw from governance was a long, tortuous and arduous one. And it was very costly, indeed costing many precious lives of our compatriots. Those sacrifices were made because we believed that a democratic order, where citizens choose how they want to be governed and by whom is the best form of governance known to humanity and that it will accelerate our economic and social advancement as well as gain us respect in the international community.
In a democratic system, political parties are the organizing vehicles for the struggle for power and the articulation of principles and programmes for governance of the society. Parties are indeed composed of freely associating individuals who seek to capture political power and use that power to govern the country in accordance with their shared ideas, vision and programmes. Freely associating individuals ought to freely choose how their parties are organized, led and by whom. And they should canvass for support in the struggle for power in a free and fair manner. When that is done, the will of the people, that is the majority, prevails. That culture of freedom carries into the governance of the society. It will be near impossible for a non-democratic party to promote democracy in a country. One can only give what one has.
What is Democracy?
We generally understand democracy to mean government of the people, by the people and for the people. Put another way, it is government owned by the people, run by the people in the interest of or for the benefit of the people. In a democracy, therefore, the people rule. That rule can be carried out directly as in ancient Athens or among much of the pre-colonial Igbo or Tiv peoples, or it can be carried out through the people’s freely elected representatives. The people, rather than a king or queen, are sovereign. A democratic government also belongs to the people, an independent people, rather than a foreign entity, and governance is carried out in the interest of the people rather than a tiny ruling elite or clique.
Generally speaking, democracy also involves periodic free and fair elections, freedom of assembly and of association, freedom of opinion, and division of powers and checks and balances among the arms of government namely legislature, executive and judiciary. Democracy also demands accountability and transparency on the part of those entrusted with the power to govern the society. In a democracy everyone is governed by laws rather than the whims and caprices of those in power. Therefore, nobody is supposed to be above the law. Democracies provide the people with the tools to exercise those democratic rights, for example an independent judiciary to enforce those rights and a robust free press.
It is also important to note that in a democracy while the majority rules, the rights of minorities are protected. That is why laws are made and enforced for the protection of the vulnerable including women, children, and ethnic, religious and other minorities.
Internal Democracy in Political Parties
It is difficult for modern societies to have democracy without political parties. Parties are organizations of freely associating members who seek to capture political power and govern the society. As the vehicles with which they struggle for power in a democracy, political parties ought to be democratic institutions themselves. Only by being democratic can the will of the majority of their members prevail, including, among other things, the choice of the parties’ principles, programmes and policies, their internal governance structures, the choice of their leaders and the choice of their candidates in elections in which they wish to participate. And only if the party is democratic can it protect the rights and privileges of the minority of its members whose views at any point could not prevail.
But why is internal democracy in political parties important?
Only a party that largely follows the democratic principles will be able to truly reflect the views and aspirations of its members, and through those members, the views and aspirations of a large number of the citizens of the country. Only such a party can potentially promote democracy on a national scale. And Nigeria surely needs democratic development. We need improvements in our elections. We need economic development that reflects the genuine needs and aspirations of the vast majority of our citizens. We need security. We need peace and stability. And we need respect for and development of our democratic institutions such as judiciary, legislature, law enforcement agencies, indeed even the executive. Also the practice of democratic politics will lead to needed improvements in our international image and our relations with other decent countries.
The Challenges of instituting Internal Democracy in Nigeria’s Political Parties.
On the surface it is difficult not to like democracy, and it is difficult to understand why Nigeria’s political parties do not currently allow democracy in their internal structures and practices. Why would anyone avoid democracy? Why run away from freedom?
Rather than practice democracy in their internal affairs, what we have had is continuous deterioration in internal party democracy and the rise of the dictatorship of executive power-wielders, other party leaders and other godfathers. The departing military leaders played a role in this celebration of illiberalism, and the political leaders at the time acquiesced to it just so the military is eased out. Perhaps it also suited the political leaders of the time fine since they too could use that prevailing mood to have their way with their rank and file, for example by imposing their own candidates at different levels of the party and electoral structures. And the culture of impunity, which had characterized our long period of military rule, remained largely intact since many of those imposed by the military also had military background themselves or served the military governments.
This is not a time or place to wonder what we would have done differently. Suffice it to say that we just have not managed that military inheritance well. And we must, if we are to have a genuine transition to a well-ordered, democratic, peaceful, just, stable and united Nigeria.
The ruling party, PDP, of which I am a founding member, has a greater responsibility in this regard. But it has behaved very badly indeed. And the other parties have not done particularly better. Article 16.1 of the party’s Constitution of 1999 (as amended) states very clearly that:
The National Convention, the Zonal, State, Local Government Area and Ward Congresses shall meet to elect the officers of the Party at the various levels of the Party structure as specified in this constitution except in the Federal Capital Territory where officers of the Party shall be elected based on geo-political zones.
Indeed, the entire four sections of Article 16 talk about elections, not “consensus” or “affirmation” or any such election-avoiding contraption. And the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 insists on the election of the officers of political parties. Section 223, sub-section 1(a) states that the constitution and rules of a political party shall “Provide for the periodic election on a democratic basis of the principal officers and members of the executive committee or other governing body of the political party;” and sub-section 2(a) states that “the election of the officers or members of the executive committee of a political party shall be deemed to be periodical only if it is made at regular intervals not exceeding four years.”
These constitutional provisions and existing court decisions affirming them have often been ignored by the party leaders in favour of what they call affirmative or consensus convention (if a convention takes place at all). For example, the PDP has changed its National Chairman frequently just because the sitting Presidents wanted it that way. If the changes took place in accordance with democratic principles it would not be such a problem. Usually the existing chairman is literally forced to resign and a new one imposed through the strange contraption called ‘consensus.’ Thus we have had eight party chairmen since 1999: Solomon Lar, Barnabas Gemade, Audu Ogbeh, Ahmadu Ali, Vincent Ogbulafor, Okwesilieze Nwodo, Abubakar Baraje, and now Bamanga Tukur. Gemade was the last National Chairman to emerge through an election, that is, six Chairmen ago. A similar pattern emerged with respect to the leadership of the National Assembly until the members of the House of Representatives, more or less, revolted and freely chose Aminu Tambuwal as their Speaker, the way the Constitution envisaged.
Don’t get me wrong: political parties have a right to field candidates of their choice for elections. They can work out mechanisms for the allocation of offices both within themselves and at various levels of government. But the operational word is election. It is only through election that members can express their choice in a democracy. Members’ choice should be the party’s choice. Members own or ought to own the party. However those who wield executive power in Nigeria have not allowed themselves to see things this way. They have felt entitled to have their way at every turn irrespective of what the party members think. And they consider any challenge to that mindset as personal affront to them and a challenge to their authority and power.
Interestingly, and quite unfortunately, this dictatorial command-and-control mindset has permeated executive-legislative interaction in Nigeria, for example the squabbles over our national budgets. The Nigerian constitution is clear about who has the power of appropriation. Of course the National Assembly at any particular time may not necessarily have the best ideas concerning the fiscal health of or budgeting for the country, but that does not dilute its responsibility and power to appropriate. Negotiations should follow where there is serious disagreement between both arms of government. A contrary position by the National Assembly should not be seen as a personal affront against the incumbent President. That is why we moved away from military rule.
In addition to the inherited military mindset, another key challenge of internal democracy in parties is the structure of ownership of the parties. Nigeria’s political parties are largely owned by godfathers rather than the mass of members and are largely run as personal fiefdoms or sole proprietorships.
The parties are also funded along those lines by the owning godfathers, including governors and ministers and other private individuals. This is certainly not a recipe for democracy. Indeed the consequences are, somewhat, similar to our reliance as a country on oil revenues rather than taxes with respect to citizen engagement with the political process. The construction of a road comes to be seen as a gift from the government rather than a people’s right and citizens hardly demand accountability and transparency from government officials.
The structure of ownership and funding of parties often lead to the bizarre situation of party leaders putting up resistance against efforts to recruit more members and for mass ownership, including funding by the vast majority of members. We even introduced a peculiarly Nigerian innovation: the de-registration of party members who, we suspect, may not give in to our demands.
The result of all of these is more election rigging as candidate-imposition and the dictatorship of state and party leaders dominate. The imposition of candidates means that parties often field unpopular candidates who, therefore, can hardly win free and fair elections. Rigging, therefore, gets built into the electoral process from the beginning. And if the rigging succeeds, the ‘winner’ knows that his or her loyalty does not lie with the electorate but rather with the godfather who imposed him or her and oiled the rigging machine. As a result, economic development suffers; corruption thrives while accountability and transparency are ignored with impunity.
And they are encouraged to do this by our law enforcement agencies, the electoral umpire and a judiciary that has been under enormous pressure, and, like the rest of the society, has its share of corrupt elements. Corrupt judges, therefore, often hide under technicalities to pervert the course of justice and deny aggrieved parties justice. This is even made worse by the fact that the so-called winner is allowed to get into office and then use public resources to fight the court challenges to the fraudulent victory.
As a result, the vast majority of voters feel disenfranchised and lose confidence in the democratic process. In extreme cases violence erupts as people come to feel that they are unable to get redress through peaceful and legitimate means. Others, out of frustration, begin the misguided calls for the return of the military to politics.
The consequences do not even end there. The totality of the electoral fraud and the dangerous levels that people go to achieve it, lead many decent and highly qualified and competent people to shy away from actively participating in politics, including running for electoral office. This, of course, ensures that more of those who should not preside over the affairs of any decent human society are left to dominate politics and public affairs. These further damage the society and bring us more international ridicule and irrelevance.
What is even most frightening is the seeming uncaring attitude of those in power to see and address these challenges in order to give the country a chance for economic recovery, social and political advancement, peace and stability.
Strategies for Change:
Ladies and gentlemen, clearly the situation is very bleak. But it is not hopeless. We can do something about it. We can bring about change if we are determined and committed to it. We should see these challenges as opportunities to create the kind of political system that we truly deserve and desire, one that will give our people the space to freely express themselves and elect those they wish to govern them both within their political parties and at the various levels of government.
Genuine electoral reform is perhaps the most critical step that we must take in order to ensure internal democracy in our political parties. The reforms will not only seek to bring about direct changes in the way the parties conduct their affairs but change the electoral system in a manner that will leave the political parties little choice but to promote internal democracy as a survival strategy. The components of needed electoral reforms in Nigeria include the following, among other things:
• Change in the manner of the appointment and tenure of the Chairman and Commissioners of the electoral umpire, the INEC. This will help to dilute the role of and control by the sitting President.
• Funding of the electoral umpire from the first line charge of the Consolidated Revenue Fund to make it less dependent on the government in power
• Effective monitoring of parties to ensure conformity with the letter and spirit of electoral laws. This might include time-bound intrusive legislative changes empowering the INEC to intrusively monitor parties for the next 15 or 20 years to ensure they obey the laws of the land, including their own constitutions and guidelines.
• Prohibition of the use of state resources by incumbents for partisan purposes, including electioneering campaigns. Where such use is unavoidable such as the use by the President of the Presidential aircraft, the cost must be borne by the incumbent’s party. This is how it is done in real democracies.
• Barring anyone whose electoral victory is being challenged in the courts from assuming office until those disputations have been resolved. This will be a strong disincentive against electoral fraud.
• Reform of security agencies with a focus on clearly ensuring their neutrality in elections.
Ladies and gentlemen, we must take effective steps to make votes count. That will force parties to field popular candidates.
Beyond reforming the electoral system, we also need strong and principled political opposition in the country. I have, for a long time, been a strong advocate of a two-party system for Nigeria even if we have to legislate it into being. This is because a two-party system is the best way to have parties that cut across our various regional, ethnic and religious faultlines. It is also the only guarantee of a viable alternative to the ruling party, which is critical for keeping the ruling party from taking the electorate for granted. I am pleased that progress is being made in that regard with the recent emergence of the All Progressive Congress.
Another important element is citizen engagement. Little of what I have outlined here can be achieved without the active engagement of our citizens in the political process. This is because the critical changes that are needed, especially electoral reform, will continue to be resisted by the forces which, for obvious reasons, prefer the prevailing order of things, including those in power at the centre, the ruling party and the governors. Therefore, activist civil society groups have a critical role to play in bringing these changes about.
Another important strategy for change would be mass registration of new party members. People must take the initiative to work for the needed change. We need an army of volunteers from civil society to go out there and encourage people to register as party members, whatever their party of choice. The mass of new members, most of whom will likely be young, can, with careful organization, training and persistence, overwhelm those forces that are resisting change.
We also need to diversify the Nigerian economy away from near sole dependence on oil revenues, and implement genuine fiscal federalism. These are among the policy measures needed to spur sustainable economic growth, job creation and poverty alleviation in the country. They will unleash our people’s creativity and innovativeness and lead to healthy rivalry among cities, states and regions. I have no doubt that sustained economic growth, and employment and wealth creation will help to develop our democracy and stabilize the polity. And the development of our democracy will also help economic development as more committed, people-oriented leaders are likely to emerge and gain power and, therefore, make better policy choices for the development of the country.
We will also need to enlist the support of international organizations and established democracies. This will include encouraging them to engage in the monitoring of our democratic and electoral processes (rather than just monitoring elections). One misconception prevalent in international election monitoring is the overwhelming importance accorded to what happens on election day(s). In reality, however, the rigging of elections may have been virtually concluded before the election day(s) proper. This is because elections are not just about casting and counting ballots and collating results. Elections include the various processes leading up to the elections proper, such as enacting relevant legislation, election to party offices, party primaries, deployment of security agencies and their neutrality or partisanship, access to the media, especially state-owned media, for the various contestants, use of state resources by the incumbents for campaigning, among other things.
And we need the re-orientation of the entire political class with a view to helping it see that a genuine democratic development is in its enlightened self-interest and that internal democracy in political parties is a minimum requirement for genuine democratic development.
My dear friends, the challenges of internal democracy in Nigeria’s political parties are enormous. The road to democratic renewal is going to be long and filled with many obstacles. But if we organize, if we persist, if we persevere, if we stay focused and put our national interest before our narrow, short-term personal interests, we shall achieve the goal of instituting internal democracy in our political parties and help to entrench democratic, accountable and transparent governance in Nigeria.
Thank you and God bless.
Being lecture delivered by Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, as part of the Strategic Public Lecture Series of the Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan, at the University of Ibadan on March 13, 2013.