The end of Nigerian political parties, by Dele Sobowale

“A political party deserves the approbation of the American people only as it represents the ideals, the aspirations and hopes of Americans. If it is anything else, it is merely a conspiracy to seize power” – US President Dwight Eisenhower, 1890-1969.

I strongly believe that a Nigerian political party deserves to be called one only if it serves the needs of Nigerians for food, security, housing, health services, infrastructure, employment, and, above all, hope for the future.

Right now, none of the contraptions – ADC, APC, APGA, SDP, PDP etc – meets that basic requirement.

In fact, nothing reveals how totally self-centred the nation’s political class has become than the ease with which people move from one “conspiracy to seize power” to another.

In no other country worldwide pretending to be a democracy based on multi-party system can one observe this demonstrable lack of principle or integrity as in Nigeria.

If asked to point to the thing which renders hope elusive, my first answer will be lack of truly honest and patriotic leadership.

Everybody comes into office with their own cabals – which is another definition for an extortion ring masquerading as office holders.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM

“What’s in a name?” – William Shakespeare, 1564-1616.

A few weeks ago, I got published an article on this page titled, PRESIDENCY 2027: IF NOT TINUBU, WHO ELSE?

Among the points not raised in that article, but very pertinent now, is the fact that all the leading aspirants for the 2027 presidential election, Tinubu included, have one thing in common. They have all been members of several political parties; which they discarded when expediency and self-interest dictated.

Tinubu started with AD; moved to AC, ACN and finally landed in APC. Atiku started as one of the Founding Fathers of the PDP; he moved to ACN, returned to PDP; went to APC; returned to PDP and is now in ADC. Obi started in APGA; went to PDP; left for LP and is now straddling PDP and ADC. 

The first and most obvious question to all of them is: Which of the parties with which they were previously affiliated represented the ideals, aspirations and hopes of the Nigerian people?

The second question is: Why did you defect from that party?

Given the fact that in most multi-party democracies, different political parties present different approaches to governance, providing voters with clear choices, it is difficult to imagine how any principled politician could be comfortable in three parties in less than a generation and still expect to be believed by the people.

America provides us with examples of what should happen in a democratic society in which politicians are not just hustling to seize power and the national wealth. Donald Trump was US President at the same time Buhari was Nigerian President.

No single Democratic Party member defected.

Buhari was still President when Biden was elected. Again, no single member of the Republican Party crossed carpeted.

By contrast, each presidential election, since 1979 till today, has resulted in mass defection to the president’s party by people elected on the platform of other political parties.

Nigerian politicians, almost all shameless and lacking in integrity, have made mandate robbery a recurring crime.

Certainly, the same thing would have happened if either Atiku or Obi had been declared the winner.

Very few would have remained in APC.

CONSEQUENCES OF POLITICAL CORRUPTION

“Every country has the government it deserves” – Joseph De Maistre, 1753-1821.

Nigeria cannot develop because we generally tolerate dishonesty – as long as it is perpetrated by those we like and whose lack of integrity favours us.

An elected official who secured the job by presenting a forged certificate is either a heinous criminal or being hounded by critics or opponents; depending on whether we are indirect beneficiaries of the scam.

The National Assembly, NASS, parades several members with cases which have been bottled up by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and a generally complaisant judiciary which would employ any technicality available to subvert substantive justice.

Their prime accomplices are leading legal luminaries, the Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SANs, who would deploy all the tactics, fair and foul, to ensure that justice is never done – if the price is right.

President Buhari raided the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to the tune of N30 trillion without approval from the NASS and, till today, neither the Senate President nor the Speaker, or for that matter any NASS member, at the time has ever condemned that gross violation of the Constitution they swore to uphold. 

Rampart subversion of the Nigerian Constitution at all levels of government, by elected officials, that lawmakers in general can justifiably be regarded as outlaws – irrespective of political affiliation.

Since lawlessness has become the norm, one must wonder which political party they claim at any point in time.

The atrocities committed under one party would naturally be carried to the new party.

Because APC is the new magnet drawing all sorts of dubious characters, one might as well ask: In what manner has any of the governors who decamped from PDP altered their approach to governance?

Unless I am mistaken, there has been no discernible difference in their leadership style.

That is understandable; because the defection was not based on anything other than expediency and fear. Unfortunately Nigerians have a bleak future in front of us.

NO GREAT NATION IS LED BY POLITICAL COWARDS

“A nation of sheep will soon have a government of wolves.”

That wise observation describes the Nigerian situation today. Governments and law enforcers (Police, DSS, EFCC, LASTMA, FRSC, etc) at every level behave as if the Constitution does not exist.

The federal and state legislatures no longer pretend to be independent arms of government.

Instead everybody has become part of the conspiracy to seize power and to share wealth without work. Irrespective of the political party, Ministers and Commissioners are seldom appointed based on competence and character, but, to serve the financial and political interests of their principals.

Poor performance is not sanctioned by the Chief Executive, president or governor, because the appointees merely fill a slot in a political game.

Recent merger of political parties started, as all terrible things, with the Obasanjo-led Peoples Democratic Party which went about swelling its ranks by poaching willing elected members of the opposition.

The short-sighted leaders of the PDP were not wise enough to understand that no aspect of life moves in a straight line.

More often than not, life is a boomerang.

The weapon they unleashed for sixteen years is now being used to destroy their party.

People like my childhood friend, Bode George, who held up the hands of defectors in those days, now cast a pathetic figure as they recede into political irrelevance.

If there any evidence needed that the black man is a slow learner, the eagerness with which the APC had embraced the failed PDP strategy for expansion is it.

Today, there is no single member of APC who is not a former member of another party – mostly the PDP.

Yet, this nation of sheep, which had grown steadily poorer, since 1999, is still being led by the people who ruined the country while they became richer.

Even with 2027 so far away, the sheep are already being herded to the slaughter house by the wolves – who certainly don’t care about their welfare.

So what is the use of having political parties; when the choice is between oblivion and ruin for the masses?

GUARD DOGS, MAD DOGS AND SECURITY OFFICERS

“Brute force without wisdom falls by its own weight” – Horace, 65-8 BC, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 63

Governors of states in a democracy are supposed to behave like guard dogs – those well-trained beasts which can discern real from imagined threats.

Those highly intelligent animals don’t attack people passing by simply because they don’t like their looks.

Mad dogs, on the other, hand will savage anybody within biting distance – including the owners of the property.

We have read stories of dogs mauling toddlers of their owners.

Many Nigerian governors, transient occupiers of the seat of government, apparently lack the insight and wisdom to determine when their actions imperil the security of life and freedoms constitutionally guaranteed to the people who permanently own Government House.

On Sunday, August 3, 2025, every newspaper in Nigeria carried the story of Niger State Governor Bago’s assault on the Nigerian Constitution by ordering the closure of Radio Badeggi and ordering demolition of the building.

All the papers not only condemned the order, but, each of them added other instances where the same governor had once again reminded us that: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton, 1834-1902). 

On display here was delirium of absolute power in the hands of someone obviously erratic and bereft of the wisdom to use the power for the good of society.

The good people of Niger State have my sympathies.

It is not easy for people to have hope for the future when their lives are yoked to such leaders; who, after failing badly to provide food, security, education and health services, resort to naked use of power. 

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