…Why two-party system is best for Nigeria, by Atiku

The proposed mega party, being promoted by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; former military head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari, and former Sokoto State governor, Alhaji Atahiru Bafarawa, with a handful of other politicians like Chief Olu Falae, is gaining more converts and it does appear that the collaboration to oust incumbent President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua at the presidential poll of 2011 is gaining more fervency.  This story presents a progress report on the emerging political movement and its chances of accomplishing set objectives.

By Jide Ajani, Deputy Editor

At its meeting of Tuesday, October 27, the leadership of the Action Congress, AC, was treated to what could be described as the home truth.  At least, this was the first time in a very long while that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar would be attending such a meeting.

At the meeting was the chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, and some past governors of the South West, including, of course, Niyi Adebayo of Ekiti State and Olusegun Osoba of Ogun State.

Atiku, who had been at the vanguard of the new political movement presently known as the National Democratic Movement, in collaboration with former military head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari, and former Sokoto State governor, Alhaji Atahiru Bafarawa, had some things to tell his colleagues at the AC.

First, Atiku let it be known that a fractured AC, as it stands, cannot withstand a rampaging Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at the polls in 2011. The former vice president, who is the Turaki of Adamawa, said there were lessons that had been learnt as a result of the approach to the 2007 general elections which led to the failure of the AC at the polls and such lessons should guide the preparations for the 2011 elections.

Atiku reminded the leaders of AC  that the new movement was  being formed  with a view to bringing back the country from the brink. That meeting, for  the AC, was to decide whether  it would be viable for the party to collapse into the NDM being proposed or  members and leaders should be allowed to go and join in their individual capacity.

The resolution of the leaders of AC was that since some of its leaders had been invited in their individual capacity, it would not be proper for them not to attend.

To Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State, his position had always been and remained that AC should continue standing alone. To Atiku, that position of solo movement had been overtaken by the present realities of the Nigerian polity.

But it was quite clear that there was a preponderance of views that the AC should join the mega party.
Therefore, at another  meeting of the leaders of NDM in Abuja,  last Wednesday, it was a roll call of ‘who is who’ in the fold of the opposition.  Apart from Atiku, Buhari and Bafarawa, there were Falae, Senator Ben Obi, Senator Olorunimbe Mamora, Alhaji Usman Bugaje and many politicians, both of PDP  and  ANPP extraction.

The presence of Mamora  was a welcome relief to the conveners – he represented Tinubu. In all, there were 72 persons from the six geo-political zones of the country. The meeting set a number of specific objectives which are meant to be accomplished with time lines. Reminding the members of the need to expedite action on the approach, Atiku had this to say in his speech:

“As most of you know, I have been a long-time believer in a two-party system for our country, Nigeria. Multiple parties have led us into two unwholesome but related directions. One is that, often, one of the parties becomes so dominant and intoxicated with power and arrogance that it brings the country to the brink of complete collapse.

From left: Presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples' Party, ANPP, in the 2007 election, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd); former Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa; former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress in the 2007 general election, Professor Pat Utomi at a meeting of the National Democratic Initiative, in Abuja recently. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.

The other, which is often a consequence of the former, is that some of the other parties recoil to become regional parties which exacerbate our regional, ethnic and religious differences. Both of these are dangerous for this country.

“Similarly a one-party system, which seems to be the direction we are headed with the governing PDP, is extremely dangerous for this country. Without a viable opposition party able to challenge for power and to govern, the drift to a one-party state becomes a foregone conclusion, especially with the PDP engineering defections of elected officials from other parties as well as fomenting crisis within them.

A viable opposition party provides a voice for the millions of voiceless citizens and helps hold the government to account. Without a strong opposition party, many of the key demands of our people on this government are unlikely to be met including electoral reforms. And we all know what a drift to a one-party system has produced in places such as Somalia, Zaire, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe, to mention a few.

“Of course a two party-system cannot be decreed into existence as was the case under the military rulers.  Therefore, we, as patriotic democrats concerned about the drift of this country into dangerous waters, can bring it about through negotiations and the requisite hard work and sacrifice.

“That is why a number of us Nigerian leaders have come together to try to build a broad mass-based movement of committed democrats and patriots to save this country from imminent collapse.  We must leave behind a country that our children would be proud of; a country whose best and brightest do not have to run to other countries in order to find good education and well-paying and professionally and personally fulfilling jobs; a country where citizens will be free to move about without the fear of being kidnapped; a country whose leaders understand the centrality of electrical power, education and health in economic development and job and wealth creation; a country whose citizens do not have to take up arms in order to secure justice and equity; a country whose leaders would be found in the company of other world leaders as they try to deal with the key challenges facing the contemporary world.”

Wednesday’s meeting lasted several hours but it was resolved that very urgent steps should be taken to get the party off the ground.

For instance, the Contact and Mobilisation Committee, working with zonal co-ordinators, was given the mandate to go to the states and come up with names of strong politicians who are either aloof, estranged by their political parties or are desperately looking for a veritable platform for politicking.

The zonal coordinators were also mandated to bring into the fold of the NDM upwardly mobile politicians in each of the states with a view to creating a set of new breed politicians whose commitment to and belief in a better Nigeria would be unflinching. Particularly underscored was the need for injection of fresh blood into the party since most of its leaders, as presently constituted, are of the old guard.

It is expected that this assignment should be completed by December.

The leaders of the party also resolved that by January, next year, they should be out in every nook  and cranny of Nigeria, mobilizing the people for the 2011 general elections.
All these were able to come to fruition on account of the pact signed by Atiku, Buhari and Bafarawa to work together.

Included in the pact signed by the three men is the agreement that anybody who would emerge as the candidate of the party for any elective office in the country shall emerge through the process of a free and fair party primary – and this includes election into any of the party offices.

In addition to the three politicians, the group pushing for the emergence of a new political party, which the sponsors insist is with a view to enthroning a new political order, has  20 other very strong members.  The name of the group is G-23.

The G-23, it has also been learnt, is made up of top leaders in the  PDP  as well as ANPP.
A source very close to one of the three politicians disclosed to Sunday Vanguard that “the reason  the three men took their time before going public was because most people had expressed pessimism at the development.
“The pessimism was based on the wrong assumption that the three men are too powerful in their respective rights to be able to work together and subsume their interests for the general good of all.”

The three men, it would be recalled, had been presidential candidates before.
Atiku was the presidential candidate of AC  in the 2007 presidential election; Buhari  was the presidential candidate of  ANPP  in 2003 and 2007, while Bafarawa  was the presidential candidate of his Democratic Peoples Party, DPP,  in 2007.

But the PDP,  in a statement signed by its national publicity secretary, Professor Rufai Ahmed Alkali,  in Abuja,  stressed that such persons who were not bound by any common idea cannot be trusted with the mandate to rule Nigeria, adding, “The PDP has had cause to intimate Nigerians  with  the unstable agenda of those involved in this project and the futility of their ambitions.

“We wish to state,  for the umpteenth time, that the PDP is not in any way threatened by the antics of this group and is indeed prepared to take on them head on in the political battle field if they are registered by INEC.

“Once more, we wish to alert the Nigerian people of the instability of character of the principal conveners of this charade who have consistently displayed a lack of principle, discipline and patriotism by their nomadic political nature. Such people, who are not bound by any common idea, cannot be trusted with the mandate to rule Nigeria.

“We urge the Nigerian people to continue to identify with the PDP which is the only platform equipped with the agenda to transform Nigeria. We want Nigerians to continue to identify with the political party which plays politics without bitterness and rancour.” In concluding Wednesday’s meeting, Atiku charged members thus:  “I would like to make the following suggestions as important next steps.

There is a need for us to quickly expand the Committee of Conveners to include other leaders from across the country. The Mega Summit Movement should continue its activities based on political parties and organized groups. The National Democratic Initiative should continue its activities based on political figures or individuals. We need to develop a time frame by which the two should harmonize their plans/activities and merge, such that we should have a political structure by January 2010.”