Do Nigerian Political Parties Have Defined Ideologies? By Abiola Solanke

"Do they say they are democrats and they want to contest the next elections and they annulled June 12? We must resist and take control of our future, we must not forget history. We must go back to the basis." - Asiwaju Bola Tinubu - September 6, 2010.

"A lot of our leaders have been there before now; they have seen Nigeria largely and governed the country. We have to look for them as we plan for the future." - Asiwaju Bola Tinubu - November 13th, 2013.

"A political party without a consistent ideological predisposition is like an individual who does not believe in anything, and that is dangerous for the country." - Professor Charles Soludo, former CBN governor.

A Political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence or entirely control government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Ideology is a set of conscious and unconscious ideas that constitute ones goals, expectations and actions (wikipedia). Political parties are thus the platform with which individuals obtain power and hold on to power.

Following the return to democratic rule in 1999, five political parties came into being, of these five parties, two were dominant, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD). The AD metamorphosed into the Action Congress which later became the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Early this year, the opposition parties mainly the defunct ACN, Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and some section of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) merged together as the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Merger Opposition party, All Progressives Congress came into being at a time that Nigerians desperately needed a change from the old order of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but not a few Nigerians believe it was not bound to be different from the PDP on account of the fellows who came together to constitute the party. Also historic was the fact that the party was registered about the same time that some PDP dissidents walked out on the party’s National convention and set up a parallel secretariat.

Many Nigerians hoped that the birth of the APC would give the PDP a good run for its money but unfortunately it has portrayed itself as not being different from the PDP thus shattering the hope of Nigerians for a credible alternative.

All over the world, parties are differentiated based on what they stand for in economic policies, social issues, welfare issues, etc. But in Nigeria, parties are defined based on the personalities in the party and not on any defined ideology to contemporary issues.

The APC has portrayed itself as a party with no clear ideology from the PDP. Truly, a lot of Nigerians are disenchanted with the reign of the PDP in the past fourteen years. The PDP has been regarded as the 'Poverty Development Party', a party of rogues, criminals, thieves, corrupt fellows and all sorts of adjectives have been used to qualify the failure of the party to deliver the dividends of democracy to Nigerians.

By Abiola Solanke, Abeokuta, Ogun State

Sahara Reporters