Opposition Parties as Paper Tigers

With Nigerians facing untold hardships and policy inconsistencies in the hands of the ruling All Progressives Congress, the opposition parties that should provide effective opposition and present alternative platforms to Nigerians are in disarray, Davidson Iriekpen reports

One of the biggest deficits in the current Nigerian political space since the 2023 general election is the absence of a robust, virile and vibrant opposition to the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). Today, many would argue that the country is gradually drifting towards a one-party state due to the lack of a formidable opposition.

In any constitutional democracy, the role of the opposition is to question, criticise, challenge, and make the government more transparent and accountable. 

Even if these objectives are not immediately achieved, the opposition is relevant to put the people in power “on their toes” for the overall interest of the people.

In both the presidential and parliamentary systems of government, the underlying principle is for the opposition to provide checks and balances in the form of alternative choices, and safeguard the integrity of the political process.

The opposition, it is believed, makes the ruling party in power to always sit up or have access to alternative views to its policies and programmes. It also curtails its excesses and curbs maladministration and dictatorship.

In the First and Second Republics, Nigeria had a rich culture of opposition politics. The late Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the Action Group (AG) and later the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), as an opposition leader, confronted the ruling government with hard facts and figures and an alternative vision of how Nigeria could be rescued. 

Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and others were also opposition figures who also challenged the excesses of the ruling party and the government.

Even during the military rule, there were formidable Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) such as the Campaign for Democracy (CD), Movement for National Reformation (MNR), Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) stood up firmly against dictatorship and maladministration.

The likes of Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Aka Alao Bashorun, Olisa Agbakoba, Femi Falana, Beko Ransom-Kuti, Ayo Obe, and others were persecuted for clamouring for democracy.

But today, there is hardly any strong opposition with constructive or disruptive views. 

Since the end of the last elections, the opposition political parties have gone to sleep, leaving the ruling APC and the federal government to ride roughshod over Nigerians.

While Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) and a few CSOs and NGOs still advocate true democracy and challenge the President Bola Tinubu-led federal government on some of its policies and actions, others are ineffective as their leaders may have either been compromised, or in disarray.

Many observers believe that the current opposition political parties are weak, uncoordinated, and ineffective. Where they are not internally polarised, fragmented and compromised, they are very ineffective and incompetent.

Currently, each of the two main opposition political parties – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), parades two national chairmen due to either greed for power or infiltration of the agents of the APC who are destabilising the parties.

It is not surprising that they have not been able to rein in the excesses of the ruling APC. Before the APC took over power from the PDP, it employed a smear political campaign against the PDP.

Since the assumption of office by President Tinubu, Nigerians have suffered untold hardships. Not only has the abrupt removal of fuel subsidy increased suffering and hunger in the country, the rate of unemployment has equally soared. The roads are in deplorable conditions. Though the administration seems to have made an appreciable impact in the area of providing security, there are still killings, kidnappings and high levels of insensitivity, nonchalance, extravagance and affluence on the part of government officials, including, of course, members of the National Assembly.

Yet it appears that there are no strong opposition parties that can vehemently check the excesses of the ruling party as they did to the PDP in 2011 and 2015.

When the then President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration proposed to remove subsidy on petroleum products at the time, Nigerians bought petrol at N85 per litre compared to what obtains now where fuel sells for between N1,050 and N1,300 per litre. Surprisingly then, former President Muhammadu Buhari, incumbent President Tinubu and their allies trooped into the streets in protest.

Besides the removal of fuel subsidy for which no reasonable palliatives have been given to Nigerians to cushion the effect, the humongous amount voted for presidential jets and official cars for the Presidency and members of the National Assembly, and the huge amount spent on the renovations of the houses of the president and vice president are some of the issues the opposition political parties and CSOs should have taken up against the government.

Today, the country faces multiple crises. While the people are facing massive unemployment, hunger, and inflation at about 33 per cent, the roads are in a deplorable state, while the power situation is still epileptic with high levels of insecurity. To add to the pains of Nigerians, the naira was floated and rendered worthless, and bills are on top of the roof.

It is believed that a virile and effective could have checked the ruling party on all fronts, to benefit the people. 

Though some youths and other angry Nigerians recently protested across the country over bad governance, the PDP, LP and their leaders who could have added great impetus to the protests were nowhere to be found. Many Nigerians believe that the former presidential candidates like Atiku Ababukar, Peter Obi and others should have led the protest. Even the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) which used to be vibrant, has been silenced. 

NLC president, Joe Ajaero, was beaten up in Imo State last year, and later slammed with frivolous allegations just because he was fighting for improved wage for Nigerians workers in the face of hardship and inflation due to the removal of subsidy.

With the leaders of the opposition parties who are supposed to speak for Nigerians compromised or in disarray due to the greed for power, Nigerians hold their destinies in their hands.