After the amalgamation of Nigeria and during which period the 1914 Nigerian Council laws still existed, the Clifford Constitution was the golden opportunity which availed Herbert Macaulay the opportunity to establish the first political party in Nigeria. And so, in 1922, the first political party in Nigeria, the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) was founded.
The origins of western-styled politics in Nigeria was mostly due to the likes of John K. Randle, Orisadipe Obasa, Herbert Macaulay and John Payne Jackson. While Randle and Obasa founded a political association called the People’s Union in 1908, Macaulay was assisted by Jackson to form the first full blown political party in 1923 -the NNDP.
The Clifford Constitution, after being promulgated by Governor Hugh Clifford, introduced four elected seats to the Legislative Council – three for Lagos and one for Calabar. Despite not being a political party, the People’s Union presented Obasa as a candidate at the first general elections in Nigeria in 1923, but he was defeated by an NNDP candidate. In fact, the three available legislative seats in Lagos were all won by Egerton Shyngle, Eric Moore, and Crispin Adeniyi-Jones, who were all NNDP candidates. NNDP thus became a melting pot for groups with different but consensual interest, negotiating issues including taxes and water rate, way before the independence struggle gained momentum.
The realpolitik of the NNDP, championed by the erudite leadership of Macaulay, eventually laid solid foundation for the emergence of other political movements and struggles which evolved into parties and mentored individuals who later pushed for Nigeria’s attainment of independence.
As the Merriam Webster dictionary put it, Realpolitik is the politics based on practical and material factors rather than on theoretical or ethical objectives.
This political foundation which was influenced by the son of a returned slave, no doubt has had a huge influence on the tendency of politicians toeing more of the materialistic political philosophy of Macaulay and less of the ideological. It is therefore no surprise that not only have Nigerian political leaders, across generations, followed this more practical/materialistic politics; it has trailed even unto present day Nigerian politics.
NNDP had a fairly good run in Nigerian politics as it contested and won seats despite the dominance of the AG. The party won all the seats in the subsequent elections of 1928 and 1933. The NNDP not only worked hard to stuff its candidates into the legislative council one election after another, it also went after promoting objective democracy in early Nigeria. The strategy worked; there was an increase in national participation in social, economic and educational matters by the people and in the tangible development of Nigeria.
The dominance of NNDP continued in Lagos politics until 1938, when the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) overtook it in elections.
Nevertheless, NNDP still survived as far into the future as 1964 when Samuel Akintola adopted the party as his party during the legendary rift between him and the leader of Action Group (AG), Obafemi Awolowo, in the Western Region.
Political scholars have qualified the rift between Awolowo and his one-time deputy, Akintola, as not only a power struggle, but one which degenerated into pseudo-ideological elements. While Awolowo wanted to stick with a more regional and leftist ideology, Akintola pushed for the practical nationalism which is more abundant in NNDP’s realpolitik. Akintola never looked back until he was felled a few years later in a hail of bullets in the 1966 military coup.
Same dominance which the NNDP once witnessed would later be repeated by the likes of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) until they lost steam and their hegemony cut short by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015.
So when stomach infrastructure is mentioned somewhere around you, when immediate materialistic returns such roads, electricity, water, etc, for the citizenry is mentioned as dividends of democracy, be reminded that it went as far back as the origins of realpolitik in Nigeria in the 1920’s.
Featured image source: thecitizenng.com
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