Intraparty battles prevalent among Nigeria political Parties may seem like a game and a harmless exercise , but it is indeed costly to the Nigeria state. The number one casualty is governance which often takes a backseat to intraparty feuding. Does anybody really think that governance has taken place in River state since the man-made political machination started between two Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) factions, New PDP and PDP. Five State legislatures tried to impeach the speaker. How can five legislatures carry out impeachment when you have total of 31 legislatures. The last time I checked, five is not equal to 2/3 of 31 which is the constitutional required number for impeachment. River State governor has not concentrated on his job since this crisis started to the detriment of River state citizens. There is a saying that When elephant fights, the grass suffers. The elephants here are the political gladiators and the grass are the citizens of River state.
Faction of PDP called the New PDP are now making demands such as asking president Goodluck Jonathan to call off Economic and Financial Crime Commission ( EFCC) investigation of their governors as one of the preconditions for peace. How can any president who is serious about curtailing corruption agree to such a demand. Agreeing to such demand will be wholesale abdication of his constitutional responsibility considering the fact that corruption is the greatest obstacle to Nigeria development.
Corruption which has eaten deep into the fabric of Nigeria cannot be fully confronted when the governing party are feuding among themselves. Most Nigerians know that corruption is widespread in the land and are repulsed by it. Requesting the stoppage of EFCC investigation as precondition for peace is to endorse looting Nigeria treasury with impunity. They may well succeed if they keep the presidency preoccupied with intraparty fights since corruption thrives under chaos. Intraparty feud is not peculiar to PDP. All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) has been fighting among themselves for years now and same applies to other parties.
Democracy is another casualty of the intraparty squabbles. Democracy cannot fully take root in a country where political parties which is suppose to be one of the pillars of democracy is in perpetual crisis It confuses the citizens and creates cynicism among the electorate who overtime looses faith in government institutions and democracy itself. Military regimes took advantage of the instability to conduct endless coups that kept in power for 30 years out of the 53 years of Nigeria independence.
Intraparty battles sometimes morph into ethnic and religious battles. Such scenario is dangerous for a country like Nigeria with over 250 ethnic groups. Some politicians turns into demagogue by whipping up ethnic and religious sentiments when it suits their purpose.
Intraparty feud among Nigeria political parties should be taken seriously. It usually start when a powerful politician in position of responsibility tries to impose his or her will on the rest of the party members. It could be a governor or president trying to perpetuate himself or herself in power by seizing party machinery in charge of conducting the party’s primary election. The end result is that they manipulate the process and emerge the party’s nominee with little input from the party members. Such manipulation usually result in a backlash by opposing forces which gradually leads to party fragmentation and eventual split into two or more factions. The only remedy for intraparty primary battles is to hand over the conduct of all political party’s primary elections to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who conducts national and state elections. Party members will have more confidence in primary election conducted by INEC which will be seen as an independent body. Politician who emerges from the primaries will have widespread support which will give him or her better shot in the general election. Stabilization of Nigeria political parties is dependent on restoration of confidence in the primary electoral process which can only happen if conduct of party primaries is handed over to a neutral body like INEC. It will be a heavy lift for INEC but they can do the job with sufficient resources.