Where is the Political Reform?

"A SHOOTOUT in Awka. Postponement in Delta State. Parallel congresses in Edo. That is the story of the ward congresses of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) scheduled for yesterday across the country"

This is how The Guardian begins its report of the PDP local congresses across Nigeria. A typical picture of politics as usual in a country where the biggest industry is still government. The violence results from a struggle to control the ruling party, even at the local levels, because the perpetrators believe it is a stepping stone to large contracts and other patronage from the seat of power.
This is the ruling party, Yar' Adua's party and the party that is supposed to lead the way in the effort at electoral reform. This is the party that control majority in the National Assembly and most local assemblies in the country. This is the party that will wield a lot of influence in any effort to amend the constitution to take care of the lapses in our electoral laws and the polity as a whole. Yet this is the party that cannot organise simple ward congresses without bickering and violence. It is always a do-or-die affair. When will it end? When is Nigeria going to mature? the United States, our people so admire, is also going through its own process. The primaries are like Nigeria's ward and state congresses but no one has heard anything about people killing each other yet this is the country where guns can be bought off the shelf.