Last Friday, I pointed out the positive implications for Nigerians the independent streak exhibited by lawmakers. Now, I add that what lawmakers do either by defecting or banding together to defend their independence, though informed by interest, is symptomatic of Nigerians’ short patience with anyone in power who wants to take us for a ride. This has always been part of our mentality as citizens.
I recall a former Nigerian military leader stating what his experience was while in power. He said at 7am and 4pm, when Radio Nigeria (or the FRCN) didn’t start broadcasting news on time, he became jittery, thinking that maybe military boys had executed another coup by seizing the station. He was a military leader, yet he was never sure of what
his boys would do. In some other climes, the army is completely under the boot of the military Head of State who sometimes appoints sons and in-laws as heads of the armed forces in order to rule forever. There was also the case of a former military dictator here who was compelled to step aside. This was a man who took pride in how his position as military president made him get away with some decisions.
But he admitted that in the aftermaths of the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election, he became wary of the military boys under him. He didn’t want to go away, obviously; but he didn’t want to lose his life to coup plotters after eight years in office, so he stepped aside. In other climes, military Heads of State don’t step aside out of fear of what might happen to them next; they have enough control over the nation to remain in power for as long as they wish. They don’t mind killing many to achieve their purpose. No military leader in Nigeria ever successfully did that. Our citizens and institutions won’t let him.
What obtains under military rule is a reflection of our mentality as a people. From North to South, opinion leaders have been known to speak about the harm any reckless leader would do our nation, rather than maintain him in power by all means. In the event, what citizens want is ever reflected in our institutions, civilian or military. The National Assembly, especially, has faithfully reflected the mindset of our people who neither desire emperors, nor dictatorial political parties. Since 1999, the National Assembly that is uncontrollable for the executive is a reflection of Nigerians on whose necks no leader or party can hang ropes and lead wherever he wants. It happens in other climes. But not in Nigeria where forces that can make the country ungovernable for a leader exist in different forms and in impossible places. If the reader is aware that the fate of a politician may be determined in palaces and places of worship, he gets my point. No leader cows us. No political party does. Here, we say it as it is; we do as we want. That’s us, Nigerians; never been beaten down, never totally suppressed by anyone, not even by white British colonial officers who most Nigerians don’t consider superior to them unlike what obtains in other former colonies in Africa.
There’s also that thing about the boldness of party members here to look their leaders in the face and tell them off. The mass defection of 2014 is a case in point. In some other nations, party members know their lives are no longer safe once they leave their former parties. No leader of the National Assembly in some other nations will feel free to have loyalty to another party while he is the Speaker. Here in Nigeria, all of these happened in 2014 and no one thought much of it. In spite of the defection from one party to the other, Nigerians voted the people they wanted. Those politicians are still in office and some of them are repeating the same process now. It’s never that straightforward in some other nations. At the moment, there’s even the oddity of a Senate President and his deputy who belong to the opposition party. The ruling party says it must have those seats. The opposition party says any attempt at impeachment will fail. Where does it get that boldness from? Of course, it has the support of lawmakers who belong to the ruling party, the same people who joined others to elect the leadership they wanted in the first place. Lawmakers of the ruling party may be staying where they are, but the bond of maintaining an independent legislature, for them, seems stronger. They know they’re better off as fellow lawmakers who are in the same political boat with the same political fortune. They know such bond may prove useful tomorrow. It’s selfish, interest propelled. But it’s politics, and this is Nigeria, where no one can push us in the direction we don’t want to go. Defection, to me, means the opposition political party is vibrant. It’s good because when the other political party roars, office holders tend to strive to perform. An advert on TV calls a state governor “The only workaholic governor” for embarking on several infrastructural projects in his state. I smiled and said it was because he knew the opposition party, with federal might behind it, was bent on throwing him out. Only the voters can save him this time. Of course, Nigerians are the beneficiaries of this fever that pushes politicians to perform, and I’m excited about it.
More than this, does the reader notice that moving from one party to the other in the National Assembly has been based less on ethnic and religious considerations? It’s been more about players protecting their political fortune. It’s still politics, tending more towards what is practised in advanced democracies where religious and ethnic bigotry are often eschewed. We didn’t have this scenario in the First Republic. Can the reader imagine members of the then Northern Peoples Congress defecting to the then Action Group or vice versa, as the APC and the PDP members do without qualms in the National Assembly these days?
Moreover, there has been more inter-party support for policies and appointments in the dispensation that began in 1999 than at any other time in the history of the Nigerian legislature. Over such matters, legislators tend to ignore their political parties and band together.
But it’s equally significant that in spite of this, the current executive has chosen to go along with the disposition adopted by lawmakers. The executive has been working, as best as it could, with these independently stubborn Nigerian parliamentarians. I think it’s to the credit of the executive that it has managed thus far to work with the leadership composition of the National Assembly that many describe as an aberration. Aside from the fire and fury that the ruling party has generated of late, I think the narrated scenario marks this time as a peculiar and remarkable period in our democratic history. One that is uniquely Nigerian.
I don’t in any way support either the National Assembly or the executive regarding what has transpired between them in the last three
and a half years. What I simply point out here is that more than the high fever that has gripped political parties over who defects to where, Nigerians have many manifestations to be proud of about their democracy and politicians. Yes, we do things that others don’t do which some may consider negative. But I also think, looked at from another perspective, what some consider to be disloyalty on the part of their members is actually a reflection of how refined our democratic practice is inadvertently turning out to be. I insist that what is happening is a means of getting the most out of our politicians who seem more willing to perform when they are engulfed in crisis, within or across parties. As I implied last Friday, the intrigues of defection put pressure on those in elected offices to do more for the citizens. They either impress voters or get voted out of power. If the average Nigerian citizen is a beneficiary of this, I think it’s a good thing. The reader would understand me if it’s recalled that I often see the positives where others see something different.
Concluded.
END
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