OPINION: Anti Party and Future of Nigeria Democracy
By Fred Latimore
By anti party activities or crime, it is meant the dubious, deceitful and unpredictable character of a party man or woman who decides to remain a member of his or her political party while working underground or secretly for a candidate or candidates of opposition party.
A constitution of all party frowns at anti party activities and in most cases the penalty for deviants is either suspension or expulsion from the party.
It therefore follows that those involved in anti party activities do so because they have issues to settle with their party candidates. Anti party agents can best be described as “backstabber” not only of the candidate but essentially of the political party.
The implication of anti party agency is that while the opposition party that benefitted from the dirty game is waxing stronger, the backstabber’s party gets weaker because while still in his party, he used the party structures to promote opposition candidate(s) to victory at the expense of his or her party.
In a nutshell, those involved in anti party criminality can again be described as internal enemies of their party which they claim to love and cherish.
Anti party agency is a game of deceit, betrayal and compromise. It can also be very lucrative in terms of monetary rewards depending on the size of the political structure involved in the deal.
It is therefore safe to assert that anti party activities can be a serious barrier to the advancement of democracy. Its a game of absolute revenge on a rival party member within same political party. It usually occurs before and during general elections.
Anti party is now a big business in Nigeria, wherein political bigwigs and strategists work against one or some of their own candidates; so as to give victory to the candidate or candidates of opposition party who maybe a long standing political associate but flying a ticket in the opposition party.
Those involved in anti party are secret agents of the opposition working for the success of a candidate or some candidates of the opposition, using internal structure of their parry to promote opposition for a fee or other tangible benefits.
There are alleged traces of anti party agency in the just concluded presidential and national assembly elections wherein organised and or group or caucus anti party activities upturned results in some wards, units, LGAs and Senatorial districts across Nigeria
It is strongly advised that credible political parties should put in place watertight structures and internal mechanism to unearth anti party activities. Reason being that anti party weakens the strength and membership of a political party.
Our democracy need to grow and core democrats must do the needful to build a virile and progressive representative government where anti party is reduced drastically; otherwise we stand the risk of distorting our nascent democratic experience, now bedeviled by anti party deals.
Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe, is the Executive Assistant on Communications to the Governor of Delta State. He wrote from Asaba.
