Nigerian Political Party Structure: A Myth Or Reality? -By Ambi Moses

There has been lots of discussions and debates about the importance of political Party Structure in Nigeria especially relating to Peter Obi. I have heard several people say that Party Structure is not important and “the people” are the structure. While that is true, it is not the fact. Most people do not understand what Party structure really means and its role in political strategy and ultimately, victory. In most major and modern democracies across the world, there are 2-4 political parties that dominate their political spehres. For example, Great Britain has 3 (Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats), the United States has 2 (Republicans and Democrats) etc. Nigeria currently has 2 and some people are imagining that a Labour Party which was not even active before the emergence of Peter Obi would have no need for a structure. The truth is that the Labour Party has to create this structure from scratch and hope to dislodge the leading parties who already have these structures for many years. So let us understand what this structure really means and how important it is.
Let us take Kebbi State for example. It means Labour Party must look for a party leader for every ward in Kebbi. One ward is the equivalent of 5 streets or a small village. Labour party must look for a Party leader in that ward whom is from that village and whom is very well known there. The villagers only know PDP and APC representatives, so Labour has to look for a new person from that remote village. For sure that man will not do it for free so he needs money to mobilize him. Structure costs money. Then they need to look for a leader for the council who will oversee each of the wards. Again this guy has to be popular and influential in that area and must live among those people in Kebbi. This person also needs to be mobilized to do the role as he cannot do it for free. Then they will need the leader for the local government who will also come from that area in Kebbi. This would be a relatively wealthy and influential man or woman within that local government. Trust me he would not perform that function for free as well. And lastly they will need a State chairman as well whom will coordinate the affairs for the state. The average cost of setting up this structure from scratch today is estimated to be around 5billion naira. And Labour has to replicate this in 36 states within few months. Who will fund this 180billion project and where will he get all these trusted people from is a political question with many answers?

But then we live in this misconstrue imagination that “the people” are the structure. If the people are really the structure then, you need to ask yourself why did Peter Obi leave APGA for PDP? The simple answer is that Peter Obi wants to play national politics and knew very well that APGA lacked the structure, so he went for PDP and he was even fortunatw enough to have been picked by Atiku. Even Peter Obi knows this.

Shehu Sani was a sitting APC senator in 2019. He decamped to a lesser known Party and lost woefully when he ran in 2019. The reason is simple; the new Party did not have a structure. Segun Osoba was a former governor in Ogun but his candidate lost in 2015 when they decamped to SDP because of structure or lack of it thereof. Same thing for Amosun’s candidates in 2019 when they were chased out by Asiwaju.

The dominant parties have people at every ward level. People who are well known in that locality and have been there for years supporting that Party. They speak local languages and are well trusted. The major parties are also very well funded, so they can fund the structure and ensure the foot soldiers can mobilise the voters on election day.
Elections need funding. In the US candidates usually spend about $200m in the major parties. Obama spent about $600m in 2008. Elections are very expensive to fund and it is the same everywhere in the world. So when I see Peter Obi’s supporters (which I’m a proud supporter of) popularly known “Obidients” saying they will be the structure, I caution them to know what structure really means. And instead of them to learn, they wouldn’t listen.
Having a party structure is beyond tweeting and liking posts. It is not online polls. It is having people on ground. It is the need to have a national Party structure that Peter left Apga for PDP.
ACN, CPP, ANPP and part of APGA combined with nPDP in 2015 to have a national structure. Tinubu and Buhari knew their parties were both regional parties and needed to have a national outlook and structure to fight PDP at the time. I just thought to explain to the ‘obidient’ ones what is meant by Party structure so that they understand the task ahead and how tedious it looks.
Structures are two ways. Number one is to build from the scratch and number two is to leverage on someone else’s structure. There are those who won elections on the structure and machinery of others. Fashola, Ambode and Sanwo-olu all won on Tinubu’s structure. You should ask yourself why a lesser known Sanwo-olu was able to disgrace a sitting governor, it is simple, the governor had an elective position without a working structure. Both Presidents Umaru Musa Yaradua and Goodluck Ebele Jonathan rose to the presidency on President Obasanjo’s structure.
Lack of structure cost Vice president Yemi Osinbajo his party’s presidential ticket. Professor Osinbajo has been in office for over 7 years, how many politicians has he helped into strategic positions? Just mention one from each zone that you know. The senate, house of representatives and majority of the governors were with Tinubu. The majority leader of the senate said and I quote “most of us are here because of the support of Asiwaju, this is the time to pay him back, and many of the senate members are here to support him”.
Politics is structural.
There are about 176846 (One Hundred Seventy Six Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty Six ) polling units across Nigeria and as it stands today, APC and PDP have at least one agent in each of the polling units. If each agent brings just five (5) people who may be his friends, neighbors, staffs or family members, it would be six (6) people to vote for either APC or PDP in those places.
176846 * 6 = 1,061,076.

This simply shows that if INEC announces this evening that there will be Presidential Election across Nigeria by 8AM tomorrow morning, APC and PDP are sure of at least 1 million or more votes each without campaign, preparation or even votes buying.

That is what party structure means. This is not a permutation. It is a straightforward analysis. Counter it with superior arguments and submission.
Who is more likely to be loyal on election day? Is it the Card carrying member who worked for the Party for 10 years, invested everything in the party, Stepped down on one instance for an older member to be awarded the office and has been promised to become something during local government elections. Or a 20 year old who has subscribed for Netflix and is not sure of going out on election day if it rains? There are hundreds of thousands of career politicians across Nigeria’s grassroot politics whose entire hope of getting their next meal, building a house and feeding their children depends on returning their party’s candidates so they wouldn’t joke with this at all. Call a party man at local level by 11pm this evening to give you five hundred (500) young people from his community before 8am tomorrow morning and he will deliver. That’s how important structure is. Most people in these communities have never seen their Governor or even their Local Government Chairmen before. These ordinary delegates there are their own government and know that their happiness lies in helping him return his party in his community.
Politics is local!