THE STRUCTURE IS DEAD; LONG LIVE THE STRUCTURE!

Peter Obi has done a great job of riding on the current wave of public anger against “structures” and, by extension, APC and PDP, writes  PAUL NWABUIKWU

Young Nigerians in the burgeoning Peter Obi political warship, currently berthed in the Labour Party, are not impressed by suggestions that their support for the fledgling party and the former Anambra State governor is “a waste” because there is no “structure” to translate their enthusiastic support into electoral victory.

On social media, they have responding with dripping disdain and creative contempt.

In tweets, posts, short videos and skits, they are giving the middle finger to those mocking their efforts, insisting that, structure or no structure, the movement will deliver President Peter Gregory Obi on May 29, 2023.

Propelled by audacity and an infectious passion, the Obidient brigade has no time for doubters in their blistering campaign to upend the Nigerian political system and recreate it in the image of their hero. You cannot help but respect their efforts.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the Peter Obi movement is unprecedented. Nigeria has had many charismatic politicians with a talent for moving crowds in the past. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Samuel Akintola, Aminu Kano, Bola Ige, K.O. Mbadiwe are a few examples.

But an outsider with a message of technocratic capacity and “revolutionary frugality” who flaunts his aversion to giving bribes in a country where money politics reigns is definitely a new phenomenon.

When you hear youths, many unemployed, screaming “we no dey give shishi” in agreement with the Obi flavour of politics, you know something fresh, something potentially revolutionary may be in the offing.

But the supporters of the former governor, a charismatic speaker with a high voice and folksy charm, are not the only Nigerians who have little faith in current political party strcutures dominated by two main parties – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressive Congress (APC).

Popular Abuja clergywoman and head of the Family Worship Centre, Pastor Sarah Omakwu also shares the contempt of Obi’s supporters for a political system that has failed to deliver a decent life for the vast majority of Nigerians in a society where things are falling apart and virtually every Nigerian who can afford to is escaping abroad.

She took the mutiny against conventional political structures a notch higher last week. In a trending video, she declared to the roaring endorsement of the congregation: “you are going to get your PVC, and we are going to waste our votes!”, adding “Where ever there is (political party) structure, don’t vote.”

Omakwu was not done yet. “Structure has taken away power from us, structure does not have electricity, structure is killing people, structure has left us jobless, structure has killed us; so, we will be structureless and we shall waste our votes”, she thundered. She then made a clear pitch for “the candidate that they say doesn’t have structure”, even though she did not identify Obi by name.

Given that the two main parties have collectively monopolized power since the commencement of the current Republic in 1999, and the country is in currently going through serious, even existential economic and political challenges, it is not surprising that Nigerians are angry with them for producing “leaders” who have wrecked our dreams.

The hostility to the PDP-APC duopoly is therefore understandable. But the truth about “structures”, “vote wasting” and the journey to our present awful situation is a bit more nuanced.

First, it is not possible to do without structures in any political system. The functions, the rituals and the ceremonies of liberal democracy require structures for education, mobilization, engagement, campaigning, voting and the other processes that culminate in producing elected leaders at different levels and democratic governance for a specified period. Modern political parties, along with electoral and parliamentary systems began in Europe and America in the 19th century, have become a critical component of the process.

Since citizens cannot congregate in a village square to point out their preferred leaders, political parties are an absolutely necessity. In fact, even a “village square democracy” like the robust communalist versions in Igbo land still requires structures.  Without them, “wasting votes” would be a moot point because you need structures to vote and make votes count in the first place.

In the final analysis, the hostility to “structures” is not a rejection of structures per se but a rejection of the dominance of the two main parties whose performance falls far short of the expectation of Nigerians. Nigerians want to break the stranglehold of political parties which are better known for serving godfathers rather than citizens; whose most active members are corrupt “chieftains” and thugs; parties which encourage the large-scale stealing of public funds at the expense of the public good;  which help to sabotage the aspirations for a greater nation and leave our collective dreams in the dust.

Peter Obi has done a great job of riding on the current wave of public anger against “structures” and, by extension, APC and PDP, by declaring that “the people are the structures”. In other words, he is working to create room for a structure to cater for his escalating number of supporters. Thus the ongoing discussions with Rabiu Kwankwaso’s NNDP to a new structure to take on and defeat the APC and PDP behemoths. It’s the most sensible approach because in the a system where region, religion and ethnicity remain the main “ideologies”, no politician, however popular, can bridge the chasms and win the presidency without such alliances.

The second point is that the it is not totally true that structures have always failed. PDP has lately become an underperforming and uninspiring opposition party but under Obasanjo especially, the party delivered an economic renaissance after the terrible military years that improved the lives of Nigerians and boosted economic opportunities for the private sector. In fact, it could be argued that the failure of “structures” is largely a post-2015 phenomenon. But of course, these kinds of distinctions are not very popular right now because Nigerians are simply too hungry and angry to listen. More important, the awful performance of PDP governors like Okezie Ikpeazu and is fresher in the public memory than the party’s past exploits. Underperforming “structures” cannot expect to retain public goodwill. Democracy doesn’t work that way.

Paul Nwabuikwu is a member of THISDAY Editorial Board