‘I’m Not Sure a Third Force Will Emerge’
Mr. Iboro Otu, Akwa Ibom State governorship candidate of the Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party tells Nseobong Okon-Ekong the new political parties don’t yet have the structures needed to win major elections
Many of the newly registered political parties claim to be the alternative third force in Nigerian politics, is the space not too crowded?
The issue of a ‘Third Force’ as a single party in Nigerian politics has been falsely sold to Nigerians in many quarters, thereby deceiving some of the newly minted parties to assume it is possible to stand alone and best a party like PDP or APC in the political scene. I genuinely think this is some falsehood. The reality is, as at today, some of the individuals that sold the third force idea aren’t even in any of the new parties they helped form. The reason being that most of these new parties don’t yet have the structures needed to win major elections – presidential, gubernatorial, federal and state house elections - on their own because it takes a lot to build a political structure, not just money. As such, the Third Force can only be possible through inter-party coalition; political parties and ideas coming together because of a shared purpose. Looking beyond parties and considering individuals fit for purpose provides the initial platform for conversation and this is exactly what happened in my case. Taking my case as an example, we were able to bring together 17 different parties to agree on one candidate – myself – as their gubernatorial candidate in Akwa Ibom state because we started the conversation by identifying Akwa Ibom as our ultimate political party and community development, transparent, effective and inclusive government as our collective interest. With our mutual interests spelt out first, the conversation started making more sense afterwards. As I write, 10 more political parties are coming on board. We flipped the usual political dynamics on its head. What this means is that as in my case, the newer parties devised a strategy for inter-party partnership in order to achieve a common purpose, something rarely seen in contemporary African politics and this is the solution to the Third Force issue. Often bigger parties like APC and PDP induce smaller parties to work with them, but in Akwa Ibom state today, we have been able to form a coalition where even much older and bigger parties than mine – the ANRP (Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party) - have agreed to work together and have successfully picked a candidate, myself, from a much newer and smaller party as a candidate of choice. This, to me, is the new face democracy in Africa. In order for the new thinking to do away with the old and for the Third Force idea to take hold, there has to be a kind of broad based coalition amongst smaller political parties in every state in Nigeria, and this means different political parties will emerge as Third Force in different states. I’m not sure the Third Force will emerge as APC did or be a case of one single party as third option on the national scene. If that will be possible, I’m not sure it will happen soon. Like you said, the space is too crowded; no single party will be strong enough to dislodge PDP or APC without a broad-based collation. NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com