By Comrade Ogbu A. Ameh writes from Akatekwe Kingdom of Owukpa in Ogbadibo LGA Benue state
Onwaters2011@gmail.com
Political party as a constitutional recommended and recognized social political association formed by citizens based on common aims and objectives anchored on ideology has long been turned on its head in Nigeria and Africa in general. In the First Republic, smarting from amalgamation to protectorates and consequently regionalism, the political elites toed the line of ethnic, religious and regional cleavages in party formations across the country.
The Second Republic jettisoned Parliamentary system of democracy for the American Presidential model amidst low political culture and primordial sentiments that are vestiges of social cultural and religious diversity of a heterogeneous society like Nigeria. Our variant of democracy right from the outset was the negative type that trapped the people and country in knowledge deficits. Development that ought to be synonymous with democracy eludes us on the altar of manipulations by politicians through ethnic and religious symbols waving during elections.
It is on this trajectory that we find successive political parties rooted strongly in one part or the other inching into another parts to gain national presence as required by the constitution and interpreted by laws of the electoral body. However, the regional, ethnic and religious undertones always dominate the power balance and control of each political party. So, invoking the political tradition of the First Republic in Nigeria, I averred that the South East political elites lost track and good sense of history as they grope in political wilderness since the Second Republic.
The succeeding generations of political elites in the South East are bunch of opportunists and apologists of Northern Oligarchs. Their misadventures in the political arena spilled over negatively on their folk in the commerce and trade business to demoralize their enterprising and entrepreneurial acumen. They helped to turn on its head the core Republican Spirit, ethos and values of the Igbo race. In the same anvil, they conspired to frustrate the founder and leader of APGA; Chief Chekwas Okorie. APGA, as a political party would have been the rallying political Centre of the Ndi Igbo in its quest to push for the presidency in a general election in Nigeria.
However, the latter-day opportunists and apologists Neo- political elites who are bereft of political ideology and irredentist consciousness truncated its potentiality. They lost it and the zone lives to pay the price as long as its political elites choose to play second fiddle to politicians from other geo-political zones in Nigeria. In the typical characteristics of playing second fiddle, Chief Nkire rallied South-East politicians to join APC now. He made this appeal in a statement issued in Abuja when congratulating the former Senate President Ken Nnamani for his emergence as the leader of the party in the South- East zone.
Another apologist declaration follows on its heels that Three South- East Governors set to leave PDP for APC. At the South- east Stakeholders meeting in Owerri, Governor Rochas Okorocha said he has been in touch with the said Governors. He assured that they would declare their membership for APC soon. This is a typical recurrent decimal that kept the Ndi Igbo of the South East perpetually as the second fiddler in the conversation of quest for the presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria since Independence. Former Senate President Ken Nnamani in a statement admonished that, since the South East lacked control of the media like the South West and the political hegemony of the North, the only option is to cross carpet en mass to APC. This conclusion is a reflection of lack of internal cohesion necessary for formidable political dominance in a country like Nigeria. It shows the inherent lack of ideological leaning characteristic of political party politics in Africa and Nigeria in particular.
Comrade Ameh writes from Akatekwe Kingdom of Owukpa in Ogbadibo LGA Benue state. He can be reached via the email: Onwaters2011@gmail.com
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