Getting a Nigerian democracy: the Tinubu's Lagos model - 3

This model, for those who have been following from the first instalment rests on one plank. We have called this plank, the godfather and godson model. Godfather and godson model has a peculiar Nigerian flavor. We don't know the thought President Bola Tinubu gave to his actions or whether he just stumbled on it by trial-and-error but we can see it working and producing result. We cannot decipher whether the motive of Tinubu is clean but we see the model producing stability. We see the Tinubu model in also the models that ran in Nigeria's first and second republics where Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello ran the nation. The model we are proposing has in one form or the other been used in different traditional communities in Nigeria. What is called godfather is what is called "kingmakers" in virtually all traditional institutions in Nigeria. For example, in Yoruba land a king is chosen by a crop of traditional chiefs called kingmakers. In Oyo town in Oyo state, that role is played by the Oyomesi. When a new king is to be chosen, the Oyomesi collects a list of those qualified to be king from the royal families, deliberate on them, after which one of the candidates is picked. They also seek the counsel of Ifa divination to tell who is the choice of Ifa. We see here a disciplined approach to leadership recruitment. Nothing is left to chance because leadership determines everything in society.

In ancient Kano it is the same procedure. There are kingmakers who select the emir. There is an ongoing tussle over the Emir of Kano. One sitting Emir, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was expelled by the former governor, Abdulallahi Ganduje because of political disagreement with the governor and Ado Bayero was installed to replace him. At the expiration of the tenure of the governor, the succeeding governor, Abba Kabir Yussuf, removed Ado Bayero that was installed by Abdulallahi Ganduje and reinstalled Sanusi 11. One of the kingmakers has gone to challenge the reinstallment of Sanusi because he claimed the proper procedure was not followed. In the east of Nigeria where kingship is not popular, the fervent clamour for Igweship in every place where the Ibo man lives in Nigeria and all over the world is indicative of the acceptance of the kingship among the Igbo. They have a procedure for selecting the Igwes which include accomplishment and the input of kingmakers . In other south-south towns and cities kingship and kingmakers are well accepted. How to employ this procedure to select our rulers in the modern era and at the local, sub-national and national level is the issue at hand.

Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo state which was also the capital city of the old Western Region in Nigeria's first republic present a very fascinating model which is very republican and democratic. Ibadan was founded by warriors from all over Yoruba land who congregated in the city. For her king, every family selects its head who is titled Magaji. He is the political head of that family. That Magaji travels 22 ladders to become king eventually. He is promoted each time one in the line of succession either dies or become the Olubadan. It is a model that has ensured stability and orderliness in the city. This orderliness is also the reason while Ibadan expands every moment and is a major commercial city and home to all ethnicities in Nigeria. Of late, in order to ensure young people get to become the Olubadan, the Olubadan-in-Council which is chiefs of higher rank closer to the Olubadan made a rule that each family should present younger members as their Magaji. It was decided that character should be a higher criteron on who is appointed Magaji. In this day of drug trafficking, candidates are filtered out by the Olubadan-in-Council if their source of wealth is suspect. The Olubadan and his chiefs who sit as kingmakers represent our godfather and godson model.

In Oyo and in Kano the kingmaker procedure ran into murky waters recently indicating that the procedure is not without its flaws and therefore it must be well considered before adoption. In Oyo city in Oyo state, a certain prince who was qualified but is lacking in character was said to have bribed the Oyomesi with about 15 million naira to be made the king. Two members of the Oyomesi rejected his bribe and reported it to the governor of the State who terminated the procedure and called in Professor Wande Abimbola, an Ifa priest well-known for his honesty and integrity. This Ifa priest had been a vice chancellor in a well known university, Obafemi Awolowo University. He had also been a senator of the federal republic. He was called in by the governor to consult the Ifa Oracle. A young prince who lived in Canada, who the governor said he had never met until few days to his inauguration was chosen by Ifa. He carried the day and despite his young age he is sitting on the throne. In the Oyo case we see the quality of integrity and honesty as very essential for the constitution of would be kingmakers. We see in the invitation to the Ifa priest who is also a professor that there are good Nigerians. He has a reputation for honesty and the governor and the whole town accepted his divination. Things might be bad in the country, men and women of character may be in short supply but there are still men and women of good conscience in Nigeria who can kickstart the process of moral rebirth and help select credible leaders for the nation and its different components. They are in every sphere and in every religion, especially our traditional religion. Many have noticed that Nigerians and Africans fear their traditional gods more that the God of modern religions. This is food for thought.

The two Oyomesi who will not take bribe are representatives of good Nigerians while the five who took bribe are representatives of bad Nigerians. The prince who gave 15 million indicates the extent to which power has been monetized in Nigeria. In our democracy only those who have money, plenty of it, can become governors, or presidents or legislators or even local government councilors. The Oyo prince was said to have previously scammed a businesswoman. They would do anything to get power. Some of them sell their houses in hope that they will buy it back from money they steal in office. A politician told me it is money that rules in Nigeria. I had asked him why he was not contesting. He didn't have the level of wealth required. The Kano episode shows how bad our politicians are. The Emir selection process has been so politicized that the governors can do whatever they like with traditional institutions. Therefore good care must be taken concerning the selection of godfathers.

The godfathers are not to be regarded as constitutional institutions. Tinubu did not become a godfather by the constitution but everybody knows he is by an informal procedure and qualifiction and personal effort. One of the problems of democracy in Nigeria that most commentators have not given attention to is the so called internal democracy in the political parties. This is a borrowed idea from the United States of America and the West. It has damaged our politics more than any concept. There are laws to ensure parties stick to it. Internal democracy is thought to be useful in getting the political parties executives and candidacy available to everybody. Even in the United States of America it has resulted in the hijack of the nomination by wealthy men. It is now lamented that only 100 billionaires control the government or Donald Trump in America. At the moment, in Nigeria there is no political party that is not in the court over the selection or election of its principal officers. This has added to the huge corruption of our judiciary. Huge amounts of money are deployed to procure justice. Recently it has become the practice of judges to give judgement that is lacking in precise definition so much that different factions of a political party for example hang on to its own interpretation of the judgement. This clamour for internal democracy is the reason for the defection from one party to another. There are politicians in Nigeria that have virtually been in all the political parties at one time or the other. It should draw the attention to serious thinking that a Nigerian that has never defected to any party since 1999 when the country returned to democracy is today the president of the country, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. When the Alliance for Democracy, AD, the party formed by the followers of legendary Yoruba political icon, Obafemi Awolowo became fractured, Bola Ahmed Tinubu formed his own political party, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN and has since then stuck to the party negotiating merger at different times with other parties. Eventually his merger with Muhammadu Buhari's CPC and other parties to form the APC gave Buhari the presidency in 2015, and 2019 and currently Bola Tinubu as the president of the nation. The visible contrast is Atiku Abubakar who has defected virtually to all major political parties and is a serial presidential contender since 2007 but has never been able to actualize his ambition to be president. He is now rumoured to be on his way to the SDP with the hordes that moved to that military created political party who think that they can flush out Bola Tinubu in the coming 2027 election. What does this portend? Party defection is inimical to the growth of our democracy and to the personal development and discipline of the politicians.

One of the dangers staring Nigerians in the face is the danger of Nigeria becoming a one party state by the spate of defection of major political actors in major political parties to the ruling APC. Some have reasoned that Bola Tinubu is bringing the method that made him the kingmaker in Lagos state into the federation. Reason is the use of several manipulations by the APC which includes alleged financial inducement by the ruling party, but the blame by the defectors is always on the failure of internal democracy in the political parties. Accused of plotting to turn the nation into a one party state by the opposition, Bola Tinubu's media men have said it was not the president's business to help other parties stabilize and manage their political parties. As things go on, the hope of the SDP coalition which is based more on individual selfishness and disguised ethnicism is most likely to fail but the failure could lead to wild protests which could once more endanger the country's fragile democracy. If this kind of trend must be overcome, the theoretically fancied internally democracy in the political parties must be jettisoned. Even the West did not start with it. Most of the nations started as monarchies which gave them stability until their environment was ripe for party democracy. Just as attempts by the military to impose two political parties, SDP and NRC on Nigerians failed, this government imposed political party internal democracy has also failed. In Nigeria's first and second republics, political party organization was left to different leaders and individuals who came together and formed political parties and organized themselves as they like. The best of them even as attested by colonial officials in terms of organization, discipline and manifesto was the Action Group, AG of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. If the parties needed internal democracy these organizations knew how to get it. The AG used a concept akin to the godfather system we are proposing here. The attempt of the AG to grow into internal democracy when Chief Awolowo introduced what he called democratic socialism killed discipline in the party and subsequently the collapse of the party. Prior to this, many of its sponsored candidates were teachers, they had no money but they were known for character and integrity, men who had invested their lives into the lives of their students and built society positively. They made an impact in their communities.

Our proposal, therefore, is that the political parties should be unhooked from the burden of internal democracy. Each party should organize itself according to how it seems suitable for it. If a political party wants to select its officials and candidates by internal democracy, it should go ahead and only present its officials and candidates to the electoral body at a time so defined by the body. If a political party wishes to adopt the godfather method as proposed here it should be free. Parties should gather around ideologies and philosophy. Stable parties are formed by strong leaders who have strong convictions on how a nation should go. Parties should be allowed to rise or fall according to their abilities. In fact, the courts should be precluded from looking into the internal issues of the parties. When party membership is built on ideology, when they are gathered by strong men and women of steely convictions, there will be less of defection and more of discipline and devotion. Defection itself must be legislated against. A party member can change his ideology but must not be allowed to move into another party or form another party until the expiration of the coming election cycle. Control of members of the legislature should be in the hands of the political parties who sponsored them to the houses and to their executive positions. In Yoruba land for example kings traditionally were not as absolute as the colonialists made them; they can be removed by the kingmakers who ask them "open a calabash" when they commit a serious infraction. The meaning of this is that the king concerned should commit suicide. This gets the kings so committed to the people they serve. A king in Ibadan, Kobomoje, was said to have committed suicide rather than accept the demand of the colonial office to impose tax on the people of Ibadan. Elected officers should be removed based on the recommendation of their political parties. The country needs serious party discipline now more than ever. The country need politicians who are really committed to the welfare of the citizens and the unity and peace of the nation and its components units. Political parties must have manifestos which every of its members must subscribe to by willing agreement and must uphold in the legislature. Each candidate must campaign based on the manifestos of his or her party. Why? What the political parties do now is maintenance managent. No one is serious about moving the nation forward. Though some have falsely branded themselves as progressive, none is really is. We will come back to this. All the political parties practically have the same manifesto that it is felt they just copy one another. One prominent late politician was reported to have written the manifestos of three major political parties.

To be continued in part 4