Party Ideology and Electoral Misfortunes; ARE WE MAD? (124)- Salu Ayoola

At the last count we now have about 30 presidential candidates, while some are serious contenders others are pretenders.

According to Prof Soyinka when he talked about partial amnesia in respect of the Nigerian psychology because of the alarming trend of forgetfulness of Nigerians and their obsession with post hoc development in grappling with their own realities. PDP lost some political generals during Obj primaries down to GEJ primaries due to great numbers of aspirants that led to the gain of APC which eventually pushed them out of power.
Party system has lost its fundamentals in the Nigerian political system. Rather than being an aggregation of individuals with like interest and vision of societal development, it has proven to be a club of disagreeable individuals jostling for positions.
No party in Nigeria exudes coherent ideological profile. This is indeed dangerous for any social formation desirous of transformation
PDP is ideologically barren,what it lacks in ideology is expressed in its blind acceptance of defectors jostling for the highest position. What business does the Atikus,Sarakis,Kwankasos,Tambuwas have in an ideological setting? Their mission probably is to kill and divide PDP after the primaries.

PDP has no manifesto, no programme to take Nigeria out of the present quagmire but rather the objective is a regime change at the presidential level while neglecting the state and other levels
APC has no clear cut ideology and judging by the current scenario they believe in status quo at the presidential level. The flag bearer will still be Buhari. At the state level the story is different. Rivers state is a case study with candidates such as Dumo Lulu Briggs, Magnus Abe,Tonye Cole,Dawari George etc The primaries no doubt will kill APC in Rivers state and PDP will win if there are no horse trading
APC has not also presented clear ideological direction which is dumb for a party that came to power on the change mantra. In recent past it has lost credibility through its pronouncements, policies, organizational structure and party morality
Other parties just don’t exist and are not worth discussing, they should have formed a coalition to be the third force while having socialist programmes such as free education, medical, restructuring and other yearnings of the electorates but they missed it. They presently constitute nuisance to the political process
For parties to be meaningful they must have members who should not have personal aims which are independent of party interests. Their aims must align with that of the party interests. From this moral foundation can a party spirit or sense of organization flow. Party spirit can also rid the political process of second termist and violence.
No doubt the critical duel is between APC and PDP
Where are our political scientists?
I am not APC or PDP but I desire the best for Nigeria
-Salu Ayoola ph