Nigeria’s politics suffers from lack of ideological events — Ex-presidential candidate

A former presidential candidate, Shitu Kabir, has blamed Nigeria’s deepening political disaster on the absence of ideological political events.

Kabir, a former chief of the Superior Individuals’s Democratic Alliance and ex-chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, argues that the failure to construct events round clear beliefs has entrenched desperation, opportunism and a winner-takes-all tradition.

He spoke throughout an interview on ARISE Tv on Wednesday, the place he defended his resolution to hitch the ruling All Progressives Congress regardless of his long-standing criticism of Nigeria’s dominant events.

In response to him, Nigeria’s refusal to embrace ideological get together politics and proportional illustration has left the nation “in a large number,” the place politicians are pushed largely by private acquire relatively than concepts.

“We wouldn’t have discovered ourselves on this mess that we discovered ourselves, as a result of it’s a large number the place all people simply is aware of ideology is absent.

“We have now no ideological political events now. All we wish is to discover a solution to simply get what I wish to get,” Kabir mentioned.

He recalled that in his tenure as IPAC chairman, proposals had been submitted to the Nationwide Meeting to introduce proportional illustration and reform native authorities electoral processes, arguing that such measures would have strengthened Nigeria’s democracy.

Kabir mentioned proportional illustration would have diminished political desperation by guaranteeing that events securing important vote shares nonetheless gained legislative illustration.

“If we had carried out proportional illustration, when a political get together wins 20 to 30 per cent of votes, they’d have sure percentages of legislators awarded to them.

“That promotes ideology,” he mentioned, including that lawmakers would then be free to persistently undertaking conservative or progressive concepts with out concern of whole political exclusion.

He argued that the present system fuels defections as a result of electoral winners take every thing, leaving others to attend one other 4 years with no stake in governance.

Responding to questions on why he joined the APC regardless of warning towards events with out ideology, Kabir insisted his ideas remained intact, saying ideology couldn’t be constructed “in isolation.”

“You can not construct or propagate an ideology and stand alone. Below the Nigerian structure, you have to be in a political get together with a view to compete,” he mentioned, including that reforming the system from inside remained attainable.

Kabir rejected claims that his transfer mirrored opportunistic defections forward of the 2027 elections, sustaining that it was “not but late” to construct ideological political events in Nigeria.

He additionally linked weak ideology to Nigeria’s over-centralised federal construction, arguing that devolution of energy would strengthen grassroots politics and scale back cross-party migration.

“While you devolve energy, it provides monetary and political energy to the federated items,” he mentioned, noting that stronger native management would drive nationwide events to barter based mostly on concepts and pursuits relatively than patronage.

Looking forward to the 2027 elections, Kabir mentioned the polls would nonetheless be aggressive however conceded that Nigerian politics had but to develop into idea-driven.

“We have now not constructed that ideological bridge,” he mentioned, including that voter inducement and weak democratic tradition remained main challenges.