By CYRIL MBAH, Abuja
Political party leaders, who are nursing the idea of participating in the incoming administration in a unity government arrangement, have been advised to rethink their strategies and high expectations because it will be difficult for Nigerian politicians to jettison the winner-takes-all mentality.
The National Chairman of Boot Party, Comrade Sunday Oluwafemi Adenuga, who also doubles as the Presidential flag-bearer of the party said it will be foolhardy to expect that any new administration will offer juicy positions and portfolios to people outside of the winning party’s hierarchy in the spirit of forming a unity government.
He stated in an exclusive interview in Abuja that judging from the past behaviour and actions of Nigerian politicians, the likely appointments that may go to members of other political parties in a national unity administration would be for lesser offices like chairmanship of government agencies and special assistants.
While stating that such lesser appointments are not attractive enough to warrant the waste of time and energy working to form a government of national unity, the chairman said that Boot Party was not participating in such worthless discussions.
He stated that as the newest political party in Nigeria, it will not be wise to allow the older parties to swallow Boot Party in the name of forming an alliance, because the parties have woefully failed in their efforts to govern and have not delivered the dividends of democracy to Nigerians over the years.
“Most of the parties, especially the PDP and the APC, are birds of the same feathers. They are not different from each other in character and orientation. This is the reason why members of the two parties crossover from one to the other without problems.
“Many of the parties were created when government was funding political parties. In our case, we have funded ourselves right from inception and it has not been really easy. Nigerian politics is too transactional and requires a huge layout of money to run. People are always asking for money and this is a major problem for political parties,” he said.
Adenuga decried the attitude of political party members, who find it difficult to pay little stipends chaged as monthly dues, even when they spend so much on a daily bases buying data which may not add value to their lives stating that despite the problems, the party has continued to forge ahead.
“We have been approached by people who want to buy our party because they realised that there is something different about our party but we have refused and told the money bags that they cannot always have their way.
“We are the only party in the country that does direct primaries because we want transparency and honesty in everything we do. We have been transparent in everything we do and our goal is to develop Nigeria and Nigerians.”
He stated that the name of the party was chosen on purpose and was conceived in the Diaspora, when people, who wanted to develop Nigeria and Nigerians, came together to form the party.
The chairman declared that the selling points of Boot Party include the equality of members, transparency, honesty, being visionary and objectivity.
Adenuga advised Nigerians to realise that we cannot be doing things the same way and expect different results, while also declaring that what the nation requires now were young, creative and enterprising leaders, who can move the nation forward rather than continuing with the downward slide, which has been the bane of the nation for a long time.
He called on Nigerians to troop out in their numbers without fear on Saturday to elect credible leaders who can tackle the problems of the nation head-on while also calling on the electorate to avoid vote trading and any type of electoral malpractices that may jeopadise the elections or put innocent citizens in harm’s way.
