APC DELGA organizes workshop for ward leaders

As part of ongoing efforts to strengthen internal democracy and reposition the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State, ahead of the 2019 general elections, a workshop was put together recently for ward leaders from Degema Local Government Area, DELGA , at the prestigious Golf Prince Hotel in Port Harcourt.

Delivering a paper, captioned, ‘Discipline, commitment and loyalty: the role of leadership in a political party’, a stakeholder of the party in the State, Engr. Beks Dagogo-Jack, commended the organisers of the workshop , Commissioner of Works Emeritus, Chief, Engr. Levy Braide, and The Executive Director, Marine Operations, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Dr. Sokonte Davies for the initiative aimed at impacting knowledge.

 

Excerpts of the paper presented:

Being a paper presented by Hon. Engr. Beks Dagogo-Jack OFR, FNSE, FNIM at a workshop organised by the APC DELGA Chapter for Ward Leaders on the topic:

“Discipline, Commitment & Loyalty : the role of Leadership in a Political Party”

on Thursday November 2, at The Golf Prince Hotel , Port Harcourt .

Introduction:

It gives me great pleasure to be here with you all this morning. I’m particularly excited to note that the idea behind this worthy initiative was put together by no less a father of our politics than the inimitable, highly respected Chief, Engr. Levy Braide, Commissioner of Works Emeritus , under the Okilo administration. I commend your selfless mentoring of the younger generation in the ways of politics and see my presence here as an act of loyalty and commitment , in support of your fatherly contribution to our Party. My appreciation also goes to Hon Sokonte Davies for providing resources for this laudable initiative and for his support of other similar Party projects in the Kalabari area.

Let me start by giving a short historical background to the advent of political party democracy in modern civilization.

Defining A Political Party :

A political party is a group of voters organized to sponsor, field and hopefully elect its members  in a local or national election who shall be expected to implement the public policies & related governance ideologies which identifies & differentiate the Political Party from other competing Political Parties. A political party sponsors candidates for public office. It sets out it’s positions on public interest  issues that may range from social welfare, industrialisation, taxation, education, security, etc all of which bear relevance to the voting constituencies. In a democracy people will always disagree on different national issues, try to convince citizens on each Party’s position & the citizens later express their preference by voting for the candidates that most closely reflect their views. Political parties provide a visible platform  for voters to easily identify a candidate and the views he advances in search of their votes. Political parties may be large or small, national or local. Large political parties generally have millions of members and supporters. In democratic election campaigns, parties compete & canvass freely for votes. Such competition is one of the hallmarks of democracy.

The Advent of Political Parties:

Political parties began to develop form and substance from around the late 1600s . It is noteworthy that although the ancient Greeks,  were the architects of democracy, they had no organized political party structures as we have it today. The senate of the ancient Romans had two groups that represented people with different interests — the Patricians and the Plebeians. The Patricians represented noble families. The Plebeians represented the wealthy merchants and the middle class. Although these two groups often mingled, often times they voted along partisan lines based on group interests. A major impediment to the advent of modern political party democracy was the dominance of feudal and imperialist hegemonic empires which ruled the many kingdoms of the world in that era.

In England, change began after a quasi hoax called the Popish Plot of 1678 , which triggered a series of conflicts between the royal throne and the “puppet” parliament leading to the emergence of two dominant political tendencies namely the Tories and the Whigs . The basic difference between Whigs and Tories in the 1600s was their view on the limits of government role & power in civil rule . Tories wanted to retain strong kingship. The Whigs preferred more citizens rights and more say on who governs them. In time, as Parliament took greater control of civil government the Whigs and Tories developed into organized parties.

The history of the advent of politics in America took a different route. The leaders of the American Revolution did not like the idea of parties and political battles between parties. Upon his retirement from public life in 1796, George Washington warned Americans against “factions” (or parties). James Madison thought parties were probably necessary, although he did not entirely approve of them. Alexander Hamilton ( who was later considered by many as the architect of American multiply party style of democracy) thought that faction was a vice to be guarded against at all times. Thomas Jefferson declared in 1789, “If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.” Nevertheless, the men who held these views did more than any other perooms to found the first two great American political parties.

Nearer home in Nigeria,  The Nigerian National Democratic Party(NNDP) was Nigeria’s first political party. Formed in 1923 by Herbert Macaulay to take advantage of the new Clifford Constitution, the NNDP successfully organized various Lagos interest groups into a single group that was able to compete politically. The NNDP ran many candidates for seats in the 1922 elections for the Lagos Legislative Council, winning three seats.The party continued to dominate politics in Lagos until 1938, when the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) overtook it in elections. Following the 1959 constitution and it’s consequent events , new parties emerged like the NPC, the NCNC, the AG, which held sway in the three post independence regions. The series of military interventions, scuttled our democracy and only permitted occasional  pop up of military designed democratic experiments once a while .

A major departure from the 1959 ,1963 Republics was the later effort to transition from the previous regional Poliitcal Parties to  well integrated national political parties like the NPN, NRC and more recently the PDP and the current ruling party , the APC , all of which have operating party constitutions required by law to ensure equitable nationwide inclusiveness in the structure and operation of the Parties.

Typical Political Party Structures and Arrangements:

Typically political parties are organised into Ward , Local Government, State and National chapters guided by a constitution and managed by persons elected to serve the Party.

Discipline, Commitment and loyalty as critical success factors in the running of Political Parties:

Every political party , except those in totalitarian or one party democracies is constantly in competition for elective office & access to state power with other parties.

The end objective of every political party is to win elections and take over power. Everything else pales into insignificance. Therefore its a moot point to make that only the most formidable and most capable in the field has the best chance of winning, all things being equal.

Here lies the wisdom in this commendable conference initiative aimed at calling attention to the three critical success factors in party organisation, namely Discipline, Commitment and Loyalty.

Let me talk very quickly about the three.

Discipline:

This attribute speaks essentially to work ethic, order, decorum, submission  and compliance with laid down procedures. The extreme opposite of discipline is lawlessness which can snowball into anarchy. Any political party with very low level of internal discipline is already seriously disadvantaged in the competition arena.

Commitment

This defines the attribute of self-motivation, due diligence, result orientated, selfless sacrifice, group-interest focused , team-manship. Commitment makes you work without comparing with others & easily stands you out in the crowd for higher responsibility & honour.

Loyalty

Because politics thrives essentially in the confidential mode with many layers of caucuses which frequently collude & conspire in pursuit of common or group interests aimed at winning both real & anticipated competing interests , this element of loyalty is considered priceless in the building of Political teams and structures.

In human psychology, there is always an interplay of two dominant factors which affect the element of loyalty namely: principles and personal interest. In my view the overriding parameter is integrity because once integrity is in tact , most human beings can openly identify with what is ruling their choice: between personal interest & principles.

There is a very old saying by a Greek philosopher that “Loyalty is a very expensive commodity and to simply expect that a cheap person can acquire it , is to deceive oneself “.

Now in the context of Political Parties organisation and management, 99.99% loyalty is often not enough since that outstanding 0.01% might be all the competition would need to tip the balance of power in their favour.

Defining leadership in the context of Political Parties organisation and management.

Following the classical model for dealing with  leadership identification and selection , I have deduced ten core distinguishing attributes, namely :

– Leadership naturally evolves and if forced, often becomes unsustainable.

– Leadership is rooted in knowledge, truth,  clarity of vision, temperament, courage and discipline.

– Leadership is far-sighted , strategic, patient and also hawkish .

– Leadership is naturally drawn to equity, fairness, justice & defends the oppressed.

– Leadership loves peace but is always ready for war , if war will deliver justice.

-Leadership is always ready to listen ; ready to learn ; quick to grasp and adapts with full conviction. Abhors self deceit.

– Leadership quickly establishes individual performance reliability in the team  , then delegates with trust & confidence.

– Leadership leads by example and is a natural team builder / coach.

– Leadership prefers results to excuses.

-Leadership is truly God fearing.

Let me emphasize that every leader has opportunity to grow capacity organically , from one level to the next through experience gathered in the course of his/her political career.

This is such that a young politician , emerging as a leader at the Ward level can , if he continues to apply himself , develop his leadership skills through discipline, commitment and loyalty, can  grow to become a national leader within the time span of fifteen to twenty years.

There is of course also the problem of poor leadership which weakens , distorts and disrupts the organization / capacity  of the Party to compete effectively.

Such ineffective leadership , though in positions of authority, often find themselves forever struggling to be truly in charge; struggle to keep the team well bonded, disciplined, coordinated  & focused ;  and typically such a poorly led team tend to be more vulnerable to election defeats.

Finally, let me quote our people , who say that once the head of a fish has started smelling, then you can be sure the fish is rotten.

Without the correct quality of Leadership at the helm of affairs in every human endeavor the three critical enterprise success factors of discipline, commitment and loyalty would remain in short supply and in the case of a Political Party, ability to build a formidable election winning machinery can be severely compromised.

Factors which engender discipline, commitment and loyalty in a Political Party.

– Clear authority and responsibility lines.

– Effective and productive division of Labour.

– Ring-fencing of operational boundaries to prevent overzealous persons spilling over their duty boundaries.

– Team configured along horizontal , not vertical communication to encourage effective  output & blending of nee ideas and innovation.

– A truly fair &  merit based model for sharing opportunities, promotions and advancements.

– A very robust , vertically integrated disciplining & mentoring system with no sacred  cows or untouchables.

– Clear & consistently balanced accountability standards.

I sincerely hope that something in this paper, no matter how small,  would become useful to us all in our different leadership locations & that each of us would leave here more enlightened and empowered to work for our Party, the All Progressives Congress Party of Nigeria, the Party firmly determined to deliver a new Nigeria , free from mind boggling corruption, electoral theft & impunity , nationwide insecurity. A party focused on rejuvenating our dead local economy ; conserving our foreign exchange earnings; achieving self sufficiency both  in agriculture and the manufacture of basic necessities.

Now coming closer home , the failure of the PDP administration in the State to let we the people know precisely what it’s tenure defining development agenda items are , is a clear confirmation of Leadership failure.

The now routine practice of the  Wike Government  to award all sorts of mushroom projects which are not derived from any known central development agenda or master plan is a clear confirmation of Leadership failure.

The unceasing voluntary resignations from the Wike Government by cabinet members and highly respected  senior aides is a clear confirmation of Leadership failure.

Evidently, the State is tired of the status quo. The State is super ready and waiting for a change in leadership.

I have no iota of doubt that through this & similar ongoing initiatives to build up the critical attributes of political leadership , discipline, commitment and loyalty from the grassroots up ,it will be increasingly clear to our people that our great Party , the APC is fully prepared to fill the yawning leadership gap in the State come 2019 . All hands on deck for the task ahead.

I thank you all

God bless our Party &

God bless Rivers State.

 

Hon. Engr. Beks Dagogo-Jack OFR, FNSE, FNIM