Prof Anthony Kila is a Director at the Commonwealth Institute of Advanced and Professional Studies (CIAPS). In this interview, he speaks on the impact of throwing the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship ticket open in 2027 and denying defecting governors the opportunity of automatic tickets, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU reports

Do you think it is fair that governors who defected to the APC may not get automatic tickets as been speculated by the opposition political parties?

I think the spokespeople from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP)) are just playing politics. And that it’s unfair. They’re not being informative. They’re trying to be manipulative. They’re just trying to score points against the APC. But it must be said that the APC is at a low head and they’re frameable because there are two ways to look at the situation. One is to look at it from a logical and commonsensical viewpoint.

The other is to look at it from an experienced and practical viewpoint. Whichever way you look at it, the APC comes out badly. If you look at it from a logical and commonsensical point of view, it is very safe to assume that those who defected did so with some conditions and some conversations about their future. It’s incredible to believe that they defected without any conversations about their second term.

So, if they discussed it and they gave them hints or they assured them that they would get tickets and they didn’t pull away that assurance or agreement for them, it will tell you that the people in the APC are a group of people who do not keep to agreement, and who really cannot be trusted. If you look at it from another side, using experience and some practical factors, those who have knowledge of how primaries work, will tell you that primaries are really managed at the national level.

It is Abuja that sends those who will conduct primary elections and they are the ones who follow the process. In reality, if Abuja wants you to get a ticket in a state, you will get it. So, it’s a possibility that they’re just making this announcement to assuage some people and perhaps even gain some money from selling nomination forms and give their process some sort of validation.

But it still tells you they’re manipulative, they’re not transparent and they’re not straightforward with the people. On the other side, you have all those spokespeople just trying to be manipulative and trying to score some cheap points. But one thing I would like citizens to look at, and this is very important, is that with all these games going on, it is clear that politicians are dedicated to their own self-interest.

The reason why they switch parties has nothing to do with the benefit of citizens. The reason why they want to change and they’re negotiating has little to do with the condition of the citizens. It has very little to do with some kind of ideas, let alone ideology, and I think these are the issues that we need to be looking at as well.

Do you think the APC’s internal democracy is strong enough to withstand the challenges that are about to arise because of the union of strange bedfellows that has just been created?

No, I do not think so. I think the system that we run in Nigeria is a system that has little regard for internal democracy. We run a vertical system. I’ve always said it that what we run is babaism. There are too many people in political parties who are not worthy of being called leaders. We give the job of men to boys, the job of women to girls.

A Nigerian political party is an associations that one man is in charge of the whole structure of the state, the local government, or even nationally, and other people are dependent on this person.

It is not an association of equals, of independent people, where you have strong ideas. Now, one thing must be said. In this republic, if there was one party that was near being an association of equals, it is actually the PDP. The other political parties are Muhammadu Buhari and others, Bola Tinubu and others, and this thing affects us. That is why people are so interested in their own survival.

It is clear that politicians do not consider the people… we run a very unbalanced democracy that is very strange

They want tickets, they want nominations, and when they don’t get it, they leave those parties, because what is uniting them is not dignity, it’s not idea, and it’s not commitment to a cause. Those are the issues we need to look at. So, to that extent, when you say, would they be able to survive it, they will resolve it, because might will be right. If you can’t get governorship, they offer you something else, unless, of course, like the origin of the APC, there are people who are so angry with those in government that they will take anything to sit down there because they have nowhere else to go. The issue of nowhere else to go is another factor we should be watching out for by the middle of this year. Some people are going to be stuck

In all of these party movements that the politicians are doing, do they really consider the people and do they really understand the historical antecedents? I think it is clear that politicians do not consider the people, but most of the people do not position themselves in a way to be considered either. Truth be said, we run a very unbalanced democracy that is very strange.

There is a vacuum. Let’s start this way; the assumption of democracy is that the people are equal and the people are informed and the people can focus on the greater good. Those are some basic assumptions that are far from reality overall. What we have here, and if you look at the people who are active in politics, it’s very difficult to consider them equal, enlightened and dedicated to a cause.

Then the rest of the citizens do not actually believe they have a voice. They do not act that way. The people look at democracy too much as a right. We do not see it as a duty that has to be done. How many people do you know that have donated money to political parties? And I want people to look at their left and right in their offices and at home.

How many people have written letters to government offices or to political parties to express their dissent, offer opinion or call attention to things? So, in a way, when you remind us that democracy is a government of a majority, we should be honest to accept that actually what we run is a government of a very tiny minority who are talking amongst themselves. Look, 60 per cent of people in APC were in PDP before. They just flow left and right.

Look at the African Democratic Congress (ADC). That’s a rainbow. Everybody’s there but it’s the same people. We’re running a situation of less than 0.001 per cent, and because they fund politics, they decide there is no consequence and there is no fear of the people.

Of course, the people don’t matter to them, and it’s not even because they’re evil, it’s physiological and logical. That is what’s going to happen if they are left to their devices. People are not afraid of what will happen to them if they act one way or the other. There is no anger. There is no scandal anymore. We’re numb to things.

Now that some of these people may not get the positions they are looking for or the guarantee that they are seeking. Do you see the possibility that some of them will probably go back to where they are coming from, where there is greater certainty or is it clear that they’ve all burned their bridges?

Because of my consideration of most of the people who defected, let me say I have a bias. I have very little regard for people who leave the opposition and join the ruling party.

In my mind, they lack character, they lack vision and they lack stamina. They lack what it takes to be called leaders because you cannot tell me you didn’t know who Tinubu was two years ago.

You discovered it now and you’re living because of him. You cannot say for you to rule your state very well, you have to be part of the centre. That allows me to say, it’s unacceptable nonsense. So, because of that, I do not trust their character that they have enough dignity not to go back.

But I believe they will not go back because I think this declaration is a farce. I think behind it there are bigger deals because these people no matter what you say might not be good at fixing roads, not at keeping our streets secure or fixing our schools, but they’re very good in preserving their own interest and their positions.

So, I think they have deals that they’re not telling us, but it shows us again how insincere our political class is. In front of us, they’re saying one thing and doing the other and it’s very sad for the country.

People are saying that this non-automatic ticket proclamation was targeted at Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State. What are your thoughts on that?

It might be because Fubara has an opponent, a man who is a minister, a leader of opposition, a leader of government in power. A very unclear figure, who, on one side they want to keep, and on the other side, they struggle to tolerate.

So, it is possible they play different games. The APC, the President and the people in power are in a situation where they want to eat their cake and have it. So, they’re forced to play this kind of games.

In the spirit of uniformity, can they also say there will not be automatic ticket for the President, so that it will be a balanced argument, not just for governors?

I’ve told you that we’re not doing democracy, we’re doing babaism. What we practice is a system of all animals being equal but some are more equal than others. Some people are untouchable.