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Good question; possibly the most important thing is for us to agree by way of a national consensus that we need to do something urgently to change our national trajectory, which currently has been truncated into an occupational agenda being ruthlessly implemented via herdsmen genocide.
We have to enable a modular civic coalition template that will enable all diverse interest groups ascertain their prioritised agenda and articulate same as clearly as possible along the lines of community, culture, region etc.
General Obasanjo’s Third Force could have achieved this, if it had been better thought-out and less self-effacing.
A functional coalition is a good political enabler, when it’s not overly partisan; a coalition is not an amorphous monolithic “party” – it is a flexible platform designed to accommodate a multitude of divergent “party” elements for the purposes of deploying enlightened self-interest towards accomplishing a rounded political settlement acceptable to the generality with a shared, albeit clear vision on the way forward and concrete plans to achieve national goals together.
How this will be realised at community, LG, State & regional levels will then be left to preferred political ideology as delivered by specific parties set up to operate along best practice principles including, equal opportunity, transparency & merit-based metrics operating under an atmosphere of free and fair elections.
All elements of this may yet not be possible, but a concerted effort may commence asap to ensure that we get back to our senses to reappraise our situational peculiarities and benchmark our expectations with an agreed global standard.
Having done this, we may want to approach the coming elections sensibly to the extent that the localities & regions agree on best fit genuine parties to deliver and field credible competent candidates at all levels, thereby ensuring more widespread participation amongst the plethora of party structures, which will have the dual advantage of breaking the toxic APC-PDP stranglehold on political power and truly enabling a restructuring of the political backbone from the present “kakistocratic junkyard” to a vibrant democratic existence premised on unity of purpose and strength in diversity.
A properly organised coalition will also arrange the voting into the centre of a truly transformational federal turnaround game-changer who knows his/her onions and understands what it takes to manage our country’s abundant resources (notably, our youthful human population) diligently & equitably.
This is my humble submission regarding lasting positive change – not a complete panacea; but a credible way forward to a #NewNigeria4All.
Tunde Arogunmati
Agorunmati lives in Lagos
