BY CHARLES ONUNAIJU
The most potent political force in any society to articulate a vision, promote a change, consolidate stability and advance progress is the political party, and how it is organized, nurtured and governed determines to a large extent, how efficiently and competently the larger affairs of the society is handled. A political party is not an automated machine whose structure is fixed and fitted for all the times of its expected life span, but rather a living organism taken from its point of historical departure and evolves with adaptations to changing times and circumstances, without losing focus on the original aim and ultimate goal of the happiness and better life for the people, for which it was founded and set out to serve. The life of a political party is tempestuous and arduous and therefore the structure that delivers its goals and the philosophy that guides its trajectories must be rigorously governed and vigorously innovated and nourished, otherwise it will relapse to complacency and consequently atrophies.
The political party is not formality. It is a living experience and a social bank of historical memory that serves the ultimate purpose of social renewals, most exemplified in its governance capacity that positions and repositions as the case may arise in the delivery of quality improvements in the living standards of the people. In a huge tome of over 500 pages, professor Tony Saich of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy school in his “From rebel to ruler; one hundred years of the Chinese Communist Party” (CPC), wrote in his opening salvo; “there is no other political party quite like the, Communist Party of China (CPC). The party’s longevity, size, endurance and ability to overcome seemingly impossible odds make it a very distinct political organization”.
However, as ‘distinct’ as the CPC may be, its experiences as it oversees and produces some of the century’s outstanding epic and pivotal outcomes like the end of poverty among its 1.4 billion people, unparalleled production capacity, phenomenal and sustainable economic rise while at the same time delivering the world’s largest public goods are vital results and lessons that are of significant interests beyond China and to the world at large. The CPC is a party of outstanding historical context but does not treat history as a mere rehash of the past but a crucial maker and driver of the social pendulums, seeking its opportunities, minimizing the ever ubiquitous risks and overcoming challenges in order to advance progress measured in substantive improvement in the quality of lives of the people. At a hundred and five years, why is the CPC very vigorous and futuristic as much as it is the powerhouse of historical memory. Thirteen years since the 18th National Congress of the party in 2012, it has dedicated itself to full rigorous and strict internal governance, and moved forward with its endeavors to improve party conduct and build clean government.
From the time of 18th National Congress of the CPC, according to its resolution, “some malfeasances that had not been checked for many years have been curbed; intractable problems of long standing have been resolved, while serious hidden dangers within the party, the state and the armed forces have been removed. Lax and weak governance in the party has been fundamentally reversed”. The outlook of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and its capability has significantly brightened and improved and the essential tonic for staying vigorous is self-reform and strict governance of itself. According to the general secretary of the party, who is also the president of the country, Xi Jinping, “self-reform is like the party giving itself supplements to strengthen its bones. It is like performing painful surgery to remove a maimed limb, or eliminating viruses and bacteria that erode your immunity. The aim is to boost the party’s health, to achieve self-renewal and prevent its collapse”. A party of CPC achievements profile could easily relapse to complacency or become self-indulgent and even detached not only from the people but also from reality. The prospects of these negative tendencies to infect the party loomed prior to the 18th National Congress, but the decision and determination for strict party governance reversed the trend and re-established the party political integrity and theoretical competence to grasp the trends of the times and raise its bar on governance competence.
The establishment of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese characteristics for the new era”, a theoretical framework that rejuvenated the party and clarified its vision for the new era further consolidated the party’s strict governance outlook, providing it with greater and surer handle on governance. Because it reformed itself and in its fine tradition established theoretical guide to maintain its vitality and ensure its resourcefulness, the party not only provided governance outcomes to the Chinese people with stable, steady and inclusive growth trajectory but assumes major international responsibility of providing public goods that have ramifications for every people and country on earth. As a party with internationalist outlook, the CPC has offered incisive initiatives to address critical deficits in international governance, development and security.
It has scientifically established pathways to mankind’s aspirations to an inclusive shared future and made enormous practical contributions with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the project of the century”, which has been up and running, since 2013. The uniqueness of the Communist Party of China (CPC) does not preclude incisive and consequential lessons, which its experience provides. In recent times, one of Africa’s oldest parties, the South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) has been going through numerous challenges both in its internal governance, leading to breakaway factions who have established their own political parties, and crises of state governance, resulting in the growing incidence of xenophobic violence. The Communist Party of China has demonstrated that a party with a long history of liberation and revolutionary struggles cannot exclusively rely on such credential as consequential as it maybe, but must develop competence and efficiency through internal renewals and strict governance of itself.
Nigeria, which have been struggling to establish a viable party system since 1999, after the country returned to civil rule can do a lot more in evolving coherent party structure through organizational discipline, an attribute exemplified by the Communist party of China than any other party in the world. Despite its more than 100 million memberships, the CPC is adept at organization and discipline and this account to large extent of its vitality, despite been around for the past one hundred and five years.
Therefore, for a viable party system whether in a multi-party competitive political process as in Nigeria and other African countries or the Multi- party consultative and inclusive process of the China, discipline and party organization must be top notch with a considerable dose of internal democracy. The important lesson of the Communist Party of China is that, the party must not seek privilege and entitlement for itself nor allow for the development of special interest within its ranks. These are clear recipes for internal weakness and decay. Political parties in Nigeria and Africa need not become communist parties, but the attributes of discipline, strict party governance and self-reform are vital tools to enhance capability, competence and efficiency. The inclusive political process of the China’s multi-party consultative and cooperative framework in which the Communist Party of China in consultation and cooperation with other democratic political parties engages very closely to forge national consensus and enhance stability is uniquely Chinese but is very instructive for Africa, where the challenges of development and improving people’s well-being demand even greater unity and broader consultations among the political and social forces.
A consultative framework is not antithetical to multi-party competitive politics, rather it reinforces the social imperative of competition to enhance and consolidate consensus. Nigeria and Africa in general are at an inflection point, with strategic advantages and opportunities, the type that existed for China in the late 1970s and 80s, and the Communist Party reinvented and adapted itself and engaged those prospects, resulting in the phenomenal rise of China.
The question to which many political parties in Nigeria and rest of Africa should respond; is how ready they are to engage the opportunities of the new era. The CPC experience provides the templates but the strategies and answers must be uniquely Nigerian and African with the characteristics of her respective individual countries.
Onunaiju is the author of “A hundred years of the Communist Party of China and why Africa should engage her experience” and the director, Center for China Studies in A Abuja, Nigeria.
