Evils of Complacency in Politics

BY ABIODUN KOMOLAFE

Oftentimes, intrigues exist in political matrixes. Concepts such as political mass participation, collective demands, group identity and determination, as well as collateral damage could all mean different things to different people. It only depends on which side of the divide the definer pitches his or her tent. This unrestricted latitude and privilege to operationalize concepts and political ideas (especially in Nigeria) with a ‘sidon look’ response from the masses breed complacency on the part of the political gladiators. The salient issue, however, is that a little divergence from the standard definition or central course gnaws on both the integrity and legitimacy of the political institution.

Complacency comes in a surreptitiously slow-but-seamless manner. It doesn’t make noise even as it rubs in on people with definitive exactitude. Political activists become complacent when they are no longer thinking with the people when they think they know it all, and when they are eventually disconnected from the people. A discernible disconnect between the people and the political party is always in a spiral form, thereby making it problematic to actually curb, or control. The central rule is: never take the people for granted! Political party is about the people, and for the people; not the people for the political party! To this end, the leadership of any party must stop thinking for the people, but with the people. These are the issues!

Once upon a time in Nigeria’s chequered history, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) was indeed a national party. During the 2nd Republic, NPN was the party to beat while other political parties appeared like Lilliputians. As time went by, Nigerians began to see it as a party of the elite, the powerful and the rich. So, the mass of the people, who obviously constituted the majority, started leaving the ‘One Nation, One Destiny’ arrangement because, to them, they had nothing to show for being committed members of the party. After all, if you’re a politician of the NPN hue, you must be rich; otherwise, you’re just being used as cannon fodder. The perception went through the masses and it was well-received. Since politics is a game of numbers, the mass of the people left NPN – unknown to the party – for other political parties that showed some empathy towards the masses and the downtrodden.

Whereas, Obafemi Awolowo’s Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) was determined to give the people, especially, the children of the poor ‘Free Education’, NPN started talking about ‘qualitative education’, which meaning was lost to the deaf ears of the masses. As far as they were concerned, what’s the meaning of ‘Qualitative Education’ when somebody else was ready to offer ‘Free Education’? In their opinion, that’s one sure way of deviating from the central theme of a political party. Thenceforth, complacency tampered with the destiny of NPN and its life never remained the same again! Sad, therefore, that the once-national party insisted on losing its vital contents! Ultimately, disintegration became its lot even before the military struck on December 31, 1983, and cleared whatever remained of NPN as a political party.

There was also a time when the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) boasted that it would be in power for the next fifty years.

As fate would have it, Nigerians are now witnesses to what has become of its fortunes as a result of complacency, particularly, on the part of its leaders. Take, for instance, the time it was in Nigeria when every nook and cranny of the country was overstuffed with the ‘Umbrella’ men: strong in structure and texture, and powerful in shape and size! It was such a rich, national party that it was at a time assumed to be the biggest party in Africa. To its handlers, power was a personal property that could last forever even as they had forgotten that ‘disservice power is like power thrown away.’ For the once-thriving party, the rest is history! Labour Party (LP) came recently, allegedly, from nowhere, only to help put a ‘dying-slowly’ lid on the hope of the hitherto formidable party!

When PDP came, the general thinking was that the party would have learnt a lesson or two from its forebears because, in terms of structure and configuration, PDP and NPN were Siamese twins from the same father, the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) of old; but, unfortunately, they went the same way! Now, and in our very eyes, PDP is disintegrating! Since the focus of its leadership is no longer the people but what each leader and/or handler can covet and convert to personal advantages, is it any wonder that members of the same political family are now fighting over positions? Aren’t they fighting over, even monetising privileges and personalised perks of office?

•Abiodun Komolafe wrote in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State.

•Continues online at www.thewillnigeria.com