There have been a lot of political chants about "change" as well as "transformation" by the members of the All Progressives Congress and the People's Democratic Party respectively. They both form the two dominant political parties of the multiparty system practiced in Nigeria today. Nigerians have aligned themselves consciously as well as unconsciously with both political parties. It’s a welcome development given the history of apathy, distrust and negligence that has marred the electoral system over time. Suddenly, the electorates are becoming so vibrant; they have assumed their constitutional roles of being kingmakers. The recently concluded presidential elections that ushered in General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) is a political warning shot to all public office holders. It restored the power and dignity of the ballot box.
The hopes of Nigerians have been raised with the APC appearing out of the blues as messiahs of the masses. A careful research on the members of both dominant parties namely PDP and APC will generate the conclusion that the same people who have plotted the graph of backwardness of the country have only come under a new name to foster their nefarious acts. It’s still the same old story of the PDP being tagged as evil while some of their key members with questionable pasts are adopted by the APC for a new course. The predicted result is the application of the same old values and ideologies to a new political setting which presumably will yield the same outcome as we have had in the past.
In a developed political setting, political parties are founded on strong values and ideologies. Aspiring leaders that share in the same belief system and perspective will join the party that suits their political ideologies. In America today, the mode of operation of a democrat is different from the tactics and techniques of a republican due to the different foundational values inculcated in them by the political parties they belong to. In Nigeria today, the level of maturity of our politicians can be likened to a playground of kids who at the slightest quarrel or distortion of interests join another group to play with sands, kick balls or probably fiddle with insects. This is a blatant show of 'politics of reshuffling'. A case of the same old leaders putting the blame on political parties as if the political parties weren't pioneered by human beings. Human beings dictate the course of every organization. The destiny or development of the organization shouldn't be blamed on the organization as a non-living entity but all the members that made it up. The recent trend of constant defection even on the day of the election only shows the level of selfishness and unseriousness on the path of our so called 'leaders' the younger generation look up to. This is an expression of shame, lack of vision as well as conscience. It depicts the fact that our political parties are not bounded by different ideologies and the members can't boast of a single political philosophy that will guide their administrations when they get into office. The bitter truth is that defection has been made easier since the political parties and their members in Nigeria share a common dominant political ideology and philosophy which is the desperate will for political power as a gateway to wealth through massive corruption. This is a common endemic nature of man who loves to amass wealth indiscriminately while in a state of nature as painted by Thomas Hobbes before the state became regularized by governance.
The present practice is different from what was obtainable in the First Republic when leaders like late Sir Ahmadu Bello, the late Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe and the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the founding fathers of the nation, who were guided by ideologies with which they laid the foundation for the development of their regions and Nigeria at large. These were intellectual men of dignity that had a cause and formed a movement to pioneer it. Great men with the future of the country in their hearts. An ardent follower of politics in Nigeria who experience
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