NO PROGRESSIVE POLITICAL PARTY NOR POLITICIANS IN NIGERIA

No political grouping in the country, including the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), can be regarded as progressive entities. The country currently lacks progressive political individuals and groupings.

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The concept of progressivism is totally lacking against the backdrop of the current happenings in the country’s political landscape. It must be pointed out that a progressive politician or political party is one that pursues the collective interest and welfare of the society against self or group interest.

Presently, such was lacking in the polity at the moment. My definition of a progressive is somebody who places the welfare of the ordinary person, in this instance, the ordinary Nigerian above his personal, tribal, ethnic, group or sectional interest. That is why you cannot see any initiative that conforms to the ideals of progressivism that we know in Nigeria.

A progressive is someone who plays the kind of politics that advances the welfare of the greatest number of people in a society; and it shows by his deeds and examples. His actions must show that he is truly committed to public good and that he is not in politics to protect his self-interests. So, a progressive politician is one who seeks for the overall good of the society, who works for the good of others instead of working for him/herself.  He pursues the welfare and well-being of the entire citizenry instead of pursuing his own good to the detriment of others.

We have individuals who falsely lay claim to progressivism but there is no political grouping with a progressive ideology in the country for now. Even the APC that claims to be a progressive party is not one. How are they? Many of them use public offices to enrich themselves. It is only a rhetoric and propaganda that many of them use to shortchange Nigerians.

We are yet to have leaders who are progressives, because we have now tried virtually almost everybody and we see them in their true colours, when they get public positions. Once they get into public positions, they will start looking for their wives, brothers and sisters and put them in positions that they do not merit.

A progressive is somebody who undertakes social, economic, and in some cases, political reforms that will alter the status quo in favour of the downtrodden and move the society forward. In the case of a political party, therefore, a party is not progressive by the name it attaches to itself, it only becomes a progressive party by its actions. Therefore, if a party claims to be progressive, then there must be definite reforms that will not remind the people of where they are coming from. So, if a progressive party promises a change, it must be a change for the better with progressive ideas. But if that change is only limited to rhetoric, but not something that can be felt, seen or even touched, it doesn’t make the person or party pronouncing it a progressive.

We have a Nigerian definition of progressivism. From the First Republic to date, a progressive in Nigeria is defined as any politician who comes from the South-west with a background in the Action Group (AG) or its successor organisations. This is a claim because there is nothing to differentiate an AG man from an NPC, NCNC, NEPU or APC man. Each time political associations change in Nigeria, the successor of the AG be it UPN, AD, ACN or APC, they all call themselves progressives. But there is nothing differentiating a member of the APC from a member of the PDP.

Their relationship with the means of production is the same. They are all capitalists; they are all landlords; they are all owners of the latest property or industry. So, to be honest, of all the groups that we have in Nigeria today, nobody can call him/herself a progressive in the real sense of it because they are the same thing.

Therefore, there is no progressive political party in the country today. None of the present political parties is fighting for a different system of government other than a capitalist system. We don’t have a socialist party of Nigeria not to talk of a communist party of Nigeria. There is nothing differentiating say Bola Tinubu from Atiku Abubakar and Andy Ubah.

They are the same thing. Anybody who is a member of APC, PDP, SDP and all the registered political parties in the country that call himself a progressive is only trying to fool the masses. It is pure opportunism meant to win the support of the masses who are suffering, and who believe that those who call themselves progressives will solve their problems.

The political parties we have are just vehicles through which politicians win elections. And if you see the way people defect from one party to the other in this country, you will just know that there is no ideology behind the formation of political parties nor in participation in politics in this country. It is just about seeking power and resources; no more no less.