By Jaye Gaskia
Let me begin by stating here that I am writing about the general principles of our political processes as it is currently, and not directly about program of the contending political parties and social formations.
Nevertheless, whether left or right, and political force aiming to participate in the political process, under the current set of parameters, must understand these parameters, and utilise this knowledge in driving it’s organising and mobilising, otherwise, the political project is inherently imperiled.
We run a presidential system of government, which requires that in order to be able to govern one must not only win and control the executive arm – the presidency; but also control or have considerable leverage, authority, and or influence in the legislature – the National Assembly.
Second, however imperfect, we are also a Federation, which means that one must strive to control, have leverage over, and or have considerable influence on the subnational governments – in this case both the governors (executive) and legislature (state assemblies) of the state government.
Third, we do not have provisions for independent candidacy; to run for office one must belong to a political party. It is the political parties who field candidates. The implication of this is that the control and leverage and or influence a president requires to govern successfully, requires that the party of the president have a majority of national assembly seats, state governorships, and state assembly seats; or at least the president’s party if and where it does not have such a majority, can depend on a workable alliance with other parties that will enable him to muster a majority.
Now given the nature of politics in general, and our politics in particular, constructing political alliances requires compromises, and the give and take that is necessary to achieve a workable consensus.
All of the preceding conditions become even more important if one claims that one is on a mission to alter the governance process in some fundamental or significant manner; or at least to make far reaching changes.
Being able to govern, or effective governance requires that policies will have to be designed and developed; the implementation of which requires legislative action and institutional actions – either to make new laws, establish new institutions, or reform existing laws and or institutions.
More importantly, because we operate a system of checks and balances; although it is the prerogative of the executive to make plans, including investment plans, and to implement these plans; it is nevertheless the prerogative of the Legislature to appropriate the funds that the executive requires in order to execute its plans. Spending without appropriation is spending without authorisation, and it is unconstitutional under our current system.
Furthermore, in politics in general, and in our political processes in particular, winning an election requires having key organisers and Mobilisers across the country; organisers and Mobilisers who have leverage in their communities and their localities, organisers who cannot only mobilise mass support for their party and its candidates across board, but who are also able to convince ordinary citizens and members of their communities in their localities to support, in turn mobilise support for, and vote for their party and candidates across the board.
This is why parties across the world invest in identifying, recruiting and constantly developing the capacity of core party cadres, and tens and hundreds of thousands of core party organisers.
Although this is an elementary practical necessity, in Nigeria in particular, these core cadreship are made up of a hierarchy of political principals, who are lifelong loyalists of their successive layer of principals, who thus control and manage, concentric cycle like, a network of patronage, and line of loyalty right down to the ward and family level in communities.
To effectively challenge and upset such a network and organic structure of dependence and control, one requires to build a Mass Movement of Solidarity, that is organised, disciplined, and cohesively structured and large enough, and that is made up of committed cadres, and organisers, who are able to demystify the existing structures with convincing, coherent, and clear messaging, and who understand that the task of winning over the mass of the people is a marathon, that it is painstaking, and that it is thankless; but who also understand the necessity not to alienate the ordinary people either with their abrasive language, their generalizing demonization of anyone who holds a contrary opinion, and through their (condescending, dismissive, and disdainful) attitude with respect to ordinary people.
This requires that we must build a Mass political movement with at least significant organised and structured presence across the country, even if not yet a dominant influence. A Mass Political Movement that proclaims Radical, Revolutionary Social Transformation as its goal, must be a political movement capable of fielding its own cadres and members for elective positions across the country; or must be at the head of a political alliances that fulfil the same conditions.
Now, in the absence of this condition, and under the current circumstances as we have now; to effectively challenge the status quo will require one to be deliberately and intentionally revolutionary, and run an insurgentic campaign, one whose ultimate objective is to precipitate a Revolutionary crises that can upset and upturn the current system, and create a more or less immediate enabling environment for the eventual revolutionary reconstitution of the polity.
The other alternative is to be deliberately and intentionally disruptive, to run a disruptive campaign, one whose Ultimate end can only be in establishing a political crisis and stalemate, an ungovernable situation that disrupts the establishment, at least for a while, but that fails to undermine the system, and or precipitate its collapse and reconstitution.
One only needs to look at the farce playing out on the floor of US Congress on Capitol Hill, with the actions of the disruptive band of 20 Far Right Republican Party members, and the consequent inability of the Congress to elect a Speaker, and the paralysis of Congress rendering it for the moment non-functional, for an example of the full extent of a disruptive strategy.
On a final note, because it matters, it is also important to understand that within the context of the foregoing, a political endorsement of any candidate, by any ‘political heavyweight ‘ is consequential only to the extent that the alignment of forces is such that huge networks of the respective machineries of the hierarchy of political principals are favourably convergent on the candidate being endorsed; or alternatively, that such an endorsement can tip the balance in the convergence of a majority of such networks behind the candidate being endorsed. It is only in this sense that any endorsement can be consequential.
The current situation with the Labour Party and its presidential candidate is not in any way similar to, or even close to the situation of the APC in 2015, or the PDP in 2011.
At the moment, what is happening is a deliberate deception, concocted not only to deceive the youth, but to also play the messiah after the imminent bursting of the bubble
The lesson for anyone with any genuine interest in the transformation of our country, in the radical overhaul of governance and its processes in our country; is to understand that there is no solution in messianism, and that upsetting the establishment, and overturning the status quo requires the painstaking work of building mass political movement rooted in the grassroots, and the sincere commitment to the task at hand, and conviction about the necessity of the task.
Wishful thinking, and dismissive attitude to the scale and scope of the task ahead can only end in disillusionment.
And although the APC and PDP, along with their smaller subsidiaries, are primarily the main parties responsible for the ruination of our country, and we can therefore not be looking up to them for real solutions; nevertheless it is illusory to build the edifice of their rejection and ouster on the foundation of lifelong members and partisans of these parties, who only recently defected from their parties because they lost or were going to lose in their respective party primaries.
Just as it is also an illusion to assume that the coming elections will be decided through magic and not mobilising, through wishful thinking, and not through voting.
