letter 2

THE MALAISE OF A MEGA PARTY
By Mas Damisa
Is there any hope that opposition parties will ever take over power or win electrons in Nigeria? That is a trillion naira question which this piece will attempt to answer or at least broach. About eighteen months ago, Chief Anthony Enahoro CFR thought aloud about how opposition parties could close ranks, come together and merge or form one big political party. The purpose was to defeat the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in a clean and fair election, come 2011. Given his age, the nationalist needed others to carry out his vision and Chief Olu Falae came in handy. He it was who led other prominent opposition party chieftains in endless rounds of consultations with the view of steering them into such a big-call it Mega Party under the sobriquet of Mega Summit Movement.
How else can we describe Chief Olu Falae, Gen. Muhammed Buhari, Atiku Abubakar and Alh. Attahiru Bafarawa – all presidential candidates between 1999 and 2007? Alh Balarabe Musa, a professional opposition politician and a group of others not-so-prominent but important actors were part of the process. From day one, the PRP leader announced that his party will neither dissolve into or be merged with any other party. He opted for alliance with other parties; but at the end, he let it be known that he and his party will not merge or align with the Mega Party!! Many were astounded as to what went wrong and why Balaraba Musa behaved the way he did. Someone even asked if the PRP leader was not planted in the Mega Summit Movement to destroy or frustrate it in the first place. He is entitled to his opinion.
Not long after, a group of top members of the MSM broke apart to form what they called National Democratic Initiative (NDI) which changed later to become National Democratic Movement (NDM) – purporting to have absolved the MSM by adoption of the word ‘movement’. But the NDM is a counterpoise to the MSM which was considered as too ‘southern’ by Northern leaders in the Summit. So, Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar and Attahiru Bafarawa with a sprinkle of southerners like Tom Ikimi and Barr. Mike Ahamba went with the NDM. For sometime, most members of the MSM became also members of the NDM until-like water and oil - each went its own way.
However, and at this stage Alhaji Bola Tinubu and his team appeared on the scene on the side of the NDM and helped to finally nailed the coffin of the MSM. But the NDM was to receive the most painful shock. Atiku Abubakar whose heart was in the PDP while pretending to be in MSM/NDM dumped it after slamming accusations against Buhari and Bafarawa. And Bafarawa left, not before he accused Buhari of perfidy and betrayal. Buhari and his new party, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) were treated like lepers by what was left of the NDM. Soon, Tinubu’s rump of the A.C. and Bafarawa” Democratic People’s Party (DPP) became the sole legatees of the NDM who agreed to merge into-presumably a mega party.
Right from the onset, Alh. Shitta-Bey was not happy with the pace of events and was very suspicious of certain MSM leaders of northern extraction whom he described as dealing deceitfully with the MSM. He left to file in his papers with the INEC to register what he called Mega Progressive Peoples Party- which remains in process. Subsequent developments tends to justify Shitta-Bey’s action. Whatever was left of the MSM resolved to go ahead and form a new party called the Social Democratic Mega Party – which registration is also under way. The MSM still led by Chief Olu Falae still left its doors open to those who may change their minds to return to the fold; and to other progressive forces who are yet to decide.
In fact, the Muhammadu Buhari’s CPC finally wrote the NDM that they will, under no circumstances merge with any other Party-including the MSM; although they never really inform the MSM of their decision. These are the facts of the case with the ‘Mega Party’ as much as it can be recalled. If opposition Parties are going to be relevant and serve as the hope of the common voters, the failure and malaise of the ‘Mega Party’ as initially conceived must be studied and the right lessons must be learnt. What are these defects or failure?
It was very obvious that the initiators of the MSM as altruistic as they seemed, were never really trusted by many of those who pretended to embrace the idea. If Chief Olu Falae had been able to jump out of his skin to demonstrate his openness, it would still have been difficult for the doubting Thomases to believe him – and this is due to no fault of his. To those with discerning minds, there was always a ting of fear, of distrust and perhaps of superiority complex between and among the top leaders of the MSM/NDM. And the causes of these feelings are to be found in ethnic, religious and regional differences as the core factors. These factors gave birth to the NDM in the first place, even if some would disagree
The second factor that weakened the MSM was the ambition of the leading characters who formed the NDM. There is no way the presidential ambitions of Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar could be hidden and at strategic points in the process, they plead against themselves to the detriments of the unity of opposition parties. The tripartite accusation of betrayal between Buhari, Atiku and Bafarawa is a testimony of their vaunting ambitions and the clashing of thereof
The third factor is the presumption on the part of the MSM initiator as if all Nigerian opposition leaders are of the same level of understanding or ideological inclination. When therefore many NDM/MSM leaders fall short of expectation, disappointment sets in, leading to the failure of the process. It is to these enumerated factors more than anything else, even far away from whatever the PDP was able to do, that disrupted the process of an emerging national ‘Mega Party’ of our dream. Before the MSM/NDM, there was the Nigerians United for Democracy, NUD first led by Chief Enahoro and now by Dr. Tunji Braithwaite. There is the fragmented Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP with Balarabe Musa, Olapade - Agoro and Maxi Okwu holding a part each. The four year old Coalition for New Nigeria, CNN is still struggling to survive. And the new entrant, the Save Nigeria Group, SNG, and perhaps some others.
Now the question: Why has it been difficult to forge unity and sustain a country-wide organization that could challenge and defeat the occultist group which controls the centre? Lack of common property of nationhood; all others are subsidiary causes. To make project-Nigeria work and work well, the polity must be organized and restructured on ethno-geographical basis. To continue with the present structures and system and expect a different result is to tread on the path of insanity. Nothing wobbles to victory-nothing!