LEKE BAIYEWU writes that one year after President Muhammadu Buhari came into power on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, the opposition has yet to find its voice
Ever since the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress came into power on May 29, 2015, the party has continued to enjoy a democracy without viable opposition.
One year after the APC ended the 16-year rule of Nigeria by the Peoples Democratic Party, observers of the events on the political scene believe the ruling party has yet to get any major challenge from the opposition like it (the APC) did to the PDP before gaining power.
As of today, the APC is believed by many to be running the political race unopposed.
Before the last general elections, the APC, being the biggest opposition party, ‘fired’ the Goodluck Jonathan-led PDP government from all cylinders. The voice of the then National Publicity Secretary of the APC (now the Minister of Information and Culture), Mr. Lai Mohammed, was loud in the media.
Mohammed’s counterpart, Mr. Olisa Metuh, had engaged the APC spokesperson’s press release for press release, press conference for press conference and interview for interview.
Until the APC was registered as a political party by the Independent National Electoral Commission on July 31, 2013, the PDP did not have political parties formidable enough to tackle it. The likes of the Congress for Progressive Change, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, the Action Congress of Nigeria, the All Progressives Grand Alliance were not strong enough to challenge the PDP’s overwhelming influence and power, except for the popularity of some prominent politicians who flew their tickets – one of them being Buhari.
Considering its wide membership and the number of public offices it controlled – some of whom defected from the PDP on whose platform they got into public office to the APC – the APC became the second largest party and the biggest opposition in Nigeria.
After the 2015 elections, all eyes were on the PDP in what many described as a ‘payback time’ for the APC. But, in what several political pundits have described as unhealthy for Nigeria’s democracy, while the APC now holds sway, the PDP, which is supposed to lead the pack of opposition, has yet to get its groove back.
But for individual PDP leaders like the Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose; his Rivers State counterpart, Mr. Nyesom Wike; Senator Ben Murray-Bruce and a few party leaders who have been raising their voices, perhaps the opposition camp would have been in deafening silence.
Even with that, while Metuh and Fayose are currently battling with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for allegedly financing PDP campaigns with slush funds, Murray-Bruce, who takes on the government through the social media, is battling with the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, which has seized some of his companies over bad debt.
A former Minister of Transport and member of the PDP’s Board of Trustees, Chief Ebenezer Babatope had said in an interview that his party would bounce back from its losses and form a strong opposition under the APC-led government.
He had said, “I can assure Nigerians that the PDP will build a vibrant opposition and we will defend the (Nigerian) Constitution and the people with all our might, and we will ensure that the APC governs Nigeria very well. We are going to be a very strong, disciplined, united and focused opposition to the APC. We are not opposing for opposing sake, we will be opposing the APC on the basis of ensuring that the Constitution of Nigeria is observed.”
One year under the new administration, the PDP has yet to make good this promise.
In a democracy, the opposition, summarily put, comprises one or more political parties or organised groups democratically positioned to oppose the other party or group in power or government and keep it on its toes for its actions and inaction.
According to political analysts, in an ideal democratic setting, the two sides are expected to engage one another in intellectual debates and healthy rivalry.
The opposition, they say, should serve as an equal and sometimes better alternative for the electorate, as witnessed in the First and Second Republics, a standard some retired politicians believe both the ruling and the opposition parties today have not upheld.
A former Commissioner for Health in the defunct Western Region, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi, in an interview stated that the present opposition (in this Fourth Republic) could not be compared with those of the previous republics in terms of democratic values.
He said, “During the First and Second Republics, we had refined, very strong confident and effective opposition. We don’t have that now neither do we have a proper political party today, as we have in the civilised worlds. We have self-serving people who call themselves politicians. They may be politicians but they are self-serving.”
Several Nigerians have also argued that there is no significant difference between the PDP and the APC in terms of ideology and for the fact that politicians keep moving from one to the other. Consequently, the same set of politicians is commonly found in both parties. According to observers, the parties are like the same wine in different bottles with different names.
Today, the country has 30 registered political parties, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Despite the metamorphosis recorded by the opposition and an increase in the number of political parties, observers of the development have argued that the opposition still doesn’t have something better to offer yet. They believe that the parties still lack the ideals of democracy. According to them, a significant majority of them lack ideological base and distinct philosophy, while the few with such qualities had been silenced or deregistered.
There is also a school of thought which believes that the ongoing anti-corruption campaign by the Buhari-led administration, which has taken several leaders of the PDP to courts and prisons, has dealt a destructive blow on the opposition party.
Speaking, a former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct CPC – one of the parties that formed the APC – Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, said the opposition was castigated by the PDP when it was in power.
Fashakin said, “When we were in the opposition, we were structured in our thoughts. We knew exactly that the party in power was doing very wrongly and we were very clear in our mind that it was something we needed to correct for the sake and benefit of the country. We were not just out to oppose everything that the (Jonathan-led) government was doing just for the sake of criticising, we were also ready to offer the way out.
“But PDP members were blinded by the false belief that they would rule (the country) forever, so it imbued in them impunity – to do anything anyhow. They didn’t know that, according to Section 14 of the Constitution, sovereignty rests with the people and it is from the people that any government derives legitimacy and authority.”
The APC leader expressed his belief that the PDP has yet to recover from its defeat at the 2015 polls, owing to the recurrent crisis in the party.
He said, “The kind of opposition that the PDP is putting together is from the standpoint of bitterness. They are still embittered that they lost election and by extension they lost power; that is why their sense of good reasoning is beclouded by too much of emotions; that is why they are not able to give a viable and strong opposition.
“The opposition in a democracy is supposed to put the government in power on its toes. You need to use that (being in the opposition) to sell yourself to the people that you will do better than the current government if voted in the next election. That is what opposition should be. But, unfortunately, they need to learn the ropes; they need to come to us for tutoring to help them galvanise their party to become a good opposition.”
From a different perspective, a political scientist, Prof. Emmanuel Onyebuchi, said a look at the history of political parties in the Fourth Republic, would show that the country has a ‘two-dominant-party system.’
He said, “Right now, the two dominant parties are the PDP and the APC. Initially, at the early stage of the inception of this administration, there was an attempt to mount a formidable opposition by doing some amount of critique of government actions and policies. But what I have noticed is that since the anti-corruption war started and some prominent members of the opposition are being implicated, the war against corruption appears to have intimidated the opposition.
“If you recall, before he was arrested and implicated in the N400m deal, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, used to be very vocal but since his ordeal, he has not talked; this applies to other members of the opposition. One can say indirectly that even though the war against corruption is a welcome development, it appears that anybody who wants to be mischievous can use it to silence the opposition.”
A member of PDP’s NWC, Mr. Abdullahi Jalo, who stated that he remained the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party since the court had not ruled on the committee’s tenure owing to the internal crisis in the party, said anybody found guilty of corruption should be dealt with regardless of which party they belonged.
He said, “On the issue of corruption, the APC government is really trying. The only thing they are not doing, which they are about to do, is to publish the name of looters so that people will know them. On the anti-corruption crusade, they are doing their best but that is not to say that they should leave members of their party – people who migrated from the PDP to APC after finding their way into the Senate and other offices – when the government knows they have stolen something and it is not doing anything about it, and their case is not in the court; we disagree with that.
“In terms of making efforts to sanitise the system by arraigning corrupt persons, it is a plus to them. Nevertheless, it is one-sided. There is the need for the government to equally clamp down on those who are corrupt in the APC. We know them and they know that we know. They should be prosecuted as PDP members are being prosecuted.”
Furthermore, Onyebuchi, a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, identified the infighting in the PDP as bane of the success of the party as an opposition.
“Of recent, the PDP has been trying to put its house in order and you can see the leadership tussle that is going on (in the party) now. It appears to have diverted the attention of the party from being a constructive opposition. The party is still trying to put its house in order. What we have over the years are two dominant parties and once the PDP is trying to put its house in order, there is no other formidable opposition,” he said.
Oyebuchi warned that Nigeria’s democracy would be under threat should the PDP be unable to survive its travails.
He said, “A democracy without opposition will have a one-party rule, which does not augur well for genuine democracy. Democracy thrives under a multi-party system, where there is a viable opposition to put the government on alert at every particular time. If there is no opposition, the party in power behaves as it likes. There will be no formidable force except if the civil society organisations are alive to their responsibilities; opposition and criticism of government can come from them.”
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