During the just concluded 2010 World Cup in South Africa, a journal article in the World Street Journal by Will Connors compared Ghana's fortunes to that of Nigeria. "Ghana," he said, "has gold, chocolate and a stable democracy. Now it also has a soccer team, backed by much of the African continent, playing in the quarterfinals of the World." On the other hand, "Regional neighbor Nigeria has oil - and another scandal." (Italics mine).

Mr. Connors went on to write that, "Ghana has developed its soccer infrastructure in much the same way it has conducted transparent presidential elections and stable transfers of power. Nigeria whose 140 million residents make it Africa's most populous country often promises those things but rarely succeeds in delivering."

Unfortunately, Mr. Connors was being magnanimously charitable to Nigeria, because were he to delve into the sordid character of the political class in Nigeria, he would have found a country bereft of simple core principles of belief in anything other than prostituting themselves - money and how acquiring it means everything, which in essence has become the prostitution of politics in the country. The Nigerian political class exhibits a shamelessness unimagined in anywhere else in the world - the need to acquire money and the means to acquire it without working for it, trump everything else. All you have to do is take a closer look at what has happened to the Nigerian political class since Nigeria decided to return to a so-called democratic governance on May 29, 1999 when the former military ruler, General Olusegun Obasanjo, was voted into office. During that election in 1999, there were three political parties, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which won governorship elections in 21 states, the Alliance for Democracy (AD), which won in 6 states, and the All Peoples Party (later renamed ANPP - All Nigeria Peoples Party) won nine states.

Fast forward to 2003 during the second democratic election, the whole of the South-West which had voted overwhelmingly for the Alliance for Democracy and thereby denying and disgracing their "son" Obasanjo foothold in Yoruba land, had reversed itself, with the exception of Lagos State, and voted overwhelmingly for Obasanjo and the PDP. The East which had voted for the PDP decided to change course, with two states voting against the PDP. Again, fast forward to the disgusting episode of party hopping, especially people like former Vice President Atiku Abbubakar and former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu, not to talk about the machinations of people like Governor Ohakim of Imo State who has decided to "return" to the Peoples Democratic Party, where "I really belong." And look at the so-called dance of jumping to the Peoples Democratic Party between Governor Theodore Orji Kalu and his predecessor and godfather, Orji Uzor Kalu.

A few weeks ago, the Nigerian Inspector General berated Igbo leaders for choosing criminality as a way of life. He had then said, ""I came from Abuja because of what is happening in our land. It is embarrassing. I don't know when Ndigbo joined in leading bad life. Our youths are now committing all manner of evils just to make money. Ndigbo are killing Ndigbo in Igboland. They kidnap anybody at sight— old, young, even royal fathers. It is a big problem. Are Ndigbo the only people who are facing hardship? Why are our youths in the forefront of these evils?

"When drug was in vogue, it was Igbos. In 419, it was our people. Robbery, our people also lead. Must we be first only in evil things? Our royal fathers, please you have to find solution to this, even if it means calling on our forefathers to intervene like what happened in Benin where the Oba said enough was enough. Ndigbo are noted for their hard work, not crime. But the quest and love for money have changed this virtue for bad. We recognize their wealth without minding how it came. We need you to give us information about these people.

"Crime is every where in the country but no other people have kidnapping as pronounced as in the South East. I don't have problem in other areas but in Igboland. We have been embarrassed and insulted by other tribes because of kidnapping. They see me as a doctor that cannot cure himself. They call us kidnappers. We will no longer keep quiet." When he said this, he might as well have been talking about the lack of core principle of political values within the new Igbo political class. Then when you thought the Hausa-Fulanis in the north or the Yorubas in the South West would be better, you are faced again with the odious spectacle of money politics, the attitude that without joining the ruling political party, I would be left off the sharing of the so-called "national cake."

Compare this prostitution of politics in Nigeria to what happened or happening in some African countries like Senegal, Ghana, Kenya and Zimbabwe, just to name a few. These are countries where the opposition decided to maintain principled positions and ideologies for the interests of their countrymen who saw them as providing a counter-weight to ruling parties. In 1974, the current President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal decided to form an opposition party to counter President Senghor's party. He ran twice against Senghor, and each time he scored less than 20% of the vote. Though he had a stint in government, he nevertheless never lost sight of what he believed to be the needs of the Senegalese people. He contested elections twice against President Senghor's chosen successor President Diouf who defeated him twice, before Mr. Wade won the election, after coming in second, but with Diouf not winning over 50% percent of the vote, and facing a run-off against Wade. With all the other opposition parties coalescing around him, Mr. Wade won in the run-off in 1999.

In Ghana, after the murderous escapades of Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings, he changed his uniform, after establishing a democratic institution to conduct an election in Ghana, and decided to run for the presidency of Ghana as an civilian candidate. Rawlings scored almost 60% of the vote in an election declared very free and fair by the international community. He ran for a second term and won again. After his mandatory eight years in office, Mr. Rawlings party was voted out of office, and an opposition party was elected by the Ghanaians. John Kufuor became president of Ghana. Kufour again won re-election, and after his mandatory eight years, the opposition party, (Jerry Rawlings') won the election, throwing out the ruling party. Both elections that threw out the ruling party were hotly contested. During the different periods of governance, the opposition party members did not stampede enmasse to the ruling party.

There are power-sharing governments in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Despite the persecution and prosecution of the opposition members in both countries, opposition party members stayed to their core principle beliefs. They did not, because of the hardship of persecution and prosecution, defect to the ruling party, otherwise there would not be the stalemate that exists in those two countries.

When you see the admirable qualities of belief in the sanctity of their core principles, and compare them to the eye sore that has become the prostituting sports of politics in Nigeria, you sincerely want to weep. Virtually, Nigeria has become a one-party state because of avarice and the pursuit in money. Politicians who were elected on the platform of political parties other than the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are jumping ship, and defecting with shameless abandon to that party, because they want to be guaranteed a reelection win.

This is where the current President of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan could a put his stamp on a legacy of conducting a free and fair election in Nigeria. Let him allow Nigerians to vote their conscience, and not the imposition of candidates who will "win" because of rigged elections. Jonathan must use the coming elections in Nigeria in 2011 to shock and put a stop to the political harlots in Nigeria, who believe that they can fool the people all the time, assuming Jonathan doesn't succumb to the temptation of running for an office.

Already, his acolytes and sycophants are campaigning seriously for him to run. But the greatest indelible legacy that he could leave on Nigerians, would be to stop the prostitution of politics in Nigeria, by allowing the harlot, rather than the so-called political class a realization that it could not continue to take Nigeria and Nigeians for a ride. As much nauseating as I feel saying this, even the PDP could have a role to play here by declining the unbridled ambitions of these men without principles.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Onyeani is the Publisher and Editor-in-chief of African Suntimes Newspaper

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