Reading the proclivities in office by a wide cross-section of leaders of Nigeria’s political parties, the principle seems to be lost that partisan politics remains more wholesome when both the ruling and opposition components are operating in tandem. In their activities, the provision of credible opposition seems to be considered an aberration, as a winner-takes-all mentality remains the unwritten rule.
Hence their acts of commission and omission have largely compromised the course of the country’s democracy, with the culprits ranging from the dominant and ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), to the biggest opposition party – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). While their conduct of official business is expected to follow the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution, along with those constitutions of their respective political parties, what Nigerians are treated to is a routine playout of crass violation of such provisions.
In this respect lies a bigger blame on the PDP, which by its conduct as the largest opposition party leaves much to be desired in managing both its internal affairs as well as rising up to its expectations from Nigerians. For both at the national level and in several state chapters across the country, its apparent state of debility impacts significantly on the entire country and by the circumstance of contagion, set off the vitiation of credible opposition tendencies in the country’s political space.
The beauty of democracy is its provision for unrestrained participation in governance by the wider society through legitimately elected representatives into any tier of governance. In the case of Nigeria, it is the proliferation of constituent entities and vested interests that serve as the principle behind the multiplicity of political parties. These are intended to cover as many shades of opinion and interests as possible in order to guarantee peaceful co-existence of the big family.
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With the foregoing as backdrop, it remains a matter of concern that missing in the democratic dispensation is the lack of a credible opposition to the ruling party in order to provide alternative positions to the government’s. This situation denies the wider society of alternative positions and variety of choices with respect to the processes of governance.
While this function constitutes an obligation of the complement of opposition parties in democracy, their failure in Nigeria to provide this service remains a major area of disservice to the country, and a grave indictment to the opposition political parties with the PDP leading in this misconduct.
Essentially, the failure of the opposition to constitute a robust alternative angle to governance has led to the rise of one-party syndrome especially at the federal tier of governance in similar fashion to the dictatorial dispensation of the military era where impunity was the order of the day. And it is this similarity in play-out of impunity between the discredited military administrations and the current administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu that not a few Nigerians are finding unacceptable and are protesting.
Given to running governance with impunity, the Tinubu administration betrayed a sense of unacceptable challenge to its authority, and embarked identifiable factors to the protests challenge for reprisals. This was the option it chose instead of addressing the root causes of the protests in the first place. Courtesy of such a disposition, life for Nigerians is becoming more and more brutish and intolerable.
It was Adam Smith who wrote that no society can be happy and stable if the bulk of the population remain hungry and unhappy. Hence by failing to address the burning issues of scarcity of food and other essentials of life in the country, the Tinubu administration is simply calling for a regime change even as it is building negative reactions in the minds of the citizens.
Students of political history easily recall that some of the most successful violent regime changes were not executed by foreign invading armies but by insiders in the very administration in which they served. There are classic cases ranging from the days of Roman Emperor Julius Caeser who was betrayed by his trusted ally Brutus, to the Nigerian scenario featuring military takeovers of power, led by well placed officials of the affected administrations.
A close study of the foregoing should guide the Tinubu administration on the way forward.
Meanwhile even as attention is directed at the Tinubu administration, the ongoing sordid happenings in the PDP as the leading opposition party qualify as sheer violations of the constitutional role of the party by any measure. The PDP today is a party in a crisis so deep that even a torn umbrella offers better protection in a heavy rain than it offers its members. Since it lost power back to back to the ruling APC in 2015, 2019 and 2023, the soul of the party has been floating in limbo and asking for redemption.
It was in this state that people like Nyesom Wike cashed in to execute his ongoing self-centered proclivities which started during his term as governor of Rivers State.
That is why the PDP needs to re-strategise, with its starting point being the muster of total support for Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara, who has held forth against traducers of the party. For the battle is not Fubara’s alone, but the entire PDP structure with grave implications for the country. This is the debt the party owes itself and the rest of the country.
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