Consensus is a political kill joy

VIEW FROM THE GALLERY BY MAHMUD JEGA

There was a lot of colour at weekend’s 8^th national convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. “Ruling” here should be in capital letters because APC rules not only at the federal level but in 31 states, in FCT and in untold number of local government councils, having snatched ten state governors, dozens of senators and federal representatives, hundreds of state assemblymen and thousands of local government chairmen and councilors from opposition parties since the 2023 general elections.

Gaily dressed party men and women at the Abuja convention gave a peacock a good run for its colours. It was the country’s biggest VIP gathering in many years, with President, Vice President, National Assembly leaders, entire Federal Cabinet, 31 governors and hundreds of Federal and state legislators all assembled in one place. It is the kind of gathering prohibited by America’s Designated Survivor policy, under which all the people in the Presidential Line of Succession are forbidden from assembling in one place, just in case.

There were long speeches, with long claims of achievements, many of them controversial. There was a lot of dancing and singing of APC’s gospel “On Your Mandate We Stand”. All the roads, air routes and rail line leading into Abuja were chocked with traffic, of delegates, their supporters and dancing troupes. Any party member who either aims to retain his political seat in next year’s elections or aims to grab one by unseating an incumbent must come accompanied by bus loads of supporters. Hundreds if not thousands of security agents were on hand too, some of them buried among the delegates.

Yet, for all the colour, the security cordon, the speeches, the dancing and the adoption by consensus of party officials, APC’s first convention since 2022 did not generate the excitement that once gripped Nigeria on occasions like this. The visible culprit: consensus, which pushed competition to the back burner. Chinua Achebe wrote that proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten; competition is the maggi with which the political soup is seasoned. It reminds me of the soup I prepared on the first day of my reporting for NYSC primary assignment in Anambra State. Following written instructions from my sister, I boiled the meat but threw away the broth; the resulting “soup” was as tasteless as an election without contest.

APC leaders should be wondering why, despite all their overwhelming dominance of the Nigerian political scene and all the grand outing at this convention, there was no media frenzy in newspapers, electronic media or even the social media around it. It did not dominate all talk in street corner discussion groups and in beer parlours, compared to many other ruling and even opposition party conventions we have had in this country since 1978. I think the main culprit was the consensus system.

The first party conventions we had in Nigeria under the presidential system were held in late 1978. At the time, predictability robbed the UPN, NPP, GNPP and PRP conventions of much media interest. Anyone could see at the time that the national chairmen of three of them— UPN’s Chief Obafemi Awolowo, GNPP’s Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim and PRP’s Malam Aminu Kano, as well as NPP’s clear national leader Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, were all going to be elected unopposed as presidential candidates.

NPN’s “nominating convention” in Lagos in late 1978 generated the greatest media and public interest. Why because, there was a keen contest for all the party offices, with Chief Meredith Adisa Akinloye emerging as national chairman after a hot contest. Its presidential contest was even more competitive. Although NPN narrowed the field by zoning its presidential ticket to the North, six heavyweight aspirants contested for the ticket, namely Dr Olusola Saraki, Prof Iya Abubakar, Chief Joseph Tarka, Malam Adamu Ciroma, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule and Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Shagari got the highest votes in the first round of voting followed by Maitama Sule and Adamu Ciroma. Three of them were to go for the second round. Just before second round of voting started, NTA cameras showed Maitama Sule and Adamu Ciroma walk across the hall to where Shagari sat and cheerfully conceded to him. It was the story for weeks.

In 1981, NPN held a convention in Kano to elect national officers. It was during the harmattan season and President Shagari’s plane could not land in Kano, so he missed the event. Vice President Alex Ekwueme however drove from Lagos to Kano to attend. Although Chief M K O Abiola’s moves to unseat Akinloye as national chairman failed, National Secretary Alhaji Sulaiman Takuma was defeated by Senator Uba Ahmed despite Shagari’s endorsement of him! You couldn’t have greater media sensation than that.

As a young reporter for Citizen magazine in 1990, I covered the first national conventions of NRC and SDP at Abuja’s Sheraton Hotel. Each one lasted two full days and nights, with hot competition for every post. In SDP, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, backed by General Shehu Yar’adua’s PF bloc, managed to defeat Alhaji Muhammadu Arzika, backed by the PSP bloc, i.e. the former UPN. It was a very hot contest. In NRC, after another hot contest, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu, backed by Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, lost the chairmanship to Chief Tom Ikimi, who was backed by the Northern bloc at the behest, it was rumoured in the hall, by then military Vice President Admiral Augustus Aikhomu. NRC and SDP’s nominating conventions in Port Harcourt and Jos respectively in March 1993 also generated excitement all across the country. In Jos, Chief Abiola managed to defeat Kingibe and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar after a very hot contest, and in Port Harcourt, Alhaji Bashir Tofa managed to defeat Chief Joseph Nwodo. In all cases the cause of the excitement was: hot competition.

The least interesting party conventions in Nigeria came five years later, in 1998. All five registered parties—UNCP, DPN, GDM, CNC and NCPN– were set to nominate one person, military ruler General Sani Abacha, as “consensus” presidential candidate, even though he was still in the military and had not registered as member of any party. No wonder that Chief Bola Ige described the parties as “five fingers of a leprous hand.”

PDP, APP and AD’s nominating conventions in early 1999 also generated much national excitement, due to hot competition. At PDP’s Jos convention, the ticket was zoned to the South; Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, just out of prison and with backing from Yar’adua’s men and others, clinched the ticket against Chief Alex Ekwueme, who was backed by old NPN elements led by Adamu Ciroma. At APP’s Kaduna convention, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu won the ticket, only to lose it when party chairman Senator Mahmud Waziri concluded a deal with AD, ceded the main ticket to it and nominated Marafan Sokoto Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi as Falae’s running mate. AD’s convention at Ibadan’s D’Rowans hotel was something else. A 23-member electoral college of Afenifere chieftains “elected” Chief Olu Falae over Chief Bola Ige, which apparently made Ige quite bitter and he ended up as Obasanjo’s minister and later Attorney General, before his assassination in 2001.

PDP’s 2003 convention was also competitive, with Ekwueme, Abubakar Rimi and others hotly asking for “change” instead of Obasanjo’s “continuity.” Obasamjo won anyway, but at PDP’s 2007 convention when he supported Umaru Yar’adua, many other aspirants also contested, including Chief Rochas Okorocha, General Aliyu Gusau and General Buba Marwa. It was a hot contest and it generated media excitement all over the country. So also was PDP’s 2011 convention, when President Goodluck Jonathan was hotly challenged by a field of aspirants including General Ibrahim Babangida, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Dr. Bukola Saraki. Just before the convention, a group of Northern Elders conducted a “primary,” which selected Atiku and the others withdrew. All that competition made for a lot of excitement and apparent conferment of democratic legitimacy.

As the mega opposition party in 2015, APC’s nominating convention in Lagos generated wild excitement because of the hot contest for the presidential ticket involving Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Kwankwaso and Rochas Okorocha. Other exciting conventions were PDP’s 2019 Port Harcourt convention. The ticket was zoned to the North and 12 persons contested, with Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike fully backing Governor Aminu Tambuwal but Atiku managed to snatch the ticket. Another very exciting convention was APC’s in 2022. With Buhari having completed two terms, there was a hot contest for the ticket, which Asiwaju Bola Tinubu managed to grab, beating hot challenge from Rotimi Amaechi and then Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. PDP’s 2022 convention was also hot and very exciting. I entered the Abuja Hilton one night and saw perhaps one hundred buses pasted with Nyesom Wike’s posters, that brought his supporters from Rivers. He lost the ticket to Atiku Abubakar, and has been on a revenge mission ever since.

APC will have one chance soon to generate excitement and confer democratic legitimacy when it comes time to nominate its 2027 presidential candidate by allowing a hot challenge to President Bola Tinubu. While he will almost certainly win, it will confer democratic credibility on the process. However, APC is unlikely to follow that path and might instead stage another convention governed by “consensus.” In many Nigerians’ minds, that term rhymes with imposition, with the danger that the consensus system will cascade to state and to all other levels.