In the African political setting, power is so intoxicating and profitable that once a person gets elected into office, he or she sees nothing good in the opposition or dissenting voices. Here, power is seen not as an opportunity to serve the larger society but the office is seen as personal estate of the incumbent. Dissenting voices are silenced, opponents accused of treason, jailed and sometimes killed.
From the 1950s when independence from colonial rule was achieved, the pattern has remained the same. No elected President or Prime Minister affords the luxury of being criticised.
They all want to be adored and worshipped. The exception were Botswana and Mauritius.
This dangerous trend of the 1950s and 1960s is still with us in the 21st century except that more countries now claim to be democratic and are no longer under military dictatorship but is the behaviour of the modern day Presidents and other elected officers different from the past leaders? A cursory look at the past reveals that most of the prominent politicians who fought for independence either ended up in jail, were killed or went into exile because of threats to their lives.
In Burundi, Rwanda, Cameroun, Sudan, Egypt, Chad, Uganda and even here in Nigeria, opposition politicians are often branded as thiefs, harassed, their businesses wrecked and bank accounts frozen.
Just recently, the spokesman of the All Peoples Congress (APC) in Nigeria described some prominent members of the main opposition party; the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as enemies of the country. Is the ruling party now a law enforcement agency with the mandate of curbing crime in the society? Are opposition politicians now armed robbers and insurgents that they will be branded as enemies of the country?
Prior to the defection of the likes of Atiku Abubakar, Bukola Saraki, Rabiu Kwankwaso back to the PDP, and others, they were not corrupt, not armed robbers and not enemies of Nigeria and were even described as patriotic Nigerians by the same APC.
Why is the chant now different?
If for about 60 years of independence, this warped way of thinking is still prevalent from even those who claim to be better educated than the politicians of the past, what is our future?
Can we boastfully claim that our politics has improved or better than the past? I think the answer is no, especially in Nigeria. In the Second Republic, under Shehu Shagari, no politician was chased into exile, arrested on flimsy excuse or killed.
The then members of the main opposition parties; the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Nigeria’s Peoples Party (NPP) and the Great Nigerian Peoples Party (GNPP) were not in anyway arrested nor harassed with the secret police or soldiers.
The political parties had the freedom to campaign as their members were not chased into exile or threatened. The maturity exhibited by the founding fathers of Nigeria in their quest for political power should be an example to our modern day gladiators who in their haste to occupy various offices have made politics a dangerous game.
What we need are good ideas on how to move the country forward.
Politics is all about providing a better leadership skill, every contender to an office believes that he or she has a better way of doing things, ditto, the political party. In 2015, the APC claimed to have a better idea of moving Nigeria forward and this resulted in the party’s victory at the polls. At that time, nobody was branded an enemy of the state. So, if this time around, opposition parties feel that the ruling party has failed in their mandate, then, there is no need for the name-calling and threats. This is 2019, let the electorate decide the fate of each party.
The average Nigerian is not interested in name- calling but better governance and the provision of basic amenities like good roads, power, water and job creation. We should not allow the dictatorial touts within us to blind our eyes to everyday problems which are holding us back as a nation.
We should have people who can think beyond today and its short-term benefits as a result of being in power and eating from the proceeds of crude oil. The quest for power from opposition politicians is never a threat and will never be a hindrance to the country’s growth.
In African countries where their democratic culture has really improved, no one hears the archaic chant of our enemies any longer.
In any democratic country where opposition figures are harassed, the negative impact is always reflected on the economy as serious investors will hardly put their funds into such country.
From 2015 till date, the politicians who have been harassed include the presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, his running mate, Peter Obi, former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, Senate President Bukola Saraki, his deputy, Ekweremadu, the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan and virtually almost all the aides who served under his administration. The list does not include politicians only but also social critics and journalists. With the elections in less than six weeks away from now, we should pray that this cycle of intolerance for dissent and divergent political views and arrests of opponents is not allowed to be part of our political culture.
We are supposed to have moved beyond this level of despotic tendencies. The voices of reason should no longer keep silent as the forces of coercion hold the nation to ransom, that the social critics and organised labour play their part in Nigeria, we want a situation where every individual is a stakeholder in the quest for a better Nigeria. Political parties should stop seeing their opponents as enemies or criminals as they cannot be sure that once they are in power at the federal or state level, they will be there forever. Power is always transient.
2019 is here, let the PVCs speak for us and not threats and intimidation.
Let us nurture our democratic culture so that it can be compared to that of Ghana, Mauritius, Botswana, Benin Republic or even Liberia. These countries have so far overtaken Nigeria in terms of holding free and fair elections. We cannot claim to be the giant of Africa when on a daily basis, hate speech and arrests of political opponents are still rife.

Tonye Ikiroma-owiye