Both the PDP and APC need to introduce measures to train their members on developmental policies as we enter 2020

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) As Nigeria clocks 60, we simply have to bring our democracy up to scratch as at the moment, our politics is still at the kindergarten level. Two parties dominate the political landscape and they both leave a lot to be desired when it comes to policy formulation

(2) When President Umaru Yar’Adua took over in 2007, he lamented the fact that there were no think tanks in Aso Rock. He said his government had to start policy formulation from scratch. Now, that process would have been easy if the PDP had its internal policy unit but alas, his party was made up of sycophants, those who saw politics as an enterprueneral activity and ethno-religious champions. They were of no use whatsoever when it came to developing the economy

(3) We have a scenario where neither the APC or PDP have any coherent policies on health, education, economic diversification, housing, security, transport, industrialisation, sports, security, etc. You rise up within both parties if you a good loyalist, even if you have an intelligence quotient of minus 50. When such sycophants and praise-singers become ministers, governors, senators, commissioners, etc we then expect them to perform miracles in office

(4) In any other walk of life, there is a thing called in-house training whereby you brush up the skills level of your staff. In Nigerian politics, neither of the two main parties have made any attempt to improve the quality of their memberships. If you ask the average APC or PDP member to outline their party’s agriculture policy for instance, they will stare at you like a deer caught in the headlights of a moving truck

(5) As a people, we are still reeling from the effects of decades of military rule whereby loyalty to the oga at the top, is the sole requirement for rising up the ladder. When you see the number of people who defect between the APC and PDP, it is clear that intellectual thought, loyalty to principles or adherence to policy is something they consider “big big grammar.” I am yet to meet 12 APC or PDP party members who have impressed me with policy detail. In fact I can count such people on one hand - Yemi Osinbajo, Ben Bruce-Murray, Pat Utomi, just to mention a few

(6) If Atiku had won the last election, about one third of the APC party members would have defected to the PDP. All those chanting Sai Baba today would have been screaming Articulate and defending any policies of an Atiku government

(7) Most of those thugs used over the last few weeks to beat up civil rights activists, to organise protests outside court premises and to defend the indefensible are APC party members. Make no mistake about it, over the next 10 years, these will be the people in government. It is naive in the extreme to expect them to then engage in any serious intellectual thought. They do not rise up the ranks between of their ideas but because of their loyalty to the Oga at the top

(8) As we enter 2020, both parties need to address this by sending their members to Europe and North America for six month periods to see how political parties work. They need to be given courses on policy formulation, how the rule of law works, attention to detail, implementation of government objectives and the economy of public finances

(9) If you have to take courses and sit exams to do everything else in life, why is the governance of society exempt from this? There should be a minimum score which every APC or PDP member is required to make of their party membership should be downgraded to that of “supporter not eligible for office.” I do not understand how a man or woman who defends armed security operatives storming a courtroom, the promotion of nomadism in 2019 or the beating up of civil rights campaigners can be allowed to hold public office. Such people have not been groomed to better our society, they have been indoctrinated to see power as a means in itself

(10) If every member of the APC and PDP was made to take at least a one-year course on all these subject areas and mandated to score at least 60% in an examination in each of them, I believe we would see a massive improvement in the quality of governance in Nigeria. At the moment, ignoramuses are having a field day