POLITICS: Big Parties Pick Former Military Rulers to Run Nigeria

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Jan 20 2003 (IPS) - Former military rulers, who are blamed for much of Nigeria’s woes, are back on the political stage – this time running as civilians in the April presidential election.

And, no one is happy.

‘’Unless a miracle happens, or less known parties form an alliance – none of them will pose a serious challenge to the big four parties which have nominated ex-military rulers as their presidential candidates,” says Ronke Damilola, a political scientist in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.

Money, influence and power appear to be behind the nomination of the Generals in primaries early this month.

During the primaries, incumbent president Olusegun Obasanjo, a former military ruler between 1975 and 1979, was re-elected as the presidential flag bearer of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP). And retired General Mohammadu Buhari, who overthrew the elected government of President Shehu Shagari in 1983, won the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) ticket in a primary marred by walkout protest by his rivals. The newly registered but strong National Democratic Party (NDP) elected retired General Ike Nwanchukwu as its presidential hopeful, while the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) chose former secessionist leader, Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, of the defunct Republic of Biafra, as its candidate.

A swarm of retired army officers is also running for governor, as well as for parliament, in April.

‘’Retired army officers are marginalising politicians. This is not acceptable,” says Balarabe Musa of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP).

Chukwuemeka Ezeife, of the United Nigeria People’s Party (UNPP), says all the presidential candidates, who have emerged so far, were ‘’imposed on their parties through processes that were fraught with intrigues, manipulations and supremacy of political oligarchies”.

‘’The path to democratic stability is not the retired army Generals,” says Ezeife. ‘’Soldiers in service, or out of service, are essentially undemocratic and regimental.”

The bitterness is widespread. ‘’A lot of primaries were stage-managed. If not, how on earth can General Ike Nwanchukwu, for example, who joined the National Democratic Party (NDP) about a week ago when he left the PDP in protest, win the presidential primary when people who formed and nurtured NDP lose out?” wonders Ayo Idowu, a Lagos-based politician.

There has been no immediate reaction from Nwanchukwu.

The bitterness is felt mainly among pro-democracy activists, who fought the juntas for dominating Nigeria’s political life since independence in 1960 – to ensure Africa’s most populous country embraced democratic ideals.

‘’It is unfortunate that we are witnessing more entrant of former military leaders into the present democratic dispensation, but one is not surprised because in Nigerian politics, one needs a large sum of money to mobilise and move around the country. Those who have such money are those who have ruled and accumulated resources,” says Shina Loremikan of the Lagos-based Committee for the Defence of Human Rights.

‘’It is painful that the military, which has mismanaged this country for a very long time, is being allowed to take over polity rather than a full-fledged civilian political leader who is used to dialogue and reaching consensus on issues,” he says.

Former military rulers, who overthrew elected leaders, have not been prosecuted, although Nigeria’s constitution clearly forbids military coups, says Loremikan. ‘’It is us, Nigerians, who encourage military leaders to seize government because we do not prosecute them,” he says.

Former military rulers have rejected these arguments. Obasanjo, who was elected after the death of Nigeria’s most unpopular military dictator, Sani Abacha, in 1999, insists he is the best to restore international confidence in a country whose image has been dented by corruption and mismanagement. To his democratic credential, many remember Obasanjo, as the military ruler, who restored civilian rule when he organised the multi-party elections that brought Shehu Shagari to office in 1979.

Buhari, who overthrew Shagari, also appears to be playing by the rules of democratic principles this time around. ‘’If given the mandate, I will serve faithfully without discrimination on account of sex, religion or ethnicity,’ ‘ he said in his speech accepting the nomination of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP).

But, bad for the military, a new allegation of electoral fraud, perpetrated by some former army officers, has hit Nigeria. Last week the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it had uncovered over two million forged registration cards, representing 3.3 percent of projected registration figure of about 59.5 million voters.

On Jan 16 the police announced the arrest of the manager and two workers who confessed that the company was contracted by a retired army colonel to print five million fake registration cards at 200 naira (about two U.S. dollars) per copy.

The three suspects, according to the police, confessed that only 500,000 cards had been printed by the time of their arrest. And, the colonel is still at large.

Emmanuel Ighodalo, spokesperson for the Lagos Police Command, says the suspect might want to use the cards to rig the April poll.

‘’Half a million cards that are already in the hands of the colonel could cause a lot of damage. If you introduce half a million fake voters’ cards, you would have changed the complexion of the election. I am sure it is not just in Lagos that this is happening, it is probably happening everywhere across the country,” says Lai Muhammed of the Alliance for Democracy in the central state of Kwara, who is running for governor.

He fears that some fake cards could already be in circulation. ‘’When we were campaigning, some guys were asking us, ‘which election are you campaigning for’? We have already sealed the fate of this election a long time ago’,” says Muhammed.

‘’This is a sad story of our country,” he says. ‘’We must all join hands to break this jinx”.