When party politics is dictatorship

Many are of the opinion that dic tatorship is experienced only under military regimes, where military dictators unleash draconian policies not minding their effects on the populace. Observers all over the world applauded Nigeria for moving from military to civilian rule in 1999. But some saw the transition as moving from military to civilian with military attitude. Many also believe that most of the wrongs or imposition of policies were as a result of the hangover from the many years of military presence in governance.

When political parties were being formed before the elections in 1999, many thought it was the emergence of pure party politics. Many were expecting political parties where the views of the people would be respected after many years of imposition of views on the people by the military. But that was not to be. Many retired military officers pioneered the formation of the political parties. The presence of the retired officers in a way injected some blood of dictatorship into those parties. The views of the people were relegated to the background, and we saw the imposition of candidates on the people.

Electoral flaws had been blamed on the electoral body INEC, charged with the responsibility to organize and conduct credible elections. But most people had not taken time to look at the dictatorship of the political parties and their contribution to the electoral failure. Party dictatorship cannot produce true democrats. Since party dictatorship cannot produce true democrats, credible elections might just remain a tall dream with the present party arrangements. Most party congresses and primaries had been characterized by assassination, thuggery, brutal beating, and bloodshed. How can these brutal organizations (political parties) produce democrats?

Dictatorship is about using power in an unreasonable way by telling people what to do and not listening to their views or wishes. None of the political parties are devoid of factions here and there. The root of these factions in most cases had been traced to dictatorship and undemocratic practices in those parties. Can there be democracy without democrats? Your answer may be no, but over here the situation shows we are in a democratic dispensation without democrats.

Arinze Alinnor A. ,
P.O. Box 17984,
Ikeja,
Lagos.
arinze198@gmail.com
www.arinze198.wordpress.com

As the world marks Workers Day

As we mark another chapter of history in honouring the utmost services rendered by employees all over the World today tagged the workers day, I wish to salute the courage of the past labour leaders and followers for their achievements. I wish to state that mployees who can be referred to as labourers are the most deprived and neglected in any organisation, be it private or public. In any dire situation in the organisation, workers are the targets for retrenchment .

Even if there is any human error on the part of management, employees are always at the receiving end. It is particularly sad seeing employees who had devoted all their time and energy to the progress of the organisation being laid off without any tenable reason and without notice or with the shortest notice. The painful aspect of it is that the retrenched worker may not be paid his or her entitlements on time.Some might have given up the ghost before they are paid.

Ironically, when an orgainsation is flourishing with higher profit margins the employees may not be seen as part of the success recorded by such an organisation.If workers are going to be appreciated at all, it may take the form of commendation letters only with just a pittance from the high profit. It is grievous that employees are remembered only for compensation when management is trying to get the best out of the workers. After being used to achieve the aim, they are dumped like an empty bottle of coke.

A lot of these inhuman practices are common among banks, government establishments, corporations, parastatals and private companies and firms. But it is most common in banks. It is very sad that even the government that is supposed to take a very large share of the labour market goes on to retrench under the guise of poor certificates of entry after working for so many years, or in the wake of re-organisation or consolidation. It is a pity that labour unions either public or private fail to address this very vital issue. Everybody is afraid that if he does anything it may be his turn to be laid off. The big question that I would ask is: “Are you not going to leave your office or table one day? You shall leave whether you like it or not. You can leave due to age, untimely death, social problems etc..

I am not trying to pitch employees against their organisations but to call their attention to the suffering of workers in the midst of plenty. Finally, as they celebrate Workers’ Day today, I believe it should be a sad moment for them if they can consider the problems of their colleagues who had been retrenched, dismissed or jailed . The onus is on them to look into future challenges and fight collectively for the total freedom of workers.

Apostle (Dr) Kehinde Omololu Sangogade,
Ibadan.