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We are at a time in Kogi State when people think and choose to believe that “THIRD FORCE AGENDA” should supercede the supremacy of the party they served in.” Isn’t that laughable?
Well, we are in a democratic era when people hold the constitutional right to make decisions they are so pleased with. However, isn’t it laughable and completely illogical to abandon a party in the name of “third-force politics”?
Now, let it be known that in 2015, it was a merger of parties and not “ethnic politics” borne out of the realization that #APCKogi cannot be a defeated party having Peoples Democratic party (PDP) to confront with that the All Progressives Congress (APC) merged and through concerted effort formed alliances, establishing demographic balances that ensured transtional political cooperation between the three senatorial districts.
For proper context, Nigeria’s current political landscape is predominantly controlled by two major parties: the APC and the PDP. These two-party dynamics have been prevalent in Kogi State since 1999 when Nigeria adopted democracy. Political contests in the country has always been between a ruling party, a major opposition party (or at most two) and other minor opposition parties at the background. Until 2015 when the marriage between CPC, a part of APGA and ACN was consummated, major opposition parties were largely representative of district voting blocs.
The third-force agenda usually represents politico-ethnicity or religious crusade. Its purported aims are usually unrealizable just as you have the ‘obedient movement ‘ crushed in the last presidential election.
For the records, the All Progressives Congress (APC) wouldn’t have displaced the hegemony that PDP represented in 2015 if there wasn’t a concerted effort whose resultant effect was largely via ethnic collaboration amongst the three senatorial districts of Kogi State. APC won through “party politics” not “ethnic or third force Agenda”. It was a collaborative effort owing to the fact that the interest of the party superceded any other interest as enshrined in the All Progressives Congress’s (APC’s) constitution.
So, when I read people crucifying others because he/she chooses to be loyal to the binding constitution of the All Progressives Congress (APC), I feel embarrassed. This is because governance is about the people and not for a sect or ethnicity. It’s not even a birthright. The earlier we begin to understand that Kogi State belongs to all of us and governance and elections are about the people irrespective of their ethnicity and religion, the better for us all.
The sudden chant of SDP, ADC and NNNP in Kogi State by some aggrieved APC members constitutes the biggest misfortune for PDP candidate Not APC candidate. Some reports suggest that some of them got an early signal that the ticket was irreversible. These reports suggested the major reasons for defecting (and some are about to defect) to another political party.
Today, social media has become tools for political mob actions against supporters of other candidates and political parties by the members of the third force (Politics of ethnicity). One had to either join them in embodying their bandwagon tendencies or risk being vilified and tagged an enemy of the land.
Truth must be told; politics is not banking. Isn’t it narrow to think that a one–man party accepted by a particular ethnicity can suddenly take the place of a major political party (APC) in the state? There is no point beating about, trying to reinvent that wheel of ethnicity. APC is largely made up of caucuses. A smart-thinking caucus of people whose position as men of ideas have a greater chance of putting forward one of his own or, at least, influencing choices and even policy and governance. This caucus cut across the three senatorial district of Kogi State.
This is not applicable to a sudden one-man party tied to ethnicity agenda.
I made bold to say that the APC is prepared for fabrics of ethnographic schisms that weaponizes our diversity and prevents many from adequately contemplating the consequences of such divisive inclinations with respect to politics of ethnicity against party supremacy.
As for political parties, the events of the 2023 general elections have further proved the fallacy of the third force that there must be mutuality of interest across religious and ethnographic settings for a party to succeed in a multi ethnic society like Kogi State.
– Abdulkadir Bin ABDULMALIK is a seasoned political analyst, Member of All Progressive Congress, APC Kogi State and writes from Lokoja, Kogi State. He can be reached via +234813641875
