Once again, many of the terrible rots that have ridden Nigerian body politic and the entire political culture in the country have been exposed and re-enforced by the recent political party primaries election exercise in preparation for the coming 2023 general elections. These incorrigible politicians have indeed elevated their crafty instincts and intrigues to “next-level” in keeping with the promise of the ruling party.  No doubt, the overwhelming mass of Nigerians has been so desensitised by the rotten political culture to the unfortunate extent that nothing seems to shock anymore. To many, the only way to deal with the insanity is to take it as an inglorious seasonal entertainment. And indeed, one must admit that party primary elections could qualify for a tv political soap opera watching these politicians gleefully play and perform their role in the vicious plot to acquire or maintain political power. Allowing oneself to be blissfully entertained by these re-occurring scripted political theatres would not have been so bad in itself if these primaries were just for entertainment.  However, confronting the fact that the unfolding drama of the party primaries is a sobering unfortunate reality with far-reaching implications for the future of the country and the well-being of Nigerians in the coming years hits like a brick. It compels one to realise the real tragedy of it all.

For many that have lost faith in the corrupt political culture, the party primaries did not disappoint. These politicians ensured that they ticked off all the shady items on their inglorious pay-to-play list.  I will spare you all the details but will briefly mention a few.

a) The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) respectively fixed their presidential nomination form fee in the ridiculous amount of 40 million Naira and 100 million Naira. The All Progressives Congress (APC) further clarified that the fee of N100 million for presidential aspirants included 30 million Naira for the expression of interest form and 70 million Naira for the nomination form. And this is in a country where the minimum wage is about 234,000 naira per annum and the Nigerian President earns about 14 million Naira per annum. Despite widespread condemnations, the parties insisted on these outrageous high fees for procuring their presidential nomination forms. It’s ironic that the fee is much higher than the total amount the aspirant would earn as legitimate salaries and allowances throughout the four-year term in office.   In their usual haughty cavalier manner, the ruling party explained that the fee was meant “to separate the men from the boys.”

b) We also witnessed the self-serving manner in which the main political parties conveniently jettison the conventional zoning of the presidency to a particular geopolitical region on a rotational basis that has guided the main political parties in previous general election cycles. The leadership of these parties creatively concocted reasons to deny south-eastern Nigeria its rightful turn of having these major parties pick their preferred presidential candidates for the region. As we know, the idea for a rotational presidency between the geopolitical regions was agreed upon to give every part of the country sense of belonging. This is the first time the main political parties disregarded this agreement in the current political dispensation since 1999 to the utter frustration of the southeast region.

c) There was the blatant horse-trading of votes to the highest bidder that inevitably cast its long dark shadow over the entire process. Most aspirants went to ridiculous extremes to buy the votes of delegates who were only too willing to sell their votes for personal monetary gain, marking a flagrant de-basement of a process meant to elect the best candidates based on competence. This aspect of perverting political contests in Nigeria is not new. However, it beggars belief to imagine the sheer scale of what happened this time that some observers described as ‘obscene monetisation of the contest.’ The claim that the presidential candidates that won the nominations of the APC and PDP respectively offered each delegate as much as 20,000 US dollars to ‘buy’ each vote is widely acknowledged. There were reports that some PDP delegates received as much as 50,000 US dollars from different aspirants hoping to secure their vote. We only have to consider the large number of party officials and delegates involved in these “horse-trading” exercises (about 2,340 APC delegates and 881 PDP delegates – whittled down from 3,700 delegates), to realise the immense scale of the insanity and corruption that have crippled our political institutions.

Consequently, the two main political parties have by design foisted the nomination of old and corrupt as their respective flag-bearers for the coming election.  As such, it seems to guarantee that whichever party wins the 2023 election, Nigeria will still have the old and corrupt in power to sustain the status quo. What a shame. The irony of nominating the old and corrupt in their seventies in a country where the median age is 18 years is not lost on most observers.

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a former senator and governor of Lagos state won the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential ticket, while the former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar won the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ticket for the 2023 general elections.  What do these two have in common? They are both corrupt career politicians with the long ambition of becoming president at all costs. Both have a pervading sense of entitlement to the office to which they expire. They are declining in health and cognitive abilities. Both became stupendously rich as public officials and the source of their scandalous wealth remains unclear at best. They both maintain a strangely incoherent family background and history with equally contested personal records (age, education, employment & work, etc.). Both represent the perpetuation of the corrupt Nigerian political class that constitutes a significant part of our leadership problem.   Therefore, the nomination of the old and corrupt re-enforces all that is wrong with the Nigerian leadership culture.  It is inconceivable that any of them is capable of leading the needed change of direction we yearn for in Nigeria.

However, something else infinitely more important happened. The growing rejection of the corrupt status quo by Nigerian youths watching incredulously the unfolding mockery of party primaries by politicians reached a critical point. Having heard and seen enough, they could no longer afford to stand idly on the side lines.  As events will have it, Peter Obi emerged as the flag-bearer of the Labour party and the dam finally broke for good.

The former governor of Anambra state Peter Obi intended to contest for the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but resigned his membership of the party after complaining of massive bribing of delegates and vote buying that marked the party’s presidential primary.  He moved over to the Labour Party and was unanimously adopted to become their presidential flag-bearer for the 2023 general elections. It has galvanised a movement in rejection of the corrupt status quo towards individuals that could rein sanity to the current morbid political landscape in Nigeria.  Ever since, there has been an increasing groundswell of support for him, especially among the youths and diverse disaffected elements across the political spectrum.  The ground-swell of support is increasingly evident in social media, street marches and protests by the youths. Consequently, this movement is gaining traction by the day. It is rather undeniable that Peter Obi has tapped into something real. There is a lot of excitement and energy around his aspiration to win the 2023 election and sanitise governance in Nigeria. What an irony? Peter Obi is from the Southeast, and the Labour party was previously a minor political party.

As an individual, Peter Obi represents everything that the old and corrupt political class is not. Obi is much younger, more educated and more capable than any of these nominated old and corrupt. Obi has a proven track record of frugal, transparent and result-oriented leadership style as a state- governor. He communicates directly and unambiguously with a humble, unassuming, down-to-earth personality. There is no doubt, that he has captured the imagination of many.  For the very first time, a nationwide movement is being mobilised around an individual to challenge the existing major political party platforms in Nigeria.  Hopefully, this movement would herald the needed fundamental reset in Nigeria. A desperately needed urgent reset to reignite the dying soul of Nigeria, resuscitate her fading, weak pulse and hopefully hold in place the current collapsing structures to creatively reimagine a more viable nation-state construct that works for the interest of all. Given that our problems are much more fundamental than the choice of presidential candidates in general elections, this movement must look beyond the 2023 general election whether Peter Obi wins the election or not. The enormity of the problems confronting the Nigerian state and the extent of the Nigerian state dysfunction is far greater than what any individual elected into a public office can solve. Therefore, we must begin to properly contextualise the current movement around Peter Obi within the framework of seeking far-reaching answers to our current fundamental national question crisis.

Actualising the electoral victory of Peter Obi in the coming 2023 presidential election would only represent the real beginning of the struggle to build a better country. The movement should seize the moment to define and broaden its goal.  It must begin to articulate the far-reaching structural and systemic change we need and be able to mobilise towards actualising it.  Whatever the result of the 2023 election, it is remarkable that Peter Obi has successfully inspired a growing movement toward confronting the enormous challenges ahead. And even more so, Nigerians are increasingly ready to embrace it.   Perhaps, that is the main lesson of the political party primaries of 2022.

By Dr. Okey Ndubueze