Clearly, Nigeria’s opposition is endangered if not entirely decimated in preparation for the 2027 general elections. The opposition, as we know it in Nigeria, are the political parties that are not in power, the ones that supposedly failed at the last polls. They are not in the Presidency when the nation is in the picture, or at the State Government House in case of the states. Thus, opposition comes mainly from outside and never from within.
In other words, there is a divide, everyone seeing the other as the enemy.
Under this situation, effective opposition is hardly realizable. When the opposition parties speak, it is the wailers wailing, or that the losers are throwing tantrums. The substance in their submission is lost in the derision that follows. They are called bad losers. Of course, every loss is fundamentally bad to the loser.
So, we have with us a winner-take-all politics. Winning an election in Nigeria becomes a do-or-die affair.
Picture the human conception, what happens within the fallopian tube outside the naked eyes. Millions of sperm are released in one burst of ejaculation. A race for life begins. They swim towards the waiting egg with all ferocity. Too bad, only one hooks up with the egg and is favoured to be the agent that brings about the seed of life. It lives on, thereafter, to be somebody. Every other sperm dies. That’s Nigeria’s politics.
This, definitely, does not fit a community where everyone is supposed to be carried along, not as a train coach trailing an engine head. If the head derails, every other thing goes in shambles. It is better when the system works like a chain, every link helping to drive the sprocket to cause motion.
Opposition is essential for the reason that it keeps the ruling party on its toes and prevents it from taking the wrong steps, from being corrupted by power. That way, the masses are served better.
Look around Nigeria’s political sphere today. Observe that there is a systemic annihilation of the credible political parties playing effective opposition to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). When this is perfected, Nigeria would be sliding into totalitarianism, mainly because of the supremacy a political party wields here. No one dares to challenge the emperor without facing charges of anti-party activities.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that controlled 28 states at one point is down to two today – Bauchi and Oyo, whose governors are in their last terms. Mired in needless controversies and basically parochial interests, the giant party kept losing its governors to other parties, particularly the ruling APC. Strong accusations have been levelled against the ruling party as being the instigators of the strife in the PDP, as well as that of Labour Party, a party that had a meteoric rise to limelight in the 2023 elections when Peter Obi joined.
The defection fever quickly spread to the Legislature in both states and national levels. Fearing the loss of a platform to recontest in 2027 due to the schisms in their parties, the lawmakers are rushing to the APC and hoping to get an automatic ticket.
Under a looming one-party system, the electorate faces a narrowed range of choices in the elections. The people are denied the beauty and benefits of opposition. The implication is that impunity could be raised to a higher level. What alternatives are left for the masses pitched with a party that has the policy of grabbing it, snatching it and running with it? Apparently, none. But there is a leeway.
All eyes on the presidency, we are blind at the enormous wedge the legislature could put against power used in a corrupt manner. Indeed, a diligent Legislature devoid of the pettiness of stomach needs makes far better opposition than the parties. If their orientation can change from that of subservience to the Executive, which they are capable of firing, to that of equality in service and egalitarianism, the Legislature would carry the nation to greater heights.
In other words, the masses, through their votes, could create an opposition that acts from within the government, albeit a different arm from the Executive. As the general elections approach, it offers the masses an opportunity not only to elect the president of their choice but also to assemble a Legislature that is worth the while. Through the credible lawmakers that they would choose, the National Assembly can be constituted of men that mean well for the people, not those who go to the green and red chambers to legislate fresh exotic cars for themselves every six months while our roads remain death traps.
Obviously, the shenanigans of Nigerian politicians have shown the irrelevance of the party beyond being a platform to contest elections. Other climes detect the party leanings of their politicians by the ideologies they propound with ironclad consistency. Not here.
In choosing their lawmakers, the masses must be conscious of this and vote regardless of party, resisting a bandwagon effect that leads to doom.
The best days in NASS in recent times remain the Bukola Saraki days as Senate President, Saraki belonging to the PDP while the presidential seat occupied by the late Gen. Muhammadu Buhari belonged to the APC. The Saraki-led NASS successfully blocked so many bills that, if passed, would have endangered the unity of the country, regardless of the travails the Senate President passed through.
I recall that, even before Saraki, it was not a NASS which sang “on your mandate we shall stand” that shot down the third term bid of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The National Assembly, just as the United States of America Congress, is a more potent opposition than the weak political parties that howl and bark from the other side of the fence. They command influence, hold votes and are supposedly the voice of their people within the government. They make the Legislature the true essence of a democracy, the real and credible opposition that our system requires so badly.
The present NASS is a massive gang-up of politicians seeking personal gains and working in a high scale transactional mesh that involves the Executive and the Judiciary as well. To them, ordinary Nigerians do not matter! I didn’t say it. They said it themselves through the wry, derisive laugh that played on the lips of Senate President Godswill Akpabio as he brought down the gavel the day a Senator moved the let-the-poor-breath motion on the floor.
On a Candid Note, the Houses must be cleaned, national and state, for Nigeria to checkmate the coming tyranny.
Dr. Odu can be reached through [email protected]
or SMS 07064052031
