POST-ELECTION POLITICS: THE OKANGA DIRECTION.*
By steve anyebe.
This exposition is strictly a very personal reaction to a news item I heard on Joy FM Otukpo recently. It referenced the meeting of a group of women somewhere in the Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency going by the name “OKANGA SISTERS”. The group itself is not what I consider to be the issue worthy of contemplation. Nor is it the fact that simply by their name they have an affiliation with their House of Representatives Member who drives his political programme by the nickname “OKANGA”. Neither is it that I am invariably a supporter of APC. For the avoidance of any doubt, I AM NOT A SUPPORTER OF ANY POLITICAL PARTY. I am a believer in progressive programmes that can benefit the people, no matter where such programmes come from. Simple!
Hon. Dr. Chief Philip Agbese (Okanga ya’gila)
Back to the Joy FM news item. What caught my fancy in it is the phrase “membership of the Okanga Sisters is open to all women of Enone no matter what political party they belong to”. That is just it! We all are aware that political groupings such as the Okanga Sisters are ostensibly for the purpose of accessing political dividends, such as palliatives and other empowerment benefits. The Okanga Sisters concept therefore introduces a positive new direction in our body politics with strong lessons to be seriously imbibed by political leaders who aim to last in the game.
First lesson from the Okanga Sisters is the fact that after election, the elected representative should divest himself from the politics of inter-Party competition and indulge in developmental politics for the benefits of his entire Constituency. Party affiliation should be replaced by Constituency. Afterall it could not have been only his Party members that voted to get him elected.
It has been the general practice of our political Representatives to dish out “dividends of democracy” to only their Party members. The norm has been to invite only members of the ruling Party to participate in even government sponsored programmes. Though we know that members of other Parties should be part of governance, the negative spirit of winner-takes-all has pervaded our thinking, especially those in power. The Okanga direction is a call to revert to the right route.
It is pertinent to give kudos to Okanga for reminding us that we are all subject to the same conditions despite being in different Parties. Does a bad road affect only so-called opposition people? Is it only so-called non-supporters of Government that are suffering the terrible effects of water scarcity? Is it members of one particular Party that attend government hospitals for treatment? These are obvious questions that should task our very unnecessary attachments to a divisive concept such as Party attachment by elected officials after elections have been won and lost.
There is no doubt that the Man Okanga has his relative negative aspects. Don’t we all have ours? The point here is however that the inclusive political concept demonstrated in opening the membership of OKANGA SISTERS to all women of the Constituency no matter their political Party affiliation, is a much higher developmental idea than the retrogressively exclusive tendencies which have been practised for so long as our political culture.
This Okanga Direction is a new leaf of fresh air which should be borrowed by others.
