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Political Parties in Nigeria; Same Team, Different Jerseys.

A political ideology is a set of ideas and beliefs that members of a political party subscribe to that reflects in the form and course of action the state takes under their leadership. The political ideology of any party informs the natural attitude of a party and its members towards every public question.

If you study Donald Trump, it could be easy to predict what opinions he holds on certain issues,ranging from immigration issues, security or foreign Trade. You can tell. If you study Vladimir Putin, you could also tell what stand he would take on various political issues. These are men who are driven by ideology, with political parties that subscribe to well defined and distinct ideologies.

It is however funny that when we bring it down to Nigeria, the politicians and political parties you find here have no strong ideological leaning whatsoever. They would tell you that they do, but it's superficial at best. In truth, these political parties are bereft of clear ideological commitments. Our politicians have no serious opinion on socio-economic and political problems that bedevil the nation.

There seems to be no National vision that drives political actions. This would explain a lot. Most of them are actually in politics because there is nothing else to do. All they care about is how to appropriate the national treasury for personal gain, lending credence to the assertion that the motivation for engaging in politics in Nigeria today remains money and power.

We have almost a hundred political parties and i cannot find the clear ideological distinction between them. So why are these parties springing up here and there? What is the difference between them? We just have political bigwigs who are no longer happy with their political chances in one party, and hence they need a new one that would serve as a vehicle to capture state power. Cross-carpeting becomes the order of the day. The implication is that these political parties are not in competition with one another. They are twins. Same content in different bottles. 

The differences in ideology between America’s Republican and Democratic parties are like night and day. One is consistently conservative, the other is distinctly liberal. But in Nigeria, our Politicians in different parties are members of the same team with different jerseys.
It is evident that Opposition politics must be driven by ideology, and there is none here. Parties just try every four years to see if they can get access to the national treasury.
Who cares about policy? Who cares about Legacy?

This is our Nigeria today, and we cannot move forward with this. If we profess to be democratic,  we must care about elections and how our political parties are formed. The change we seek must come from the roots. Fundamental. Foundational. Systematic. Ideology-driven. 


©Ifeanyi Chukwudi, 2019
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Comments

  1. Amofa.o27 August 2020 at 09:24

    Wow! This is indeed apt, the same team with differnet jerseys hit home for me.

    ReplyDelete

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