2023 and hysterical text and talk

Monday Column By Hameed M. Bello, PhD

hamdbelo@yahoo.co.uk

The 2023 general elections are just about 340 days away, and the two major political parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are already closing in-house ranks to gain comparative advantage in the contest for who wins most of the states and  the centre. And with the new Electoral Law 2022 coming into effect after the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, late February adjusted the 2023 general election timetable earlier released in 2021, the stage is fully set for another intense politicking, horse trading and in some quarters betrayal, sabotage and even clandestine anti-party activities which have become regular features in our political experience since independence in 1960.

The electoral umpire, INEC, has released a new election timetable signifying that the election is fixed and drawing nearer. INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu on Saturday February 25, 2022 said that the Presidential and National Assembly elections will now hold on February 25, 2023 while the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections will hold two weeks later on Saturday 11th March 2023. Professor Yakubu said the Commission decided to adjust the dates of the 2023 General Election to ensure compliance with the provisions of the new law. There is no going back as far as INEC is concerned.

With this reality confronting politicians, especially those in the opposition who are poised to wrest power from the incumbent APC government, we have started seeing manipulative texts and talk that are highly ideological and self serving. The tone and mood of the hysterical text and talk flowing from key opposition figures are, on their face value, objective but suggest a discreet promotion of enlightened self interest in the bid to gain power and control.

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is not known to be a joker whenever he makes comments about political contest in which he has an interest. Give it to him – he has earned for himself the image of a hardcore democrat who believes that in the pursuit of political power, the end necessarily justifies the means. He gives it his all. Last week, the former Vice President,  Atiku Abubakar warned his party men that another eight years of  the PDP remaining in the  opposition may lead to  the death of the party. Atiku was the candidate of the PDP in the 2019 presidential election. He tasked the Board of Trustees  (BoT) members and key figures of the  party to work very hard to ensure victory for the party in the next year’s general elections. He expressed the fears during a consultative meeting he held with members of the (BoT) of the PDP in Abuja. As it is often said in our local parlance, there is no smoke without fire. So, what could have prompted Atiku’s fears of a potential loss of his party in 2023? Could his party be facing real or imagined threats of defeat necessitating his challenge to his party men to sit up? Or his comments were mere political experiment to take advantage of the event where he spoke and gain control? Politicians are fond of doublespeak in public to present themselves as the underdog in order to harvest from the emotional and sentimental capital of their audience.

At a separate event, the Chairman of the PDP governors’ Forum, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal also last week called on leaders and members of the party to unite and work as an indivisible team to be victorious in the 2023 election. Tambuwal, the Governor of Sokoto State said this during an interactive meeting he held with the states chairmen of the PDP last Wednesday in Abuja. He described the PDP as the party to beat in next year’s general elections, and as presidential aspirant himself, he harped on the determination of the party to rescue Nigeria. “Our party stands a very good chance, our party is the party to beat in Nigeria today”, he said. The presupposition in Tambuwal’s comment is that the PDP is not united hence the clarion call for members to unite to brighten their chances of winning election. Tambuwal’s caution sounded like Atiku’s with an additional slant that the PDP is the party to rescue Nigeria. Beyond these manipulative discourses, there seems to be an unspoken desperation of the PDP to regain power having suffered eight years of losing it at the centre, while the APC in turn will not stop at anything to maintain its strong hold on power. On the other hand, the APC is in dilemma in respect of the conflicting interests around the choice of a National Chairman at the convention billed to hold March 26. The tension between some governors and party chieftains over control of party machineries is a potential landmine that threatens the unity and cohesion of the APC ahead the polls.

Yet another snag is the high cost of nomination form for political contest into elective offices across parties. For instance, the PDP has pegged the price of its presidential forms at N40 million. The party has also fixed forms for governorship at N21 million, Senate, N3.5 million, House of Representatives, N2.5 million, House of Assembly, N600,000.

These were part of the decisions taken at the National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting of the PDP held last week in Abuja. The high cost of the forms seems to be an elite conspiracy to politically exclude the youth and women who may not be able to afford them. This is contrary to “Not To Young to Rule” bill passed into law in May 2018. The high cost of the forms is also in conflict with the women empowerment initiatives at different levels. Political parties ought to take a second look at this policy to make way for more women and youh participation in governance so that we can bridge the gap of unequal power relation in governance. It will be a win-win situation if more youths are encouraged to participate in political process because it will minimize some of the social crisis we see from time to time. This does not however happen by simply transferring power to the youth on the platter of gold.

They should be able to mobilize energies to transform their numerical strength into political gains by joining political parties of their choice.

As the Kaduna state governor Nasiru El Rufai once said at a function, the youths will be making a mistake if they think the old breed will freely transfer power to them. He charged the youth to join political parties of their choice, engage in convincing campaigns and run for political offices as team players.