Ayisha Osori: How Ordinary Nigerians Can Change the Game of Politics

Pep Naija on August 4 hosted Ayisha Osori, a great Nigerian lawyer and journalist, on #CitizensHangout. There, she passionately revealed many dysfunctions of Nigerian politics. Not only that, she did offer practical solutions.

She ran for house of reps in 2015. Her book, ‘Love Does Not Win Elections’ mirrors her experience of Nigeria’s political scene. Called to Bar in Nigeria in 1998 and in the state of New York in 2010, Aisha is brilliant and assertive. ENJOY READING…

Q1. What are the key factors keeping ordinary Nigerians away from participating in active politics?

There are several factors which keep most of us from active politics. The first is the strong perception that it is for rogues and ne’er-do-wells; this is reinforced by the behaviour of those in public office. There is also the violence associated with politics, the rigging & mud slinging associated with campaigns as well as the high financial costs of contesting.

Some are disenchanted with our politics & the electoral process & have given up hope that it can produce the type of leadership our future deserves. I use this phrase ‘type of leadership our future deserve’ conscious of the fact that it is often said that we ‘deserve the leadership that we have’ and while I understand where that sentiment flows from, I find it hard to accept.

My children, my nephews and nieces, and all children like them do not deserve this leadership and have not contributed to the current state of affairs – how can we prepare for a better future for them if we accept on their behalf that there is little we can do about the leadership that we currently have?

Q2. What problems have we encountered (and what prospects lie) in sustaining democracy in Nigeria?

The major problem in my mind is the lack of transparency in the electoral process. This starts with the political parties and how they are constituted, how their leadership is selected all the way down the procession line to the transparency around membership and delegate selection. This opacity is carried over to the primary process and into the elections itself where other agents get involved.

The way parties submit candidates names to INEC and the perversion of discretion hailed by our courts who have ruled that parties selection of candidates is an internal affair. What this means is that a person can win the primaries, but the name submitted by the party to INEC is someone else and that travesty of justice will stand because the party leadership is all knowing.

Then there is the actual election itself where vote collation is mired in more darkness after the farce of voting. Farce because in many places, far from the areas where international observers are safe, candidates deal with vote buying, rigging, ballot snatching, intimidation of voters, murder, mayhem, arrest of opposition party leaders etc.

The impact on our democracy is that the quality of leadership is poor and the accountability between the governed and the governors is weak. As a result we, collectively, have little to show – poor infrastructure, lack of basic social services (fire engines, public health & education) and we live in an increasingly violent and insecure environment.

We have lived through these types of cycles and it results in an environment conducive for undemocratic elements such as the military to claim the right to ‘address the challenges’. This is the ultimate threat to democracy because we then flood the streets in jubilation not realising that we are not really solving the underlying problems merely attempting to treat the symptoms and delaying the hard decisions which need to be taken.

The strong mutual suspicion and lack of trust between various people of different faiths and ethnic groups is also a problem. It makes it difficult for us to be rational and fair in our assessment of our current governance framework (constitutional arrangements etc.) and what is required to help us develop political and governance structures which will aid investment, competition and productivity.

For prospects please see answer to Question 8 below.
Join us as we discuss, how ordinary Nigerians can change game of Politics

Q3. Considering your experience with politics, what secrets do Nigerians need to know to break ranks?

Some of what we need to know include: one, politics is an industry in Nigeria – there are generations involved in the sector, they are entrenched & comply with federal character. Two, politics can be noble and serving ones country should be a thing of honour which attracts the best talent and values. Three, nature abhors a vacuum. If people who know or are better concede the space to those who see politics as a business venture, then we will all continue to suffer.

Q4. You once said that ‘Change can only take place from within the parties and not from outside’ – what exactly do you mean?

Not sure I said that… The quote must have been taken out of context or my views have changed on the subject.J It cannot be that the change we seek with our political process and its output can only happen within the political parties. There is room for participation and activism within and outside the parties.

However, without independent candidacy, the change we want within the parties is unlikely to happen without internal and external agitation. Right now, most of the agitation for ‘change’ in party processes is coming from the outside predominantly from civil society.

We are slowly seeing a few pockets of opposition to current practice from within e.g., with the APC and the Lagos LG Polls where some members are unhappy with the idea of one person determining who the party candidates would be.

Only party members have legitimacy to complain and organise around how parties are organised. Party members are in the best position to fight the current structures of parties with unknowable party members, suspect delegates, appointed leadership (instead of elected) and pretend primaries etc.

From the outside, non party members have a right to also organise to reject parties which don’t portray their values whatever those may be. For those of us bothered by the fluidity of party membership, we can reject parties that have no clear membership criteria.

Most associations have membership criteria which allows them to reject members. Why is it impossible for our parties to say ‘this person has not had a decent track record in terms of personal life or political representation or cannot account for his/her wealth’ and as such we do not want this person to belong? Outside the parties we can also organise around party candidates based on public service record or otherwise.

It is through a mix of internal and external action that we will get what we want from the political parties and process. Some activities are best undertaken from the inside and this is why we need more people joining parties and some activities can be undertaken from the outside which is why we need more people participating in the political process (registering to vote, campaigning, organising and voting).

Q5. Is it possible to change governance in Nigeria without being a member of any political party?

Yes it is and my answer to Q4 above provides some insights. In addition to organising to reject parties that do not reflect our values or whose candidates are habitual under-performers (no need to repeat class to address failures as Lucky Igbinedion’s father reportedly begged Edo constituents) we need to start thinking innovatively about how we can organise to improve the public sector.

The most important factors in propelling us to demand for change should be genuine love for our country and the understanding that change will take time and as such strong commitment is required from us. It is also vital that we reject the politics of division – we can celebrate our diversity – the wonderful cultural practices we have around marriages and births – our glorious food, fashion, art and music – and promote our being Nigerian above all else.

We must leave the politics of ‘one north’ and the race to the bottom which our fake competition for public sector ‘representation’ is dragging us to. Nigeria needs people who will invest in him and not people who see him as a cake to be carved into personal pieces. If we do not love this country and care for it, we will all suffer. Right now Nigeria is not being managed by those who love this country. They say they do, but by their actions, we know they don’t.

We need to create options & possibilities so we raise future generations who value productivity, healthy competition, merit & responsibility

Q6. Women are side-lined in Nigerian politics, what can be done to reverse this trend?

Dealing with the toxicity of patriarchy will take generations but in the short to mid-term what we can do to ensure fairer representation of women in politics and governance is to make politics and governance more about service and less about benefits and perks.

The do-or-die mentality associated with politics is not about people who want to die serving the country – it is about people who want to die to keep their access to public funds. This to me is the number 1 reason women are not wanted in politics – it is tied to patriarchy and the belief that man is the hunter and in our society, politics is about hunting, looting, killing and sharing and so women are not needed, except for the unique ones amongst us who are happy to kill and share.

The implication is that women should sit at home and wait for their men to bring ‘their share’ home. I am sure sociologists can tie this in to how important it is in our society for women to be married – because we know that access to the biggest and safest portions of anything is tied to access to a man.

Long term, we need to socialise girls and boys differently through our educational curriculum, our art and our literature. We need to create the options and possibilities through these mediums so we raise future generations who value hard work, productivity, healthy competition, merit and responsibility.

Women also need to organise better. One major draw back to the current advocacy to increase the numbers of women in elected and appointed positions is that it relies heavily on the existing structures. I understand working within the grain (what already exists no matter how imperfectly) but there must be support for those willing to work against the grain and this is what is lacking.

All the other factors which inhibit people’s active participation in politics (mentioned in the answer to Q1 above) also work against increasing the representation of women in politics and if we work on mitigating or removing those factors, we will see more of the right type of women and men becoming involved in politics.

Q7. What is your view or recommendations on the #NotTooYoungToRun bill?

#NotTooYoungToRun bill and those who have organised around it must be commended. There is a lot for many of us in civil society to learn from them. They have worked hard and persistently to get to this point of success and built a coalition of agents within and outside the political system. The objectives are also sound – if we are old enough to vote, we should be old enough to contest as well and there are many countries which place no age restrictions on those who can contest.

Ability, track record, passion, agency, network, resources – all these things should be more important than how old you are and I have met people younger than me who are wise beyond their years (and mine!) and old people who make me tell my children: ‘respect is not automatic, don’t give it to every grey hair you meet’.

Right now I am hopeful that despite the flaws in the current constitutional review and amendment process, that bills such as this one will become law. I also hope that those who work hard to make it law will not rest but continue organising to ensure that the law lives beyond paper and ink and is tested constantly at every election.

Q8. How exactly can Nigerians change the game of politics? 

In addition to some of the things I have mentioned above there are other ways that we can create a momentum for changing politics in Nigeria.

1.      Change the narrative around what it means to be in politics & public service. Politics can and should be noble, it does not have to be a ‘dirty game’ and should not be reserved for the worst of us or those who have nothing better to do. We can use our movies, art, literature and civics curriculum to do this.

2.      Raise socially and politically conscious children. I voted for the first time when I was 39 because what I had picked up around me was that I could live my life comfortably outside the craziness of a dysfunctional state. I soon realised that the public is the private & vice versa and there was no escape from the madness of Nigeria unless I migrated…and migrated with all my friends and family. I quickly joined the fray for a better Nigeria.

3.      More of us need to get involved. Let us join parties in our hundreds of thousands with a clear agenda and change them from within.

4.      Create new parties with new models for existence (membership, financing, primaries etc.) & take the long-term view to making the impact we need. Build a values driven movement within the party which recruits, conscripts and retains ruthlessly and without emotion. It could take 20 years to start making gains which is why we need the young people 18+ getting involved right now

5.      We must deliberately shun the current ‘model’ for politics and political parties which has been in use before 1960. UK Labour Party targeted the young who until then had been labelled ‘apathetic’ but by including them and speaking to their issues, Labour has made phenomenal strides including getting 90k young people registered to vote in one day.

6.      Tap into models which have worked elsewhere – UK Labour party used Chatter and Platform to engage young people – all tech based applications. What tech based applications are we using to organise and mobilise? We already have successes in organising i.e., #BBOG, crowd sourcing funds for worthy causes and occasionally demanding for accountability from government officials – let’s build on that.

7.      We must internalise the fact that those who have destroyed our commonwealth and amplified the divisions and mistrust amongst us are fairly represented across the 6 geopolitical zones, 36 states and 2 major religions. We must consciously reject these people and their way of doing things and wean ourselves off this desire to fight the battles of those who are ‘from our place/pray like us’. If we do not live up to a solemn vow to build movements on entirely different models from those currently in power we will not achieve what we want. History is replete with stories of struggles to change the status quo – MLK and Ghandi come to mind…none of them used the tools /models of the oppressors to create change.

I believe in Nigeria for many reasons, but most of all because it is a place where if we are honest with each other, there is a lot that we have not tried/done yet. We are so fixated on surviving that we hold on tight to our existing models, despite the fact that they are not working for the majority of us. Hope lives.

Ayisha Osori ran for House of Reps in 2015. She tweets via @naijavote

Source: pepnaija.com