‘Emerging Political Forces Represent Two Perspectives’
Dr. Abiodun Adeniyi, Senior Lecturer in Mass Communication at Baze University, Abuja fields questions from Nseobong Okon-Ekong on why it has been difficult to grow a third political group with wide-spread popularity
What accounts for the proclivity towards a two- party system of government in Nigeria?
Proclivities are tendencies that emerge largely unconsciously. The first time we were going to be conscious about it was during the tele- guided transition of the military President Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, when we had the National Republican Convention (NRC) and the Social Democratic Party ( SDP). That system partly collapsed because it was not organic, besides fact that the midwife was not sincere. What we seem to be having now is an unconscious variant, which might also mutate at some point into something else. I do not also believe the present arrangement can be cast in stone, because one of the so- called behemoths is a merger, which sends an instruction on the possibilities of other mergers that could dislodge the seemingly dominant two. The so-called proclivities are therefore fluid, transient, and shifty, especially if you factor in the constant encamping and decamping of partisans from all the hues.
Why has it been difficult to grow a third political group with popularity that cut across?
Growing a political party structure is extremely involving financially. The pit for the funds is bottomless. Political expenditures are like gambling. You cannot be too sure. It is the reason why anyone with genuinely acquired resources would be circumspect deploying his/ her funds into a political process. If you take a critical look at the major political parties, you will see that they grew and have thrived through illegal state funds. The state funds are not also easily available. It is in the hands of either those who have been in power or those who are still there. If you have never been in power, you may not be ready to plunge hard- earned resources into funding an imprecise political process that building and maintaining a party structure entails. This is not to say that plunging hands into state resources to funds political parties is the ideal, but just arguing that our political culture is still problematic to the extent that state resources are seen from the angle of “wasteable” resources, or as resources, you can gamble with. Again, Babangida wanted to address this during his transition when he funded the groups, but the question was insincerity. Perhaps, we could outgrow this with time, or we can evolve in accordance with our realistic political persuasion, which might as well be two party system. NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com