NIGERIA: ‘KANGAROOISM’, POOR REWARD SYSTEM AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Samuel Enyi Otsapa
Samuelotsapa@gmail.com
It was Benjamin Disraeli (1804 – 1881), a former British Prime Minister who is quoted as saying that “There is no act of treachery or meanness of which a political party is not capable; for in politics there is no honour”. Since May 1999, Nigerians are unintentionally embracing the reality of this statement made many years ago. Since 1999, we are seeing that with Nigerian politicians and party system, black can become blue and white can become green. With Nigerian politicians, ‘kangarooism’ (jumping from one party to another) is the rule rather than the exception.
But when do we; those who are strong men/women, members and leaders of political parties, stop rewarding kangaroo politicians with important offices and positions in political parties that they recently/newly joined as opposed to rewarding old members who have been loyal, committed and steadfast? When a greedy politician decamps/cross-carpets from one political party into another one, he or she must not be honored with any important office/position in the new party over those who have been steadfast and loyal to the party. This would go a long way in reducing the spate and frequency of ‘kangarooism’ among our politicians – and this would augur well, in the long run, for Nigeria’s national development.
Check: since the return of civilian rule to Nigeria in May 1999, only very few politicians have stayed true to one political party till date. Unlike the ‘kangarooism’ lot, these men have remained in one political party, even when in opposition. For them, politics is not only for clinching power. For them, politics is for service to the people. Some of these men are:
Senator David Bonaventure Mark
Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu
Senator Umaru Tanko Almakura
Senator Ahmed Lawan
President Muhammadu Buhari
Senator Anyim Pius Anyim
Obong Victor Attah
Babatunde Raji Fashola
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
Senator Gabriel Suswam
Gov. Nyesom Wike, and a few others.
In the midst of the madness and selfishness that is party system and politics in Nigeria, these men have remained steadfast, committed and loyal to one political party. For me, these men (and a few operating at the state and local government levels) are the true heros of partisan politics in Nigeria. These men are the ones the younger generation must now emulate. These men are those who are not afraid to become opposition. These men, although not saints, obviously do not belong to the food-is-ready-come-and-chop bunch that 90% of Nigerian politicians belong to. These men must be those we should listen to.
The others, listed below, are political jobbers and self-seekers who only go where their bread can/would be buttered; financially and/or otherwise.
Atiku Abubakar (he is the Chief Nomad. Since 1999, Atiku has decamped to and from parties more than any politician in Nigeria)
FFK (he is the Goebbels and second to Atiku)
Rotimi Ameachi
Godswill Akpabio
James Onanefe Ibori
Chris Ngige
Otunba Gbenga Daniel
Dimeji Bankole
Gov. Ben Ayade
Gov. David Umahi
Gov. Samuel Ortom
Gov. Bello Mohammed
Rochas Okorocha
Iyiola Omisore
Senator Iyorchia Ayu
Donald Duke
Gov. Hope Uzodinma
Senator George Akume
Senator Abdullahi Adamu
Gov. Nasir Elrufai, and a host of others.
For Nigeria to begin to make progress and achieve national development, we must become genuinely concerned with what happens in the political parties particularly about kangarooism and poor political party reward system to those who are loyal – because political parties are where leadership recruitment takes place. Political parties are at the core of everything good or bad that happens to Nigeria and the states. This is why we must begin to beam our searchlights on the activities of political parties so that they’d become strong institutions rather than platforms controlled by strong individuals. And in this process of rebuilding, we must look unto the men who have stayed loyal, committed and steadfast to one political party.
In closing, it must be stated, for clarity and balancing sakes, that even in the developed countries that we admire and emulate (by cherry picking what suits our selfish ambitions), politicians are also kangaroos. How many of us knew that former president Donald Trump became president of his country on a Republican Party ticket but he was once a member of the Democratic Party, and the Reform Party? In fact, the man has changed political parties five times. In 2004, Donald Trump had an interview with Wolf Blitzer of CNN where he stated that: “In many cases, I probably identify more as Democrat…it just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans. Now, it shouldn’t be that way. But if you go back, I mean it just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats…But certainly we had some very good economies under Democrats, as well as Republicans. But we’ve had some pretty bad disaster under the Republicans”. Examples aplenty of other American, British, French, etc politicians who have changed political parties but Nigeria’s case, as with most things, is over the roof because here, there is no morality in politics so politicians can decamp and ‘kriss-cross’ the many times they want to. It should not be so.
