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Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Today, the only issue dominating public discourse is the Coronavirus pandemic. The virus which has claimed the lives of over 80,000 people has literally overwhelmed the world. All other activities have been suspended as various countries battle to contain the monster.
In Nigeria, the situation is not different even as there is a lull in virtually all the sectors of the nation’s economy. There is no gainsaying that the pandemic has brought an uneasy calm in the political turf which hitherto was always overheating the polity. For instance, not much is being heard of the endless rancour between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC). In abeyance is also the internal wrangling within the ruling party, especially the rift between the National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and his state governor, Godwin Obaseki and by extension, members of the Progressive Governors Forum.
Also, there seems to be graveyard peace in the camps of the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) over the rightful leadership of the body. The discussions and endless debate on the future of Nigeria over which tribe to produce the next president during the 2023 elections, have equally been paused and put on hold.
In place of the political activities, all efforts seem to be concentrated on fighting the scourge of the pandemic, COVID-19 with little or no distractions or attacks on one another by the political parties especially the opposition party, the PDP.
Commendably, since the outbreak of the disease and especially the attendant lockdown, precautionary measures instituted by the Federal Government to curtail its spread, various individuals, government agencies, legislators and corporate entities at home and world over have doled out various forms of palliatives to cushion the drastic effects on the less privileged.
In Nigeria, for instance, the federal, state governments, corporate community, international donors and philanthropic individuals have all contributed various sums of money into the relief fund basket to tackle the pandemic and ameliorate the hardship on the masses.
From the Federal Government with palliatives like the minor reduction in fuel pump price, the disbursement of funds to the vulnerable and poorest of the poor, the release of certain foodstuff from national food bank, to the generous contributions from elected and appointed individuals in government especially the Ministers and National Assembly members, various figures running into millions and billions of Naira have been bandied as relief package.
The corporate establishments and government agencies are not also left out. From the figures running into billions of Naira as contributions from the banks, philanthropists, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), stimulus funds and few political individuals among others, there have been display of magnanimity to curtail the spread of the pandemic.
While government has admitted receiving some of the donations in cash, kind and in the form of medical equipment, several others have only existed in the social media and have been refuted totally by the speculated donors.
However, as more donations have continued to roll into the relief fund basket, various registered political parties, numbering over 70, including the ruling party, the APC, have left many wondering if they are actually still part of the system.
Even when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) donated various items, ranging from buses to its offices across the country and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) promised to make its orientation camps habitable for the isolated victims, the political parties were not only conspicuously missing but became subjects of criticisms by well meaning Nigerians.
The actions and inactions of the political parties have become a source of worry considering the fact that a vibrant sector that has dominated discourse in the polity before the outbreak of the world health pandemic suddenly turned deaf and dumb.
Before now, on a daily basis, political activities from the parties took the front burner in the country. It was either the PDP was critical of the actions of the ruling party, the APC, or there will be intense bickering within the parties and among other minor political parties over sometimes trivial issues like leadership control, resulting in overheating of the polity.
If the APC was not reminding Nigerians of what it usually termed the monumental failure of the PDP’s 16-year rule, the PDP would be labelling the APC all manner of derogatory names, in the deliberate attempt to remain relevant.
But, the failure of the political parties to stand up to be counted in making financial contributions to the war against the pandemic has raised more questions than answers on whether or not the parties are only vehicles for electoral influence on the citizens.
Till now, there has been no single promise or commitment from any of the political parties on plans to donate to the relief funds basket. Their action has confirmed the speculations that the claims by the political parties to be masses-oriented in nature was only a farce to hoodwink and use the unsuspecting citizens as electoral instruments for election victories.
To a large extent, for all the political parties to watch heartlessly the masses they claim to be caring for, go through such agonies and pains helplessly and hopelessly, without being moved to intervene to rescue them, confirmed that they are either indifferent or they are not actually financially buoyant.
Many argue that the closest the political parties have done in terms of rendering any form of help to the Nigerian masses was the generous donations by some politicians as relief packages to their constituencies and country at large.
The action can only confirm the claims that many of the political parties exist only in name even as the registered owners use them for mercantile purposes and enrichment from desperate politicians that fund them during elections.
To some political watchers, the attitude of the political parties and the politicians may force the masses to reappraise whether they still deserve some respect from Nigerians when political activities take front burner after the battle against COVID-19 has been won and lost.
However, defending the inability of the parties to financially support the fight against the pandemic, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, argued that even as the APC has operated on a lean budget, and regretted that the party has relied on members and other activities to sustain itself financially.
“What is certain is that APC does not have the volume of money at the disposal of the PDP when they were in government. The APC relies solely on the funds generated from our members and other activities. Since we did not steal public fund to be in the category of the PDP, we may not be able to have such money to contribute,” he told Daily Sun on telephone from his forced isolation.
Buttressing the position of the APC spokesperson, the National Chairman of the Young Progressive Party (YPP), Bishop Emmanuel Amakri, said: “There is no doubt that at this time of solidarity, we should be saddled with the responsibility of helping each other regardless of party differences and affiliations.
“However, you raised a very pertinent observation on whether the political parties are financially buoyant enough to contribute to the national relief fund basket. I will admit that the political parties are financially constrained to make any contribution.
“We all know that since the days of Attahiru Jega as the Chairman of INEC, the political parties don’t get any subvention from the government or the electoral body. Since he stopped the funding, the truth is that political parties are not finding it easy financially. So, it will not come to many as a surprise if the parties did not make any contribution. We would not have done anything for a political party like the APC that does not believe in all inclusive government just like the PDP,” he quipped.
They are not alone in the assertion, as the President of IPAC, Peter Ameh, while corroborating others’ claim, said: “The truth is that the parties have no government subventions to run their activities. They have been surviving on the donations from the members and will be difficult to raise substantial amount of fund to contribute to the relief basket. Don’t also forget that most political party offices shutdown before the escalation of the pandemic and as such the paralysed activities have also made it impossible to contribute”
They however argued that though they did not contribute fund into the relief basket, they have been making sacrifices to alleviate the suffering masses in one way or the other through individual party members.
While defending his party, the APC spokesperson, said: “The party may not have made any donation, but, we have seen how members of the APC in appointive and elective positions have made sacrifices both at the executive and legislative cadre in support of the palliative to cushion the effects of the pandemic. It was under the APC government that we saw such things as members of the cabinet contributing 50 per cent of their salaries to fight the disease.”
Similarly, YPP boss, Amakri also noted: “For the YPP whose ideology is service to humanity, there are lots of packages we have planned as palliative for the suffering masses. Our constraint is the issue of lockdown which makes it difficult to get across our packages to the desired target.
“We want to avoid a situation where the ruling party or the government will use our party as scapegoat to shine politically should we attempt to gather people around. However, individually, we have also made some sacrifices by helping people in our neighbourhoods.
Expressing concerns over what becomes of the fund contributed into the relief fund as earlier highlighted by the PDP, the IPAC boss said: “It is a major fact that the parties have major responsibility to shine light on the money generated for public and private sector. There must be accountability of how it is managed and distributed.
“The parties equally have the social responsibility to note how the palliatives get to their communities and ward levels and they have also directed their leaders to monitor the distributions at all levels. We must ensure that the palliatives are shared across party lines. There must be across party line committee to decide the management of the funds generated to ensure it will be for the wellbeing of every Nigerian,” he argued.
However, responding to the call for accountability for the generated funds, the spokesperson chided the PDP and other political parties, lamenting that they could be politicising the situation as grievous as the pandemic.
According to Issa-Onilu; “As for the accountability, it is rather very sad that at this critical situation and period of our national life that the PDP and other political parties are still playing politics. Ideally, we ought to put aside whatever any difference we have and concentrate energy on how to move this nation forward.
“Let it be on record for the future that in the history of Nigeria, a political party called the PDP and others chose politics instead of rallying round and making its contributions towards solving this existential problem at hand. The picture PDP posts all the time is the pictures they are used to. Their fear was a confirmation of what happened for 16 years under the PDP government and it is not possible for such amount of fund to be donated and not shared under PDP.
“They cannot imagine that it is possible and it has confirmed also that they cannot operate beyond the experience they have had. Let me remind them that this is not under PDP era. We will ensure that everything will be accounted for and the good news is that the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 has repeatedly announced that the funds don’t come to it,” he quipped.
