A new political culture

From January 24 to 26, 2016, political heavyweights from across Nigeria and Africa gathered at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja, for the National Political Summit (NPS) with the theme ‘2015 General Election: Consolidating the Gains and Building Positive Political Culture for Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria’. The summit, convened by Save Democracy Group (SDG)-Africa, was aimed at propagating positive conducts, such as the culture of honesty in political context, nonviolent and peaceful conducts during campaigns and elections, non-use of profane language during campaigns, and restricting the major actors to issue-based campaign devoid of name-calling.

It was the thinking of the summit conveners that, given the outcome of the 2015 general election, elections cannot continue to be won through the old order of imposing candidates on the people. They also believed that to sustain democracy, there was the need for political parties to imbibe absolutely the principles of internal democracy. The summit was, therefore, an avenue to elucidate on the need to uphold the principle of internal democracy for all political parties.

In a communiqué released after the summit, the delegates called on the National Assembly to include recommendations of the National Conference 2014 report in its ongoing constitution review as well as include the Justice Muhammad Uwais’ Electoral Committee recommendations in the country’s Electoral Act to improve the integrity of the electoral process. The summit challenged civil society organisations to assume their responsibility in promoting democratic process, including election observation and transparent use of public resources, and also asked members of the political class/leadership to eschew politics of bitterness and work in harmony with all stakeholders to strengthen bonds of national unity.

We commend the initiative and the avowed goals of the summit. We, however, share the scepticism being expressed by some Nigerians. We note with dismay that all we appear to be doing over the years has been to point out the problems of this country without coming out with any solution. We have a way of dancing around. From 1999 till date, this country has witnessed all manner of summits, conferences and workshops on the nation’s problems, yet we have seen no changes; instead, things are going from bad to worse.

Indeed, we daresay that we do not need to be told what our problems are. Nobody is in doubt about where our problem as a nation lies; we are only interested in getting solutions.

We are also pained that a good number of those at the summit were old politicians whom we can describe as part of the problem of this country by virtue of the roles they played in the past. The question now is: what are such persons bringing to the table?

It is on this note that we express fears that the summit might end up another wild goose chase. With the recommendations left at the mercy of the National Assembly, what hope do we have that the desired goal will be achieved? Is it possible, for instance, that federal lawmakers can make themselves irrelevant by implementing or adding into the constitution the recommendation that Nigeria should consider the option of a unicameral legislature?

We have been through this path before and urgently need a new orientation on how to go about the business of politics in this country. In an era of change, we can do with a whole lot of new thinking. We cannot continue with politics as usual if we ever hope to make progress as a nation.