Every political system, as every nation, has its uniqueness and its idiosyncrasies. While we have dancing senators and crying governors, others can boast of lying presidents. Our deficit of ideology and surplus of personality cults is legendary. But others have managed to carry ideology to its craziest extremes such having ideological litmus test for judges. What happens to the symbol of blindness as a mark of judicial fairness? We worry whether we will ever develop to a First World status. But some that already attain that status are daily craving our Third World status. How else to understand our desire for and appreciation of democratic norms vis-Ã -vis their attraction to the dictators of our era?
If comparing ourselves existentially with others in these ways make us happy, let us please ourselves. God is not done with us yet, despite our desperate efforts for him to abandon us. However, it makes better sense to take a deep breath and address a few fundamental questions: Who are we? What do we really want in our union? Will we ever develop politically, economically, and morally?
In one of his most insightful comments on the imperative for African development, Nwalimu Julius Nyerere submitted that “we must run while they walk.” In other words, we cannot afford to compare ourselves with those who have achieved First World status. They can indulge themselves. They can afford to slow down. However, if not for them, the development clock is ticking for us. In the beginning of their national journey, they had ensured that the politics that drives the engine of development was well-positioned for the task, with a constitution that was designed to unleash the forces of production in every part of the nation.
The important point from the above is that nations that make it developmentally got their politics right. Yes, every now and then, they may appear to backslide. But the system is resilient enough to auto-correct. From the beginning, their focus was the good of the nation. Take the case of the United States of America, the nation whose constitution we claim to adopt. The founding fathers insisted on a federal constitution even when there were no clearly discernible differences in tongue and tribe. The mere fact of geographical differences between the various states recommended federalism for them. Then they ensured that there were justiciable checks and balances between the various branches of government.
Most importantly, the founding fathers came up with strong laws and statutes that ensured that no one is ever above the law. And the good of the entire nation is the purpose of politics and government. This understanding inspired the most patriotic zeal which bolstered development in every area of national life. It paid that in the early twentieth century, a rival political system, the Soviet Union, challenged the US and thus unleashed a period of economic and military competition that eventually led to the downfall of the former. This strengthened the confidence of the US in its system of government and economics.
What is the ground zero of our national existence? What motivates us as a people? Do we even see ourselves as a people and do we believe in the nation? These are questions that we have not really settled. It appears that at every turn in our checkered history, answers to these questions get determined by whoever is at the helm. We have been consumed with ethnic mistrust and religious bigotry at the expense of national advancement. We have promoted personality cults above national interest. And most importantly, we have elevated materialism and individual interest above everything else. The result is the paralysis in governance and development to the detriment of the poor masses who are forced to massage the ego of depraved politicians for crumbs.
With the question of an adequate constitutional framework unsettled, or settled only with the whim of the strongmen, there is an avoidable absence of a united force of all the peoples for any enduring development agenda for the nation. A federal executive council can decide what it likes based on its understanding of the needs of the nation. How does that get translated into a broad national consensus?
We have seen how that works in the present political setup with the chasm between the National Assembly and the Presidency when infrastructural and federal road projects are debated by the former from the prism of sectional interests. In the case of the insecurity generated by the killer herdsmen across the nation, which has given the Buhari administration a black eye, we see unhealthy interjection of ethnic and religious considerations into what is clearly an economic policy matter.
What is surprising is that everyone knows that this system is not working. Political leaders are aware of the immense growing resentment among the populace. Yet they soldier on with the mindset of a conqueror who cannot be bothered by the complaints of the conquered.
Thus far, this strategy has worked to the delight of those who benefit from it and to the mortification of those who know that the nation can profit from a different approach for various reason. The most fundamental of these reasons, the foundational cause of the curse of the nation thus far, is the influence of money in our politics. On this, other reasons for the failure of our brand of politics to advance the national agenda take their cue.
Money is the root of political evil. While it is an essential lubricant for the political wheel to run smoothly, it could also be a wedge in the smooth running of the wheel. The political system that successfully identifies the intersection between the useful grease and the handicapping logjam effectively achieves desired outcomes for the people.
In what positive ways does money grease political machine? In a well-ordered system, where there is congruence among the various constituents in the matter of national unity and the advancement of national interest, in which political parties are well-attuned to the advancement of the national interest, and they compete for votes to advance same, money could play a useful role.
First, political parties need money for a strong organizational setup at national and state levels. Second, they need money for informational purposes. They need to reach out to the voting public about their programs for the nation. Advertisements on radio and television as well as social media platforms are useful investments for parties to reach the electorate. Political parties also could help the national cause by investing in the political education of their members, including those who desire political offices, as well as the electorates.
In what ways does money clog the wheel of politics negatively? To answer this question adequately, we must go beyond politicians to influence peddlers in general. For the latter are as guilty as the politicians they try to influence. Incidentally this is not unique to our system. The big wealthy men and women who throw their monetary weight behind legislations and policies that benefit them at the expense of the masses are deadly viruses in the organ of the political system. Unfortunately, there is reason for their existence and their effectiveness.
As suggested above, parties need money to organize and to inform. In the absence of an active and paid membership, they depend on big donors who see their contributions as investments which must bring profit sooner or later. When return is not forthcoming after elections, they become irritable and could turn against their beneficiaries. We are not strangers to this. Public funding of parties and candidates plus active and committed membership could help resolve this problem.
There is a more sinister negativity in the choking function of money. Money that buys votes is a foundational curse. A politician that spends fortunes to buy votes is a calculating politician who only invests with a view to a future dividend or profit. The bigger the investment, the bigger the expected anticipated profit. A wise investor in political business knows what offices return what dividends and he or she goes for the most rewarding. Many of our politicians belong to this class of foundational corruption.
The Nation
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