Daniel Bwala and politicians like him

If democracy in Nigeria were the way it is meant to be, spokesperson to the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 elections, Daniel Bwala’s recent conduct would be nothing to worry about.

By the ideals of democracy, elections are just events in the sequential growth of this system of government. During electioneering, partisans exert themselves to all ends possible to sell themselves and de-market the opponent. It is the game of the trade, and that should ordinarily not worry anyone.

Take campaigns towards this year’s election in the United States of America, for example. The cantankerous former president and aspirant of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, deploys all arsenals, including personal deficiencies and ailments, against his opponent and sitting president, Joe Biden. Biden himself does not take things lying low. As often as he has the opportunity, “sleeping Joe”, as Trump derisively refers to the American president, hits back at his opponent. So, the tensions and antagonism of electioneering are understandable and accepted, even in the most advanced democracies. Things, however, change the moment elections are won.

When mature politicians reach that juncture, good governance and the well-being of the country and its people take the edge. Partisan and personal interests take the back seat, and governance comes to the front burner. Collaborations and compromises are in the right place at this point, and even in situations where the philosophies of parties clash or where the parliamentary system allows stiff opposition structures, contestations are mostly hinged on divergent views about what is best for the people and their country. Every stakeholder sees to it that this happens.

Former President Barack Obama told an unforgettable story in The Audacity of Hope. Upon his 2004 election to the United States Senate, he joined other senators at a breakfast meeting with President George Walker Bush.

After eating their fill and the meeting ended, Obama heard the president yell his name, “Obama!” Then Bush beckoned the Illinois senator to come over for a brief chat.

The book accounts as follows: “Come here and meet Laura. Laura, you remember Obama. We saw him on TV during election night. He has a beautiful family. And that wife of yours – that’s one impressive lady.”

“We both got better than we deserve, Mr. President,” I said, shaking the First Lady’s hand and hoping I’d wiped any crumbs off my face. ”

“Come over here for a second,” he said, leading me to one side of the room.
“You know,” he said quietly, “I hope you don’t mind me giving you a piece of advice.”
“Not at all, Mr. President.”
He nodded. “You’ve got a bright future,” he said.

“Very bright. But I’ve been in this town a while, and let me tell you, it can be tough. When you get a lot of attention like you’ve been getting, people start gunning’ for you. And it won’t necessarily be coming from my side, you understand. From yours, too. Everybody’ll be waiting for you to slip. Know what I mean? So, watch yourself.”

Obama thanked the president for the advice, and the meeting ended. Four years later, Obama was elected the first African American leader of the most powerful country in the world, as if Bush had some clairvoyance.

What I find most interesting in this encounter is that someone elected on the platform of the Republican Party could give such valuable advice to a politician from the opposing Democratic Party. There, despite the murkiness of politics, governance is a different ballgame. Even though politicians pursue personal interests, the people and the country are the ultimate motivation, and they are ready to sacrifice as much as is humanly possible for their country. This was why former Vice-President Mike Pence stood by the American constitution against Trump’s shenanigans in 2020.

But Nigeria’s political elite does not believe in anything but itself. First, there are no principles other than personal gain behind their politics. This is why a huge percentage of those in politics in Nigeria in this fourth republic have traversed most of the political parties in the country. As professor of political science, O.B.C Nwolise usually told his students at the University of Ibadan in those days, politics here is only about Amala and Gbegiri; it is about the stomachs and pockets of the gladiators who would do anything and everything to remain in reckoning. There is nothing as national interest in the understanding of most Nigerian politicians. This is one of the reasons that the people find Bwala’s pillar to post close marking of President Tinubu’s movement suspicious. I will explain.

The Borno state-born politician portrays himself as a nationalist whose interest is only in national development, but that is an impeachable posture. Let us start from a few months before the election when this man decided to defect from the All Progressives Congress (APC), from which he served as a thorn in the flesh of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), hitherto.

In July 2023, Bwala left the APC, stating that the choice of Senator Kashim Shettima as the running mate of the then Candidate Tinubu ran against his conviction as a Christian. He claimed that the ticket excluded some sections of the country from the dividends of democracy and that he would not be part of such an arrangement. Bwala immediately became the spokesperson to Tinubu’s frontline opponent, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, and sometimes went against his promise not to malign Tinubu, whom he said he still held in respect.

But even this position was hypocritical because the PDP, his newly found home, was also involved in a fratricidal strife over another layer of Nigeria’s multi-dimensioned primordial sentiments. Although Bwala’s kinsman from the north got the PDP ticket, some party members from the south felt this was unacceptable. They argued that Nigeria has had a northern leader in the eight years preceding 2023 and that it was time for a power shift to the south! Bwala followed the northern man, and even became his spokesperson! So, how did he find agitations over religious totalitarianism more abominable than ethnic oppression?

More importantly, however, politicians who genuinely love Nigeria should neither allow these primordial interests to guide them nor propagate the ideas to Nigerians. This is more so when the people went ahead to elect this same Muslim-Muslim ticket that Bwala and his friends left the APC for.

Although he has not announced an intention to go back to his former party, he wouldn’t be doing anything illegal if he did. Whatever anyone says, it is within his right to be with any political party he chooses, and we cannot grudge him for it. However, there is the moral question of what happens to his numerous followers who followed his previous arguments and changed political affiliations. Does he plan to apologise to Nigerians for this flip-flop and tendency to underrate the people’s intelligence in all his pontifications?

This point takes us back to the selfish character of Nigerian politicians and their lack of regard for the people. Our politicians practice their politics without principles, so we get our politics wrong. Incidentally, principled politics is the vehicle for responsible governance, so if we continue to get our politics wrong, we cannot get governance right.

Now, Nigerian politics is just about those who ply it. It is not about the people; it is not about the country. As it is, Nigeria has only two political parties: the haves and the have-nots. This is why you have the desperation and do-or-die attitude that promotes corruption and hatred and a winner-take-all attitude that heats the polity. Is it not unimaginable that politicians are already scheming for 2027, less than one year after an administration was sworn in.

Students of politics and social psychology need to study more intensely the socio-psychological makeup of Nigerian political actors and scientifically interrogate why they are impatient and unable to stay out of power. We just cannot continue this way.

Adedokun can be reached on X: @niranadedokun