‘New Nigeria’ Politics Must First Be About Families

It was interesting to watch three of the young presidential aspirants air their views on the Ifeoma Speaks programme on You Tube, titled: ‘I want to be the president of Nigeria’. I was particularly interested in how they answered the question that bordered on what they intended to bring into governance if elected president.

Some of the aspirants spoke about positive energy, whatever that means. They spoke of new sources of funding. But they did not explain if that meant borrowing on top of the debt the country already owed. They spoke of sending the country back to the construction site and building brand new super highways, schools, hospitals and enhancing whatever infrastructure is on the ground.

They spoke of beefing up security and installing electricity 24/7 in every nook and cranny of the country. They spoke of fighting corruption and improving the fortunes of the workforce. They spoke of how they intended to get young Nigerians to express themselves technologically. They spoke of offering opportunities to physically challenged Nigerians to use the IT to improve on their marketability in the employment market. They spoke of a decentralised system of government where power would devolve among state governors, and where states would be given greater autonomy to control their own resources.

They spoke of comparative economic advantage, where one would utilise what one has to compliment what the other does not have, and vice versa. They spoke of proper data management and the need to have accurate statistical data on the country’s population as a stepping stone towards proper planning and management of the country’s human and material resources. And they spoke of their concern to get more people involved in taking back Nigeria from the old and corrupt politicians who made the country as unattractive as it has become, even to citizens.

I would say these are very bright ideas. But, frankly, if this is the brand of politics the new generation of aspirants to the high post of the presidency in Nigeria are considering to play and succeed in transforming Nigerians from their old ways of doing things and taking them to new levels, it would be a very long march to freedom. Their current ideas practically run in the same vein as the ‘vision’ of the older politicians. I have said it before that all through the years I watched Nigerian politicians campaign, I never saw any one of them talk about putting food on the table of the poorest families in his constituency. But the old order must change. Put in a nutshell, if the new generation of political aspirants want to change the psyche of the Nigerian masses and get Nigerians on the side of right, and not on the continued side of rot, the word to emphasise is “Family”. For the politics and the vision of young Nigerian political aspirants to succeed, it must be based on the place of family in the Nigerian society.

Indeed, fine politics that deals with democracy should be about families first before anything else. And for our simple needs in Nigeria, we can categorise these into two – the very rich families and the very poor families. That means that those who are supposed to be in the middle class – not very rich and not very poor – are the ones who should aspire and be encouraged to vie for public offices so that they can act as umpires or whistleblowers between the two extreme classes of families in the country.

Of recent, there have been several killings in the northern parts of Nigeria, traced to both the Fulani herdsmen and to the farmers. Most of those killed were buried in mass graves. If indeed the country and their political leaders had any regard for the values of traditional families as they are practised in this our part of the African continent, they would have released some funds to each of the bereaved families to give their loved ones befitting burials. Each of the deceased citizens would have been buried with the dignity he deserves in his ancestral home as is the culture of our people. But that did not seem to be the case. Rather they were all buried in mass graves with so much indignity that many worried Nigerians began to ask what the value of life in Nigeria actually is.

And to add salt to injury, there was no indication that any of the local or even state public office holders went from one bereaved family to another to console the people on the unfortunate incidents that befell them. This is because there is no real government that knows where the values of voters count most, and no true democracy. Otherwise those families that lost their beloved ones would have been identified one after the other, and the presence of government would have assured them that not only did they have a government that cared, but more importantly that their loved ones did not die in vain.

So, when we hear these young presidential aspirants strategise and not mention the place of family in their campaign, it immediately comes to mind that they probably won’t change very much from the old political values that have been so entrenched in the psyche of Nigerians that it appears to be the only way things can be done, over and over, again and again. I have said it several times before and would probably continue to say it until Nigerian politicians begin to understand that there can never be a true democratic evolution in the country until politicians talk about and address the issue of the very poor and the very rich families in their society.

In developed democracies such as we have in the UK and America, every politician knows the value of the family in the dispensation of the dividends of democracy and democratic values and that is why they are able to have relatively peaceful nations. That is also why they are able to control crime. Even the most deadly planned attacks are usually nipped in the bud.

An example of the value British politicians place on British families can be implicitly captured in a speech made by the Leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Jay of Paddington at Labour party's spring conference in Glasgow, some years back. She said: "I am happy to take this opportunity to say we have a settled and united position. Let me state it clearly and simply - Labour is the party of the family. We believe that strong families are the linchpin of society. Labour believes that strong and stable families provide the best basis for building strong and supportive communities. We believe that marriage provides a strong foundation for stable relationships and provides the most reliable framework for bringing up children. It is true we do not believe in making people marry or criticising or penalising those who choose not to. But let's be clear: families are stronger under Labour because we have made them stronger by our actions. We've taken action to make life easier for hard-working families.”

The Conservative party has a similar concern for British families. When he campaigned as Prime Minister of Britain, David Cameron put the family at the centre of the Conservative party policy as he set out his vision for solving the nation's social problems for the long term. In a passionate and what pundits consider as sweeping speech at the Conservative party’s spring forum in Newcastle, the Tory boss argued that the only way to reduce demand on the state was through social responsibility, not centralised State control. He told delegates and the British people: "My ambition is to make Britain more family-friendly; to make our country a better place to bring up children. Not just because it's the right thing to do; not just because my family is the most important thing in my life; but because families should be the most important thing in our country's life." That is leadership by example. And that is British politics. It’s all about the family.

But what do Nigerians have? Their politicians would talk of building super-highways, expanding sea ports, introducing new airlines and modernising existing airports and so on in a country where 80% of its citizens live below the poverty level defined by the United Nations. This is preposterous. This is certainly not where to start from, if the new aspirants are going to do anything different from what their predecessors did and are still doing.

In a properly organised society, which I think Nigerians are more than capable of being, the most important public office is the office of the ward chairman. It is his office that handles the grassroots organisation of the voting masses. And so, presidential aspirants must first ensure that the men and women who run that office are tested and tried people of integrity whom the community can vouch stand head and shoulder above corruption. The new political class know what the trend they need to fight against has been. Political parties swoop on the ward offices with brown envelopes filled with money which they hand over to the ward chairmen to share among voters. In the process, some voters get hundreds of naira, some thousands, some millions, and some nothing at-all. But they are all expected to vote, and they do, on the instructions of the ward chairman’s office. Most of these rural voters are scarcely literate and depend on the instructions of their local leaders to cast their votes. So, money has continued to play this role and continued to rob Nigerians of credible leaders who could have helped them make more meaning of their lives.

This no longer needs to be the modus operandi. For the aspirants to get to grips with the knowledge of their constituency members, the ward chairman must compile a list of the names and other statistical data of members of individual families within their wards. Copies of this list must be deposited in the constituency office of each aspirant to public office who has to do with the particular constituency. In such a way, presidential aspirants are assured that they are working in harmony with representatives of Nigerian people at national and state levels for the good of every individual family in the country.

The National Assembly was said to have increased its constituency allowance allocation in the last budget. Yet it is doubtful if all the legislators have constituency offices where they can be approached by their constituents to discuss issues that are putting pressure on them. The normal practice would be for the legislator to map out at least a day in the week when his constituency members who have problems can come and discuss the problem with him. That is a very important aspect of what it takes to represent the voters in parliament. That is part of dealing with family problems, and the legislator will be there to help in cases of severe financial handicap, joblessness, health challenges and so on. He will be there to listen to his constituents and to help them get over their predicaments. He will be there to get their renewed mandate to table their problems before the honourable parliament and to lobby his parliamentary colleagues to take action on the matter.

If the new political aspirants must succeed in taking Nigerian politics out of its present deeply enshrined political correctness, they must begin to think about, talk about and see about Nigerian families. If they must avoid going the way of their predecessors, New Nigeria politics must be first about families.

• Asinugo is a London-based journalist and publisher of Imo State Business Link Magazine (imostateblm.com)