Looming Danger of Docile Political Opposition
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
It has become necessary to draw the attention of opposition political leaders in the country that the current care-free or unserious disposition could produce the disastrous outcome whereby Nigerians may be unable to change the government of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027. Opposition political leaders is being used loosely to refer mainly to Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi, Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, leaders of PDP, LP, NNPP and all the stranded APC leaders who are being deliberately, arrogantly and absurdly rendered idle by President Asiwaju Tinubu. As it is, although it is a shared concern among these leaders that the situation in the country has deteriorated and is still further deteriorating, there is hardly any definitive engagement with the clear objective of mobilising Nigerians to effect a change in 2027.
Acknowledging that there are isolated ongoing discussions about what needs to be done in 2027, it is very worrisome that those discussions are yet to graduate to structured political engagements on the platforms of any of the existing opposition political parties. Unfortunately, if anything, it is almost a case that all the existing registered political parties are decidedly in support of President Asiwaju Tinubu and to that extent therefore working covertly for his second term victory in 2027. So far, arguably, none of the parties, which ordinarily should be leading the opposition to President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government is making any effort to recruit and unite opposition political leaders in the country. Instead, all the leading opposition political parties are embroiled in some embarrassing internal crisis, which has pitched leaders of the parties against each other.
It is quite appalling, for instance, that PDP leaders are antagonistic to Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi is in the midst of a helpless survival leadership battle in LP and Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is oversighting a directionless NNPP whose roof is being torn apart by no other than its own so-called leaders. And all the other parties, including SDP and PRP have adopted a monarchic behaviour, sitting in their comfort zones waiting for disgruntled and aggrieved opposition political leaders to come to them for some ‘royal’ covers. Perhaps, it could also be a case of waiting to harvest good political businesses through dealmaking in 2027, which is the standard political practices in Nigeria since the commencement of the current Fourth Republic.
All these have contributed to emboldening President Asiwaju Tinubu and his APC. Insensitive and reckless decisions, which further worsen citizens’ conditions of living are being taken on daily basis. On a scale never imagined in the country, Nigerians across all divides are living in agony on account of harsh living reality created by avoidable circumstances due to reckless policy decisions of the government. And with hardly any sense of humility or remorse, President Asiwaju Tinubu and people in government audaciously continue to ask Nigerians to be patient while the government continue to indulge in some illogical luxurious public expenditure without recourse to due processes. Yet, all that opposition leaders could do is to issue individual press statements. This is quite unacceptable.
Part of the reality is that opposition political leaders in the country are stuck to old political ambitions and, to that extent, therefore, only strategising to manipulate their emergence as candidates for election in 2027. This has become the singular determining factor for political consultations in the country. Consequently, there is almost zero trust among opposition political leaders, which has become a thick barrier to political consultations in the country. Despite the dangerous situation in the country whereby Nigerians are not only hungry resulting in malnutrition among millions of children, but also that many Nigerians are daily dying on account of hunger and curable diseases, opposition political leaders continue to live in their comfort zones unable to open lines of consultations, which expectedly should produce the roadmap for political mobilisation towards 2027. It is almost a case that our opposition political leaders and opposition political parties are not troubled by the realities facing Nigerians.
The nonchalance and isolationist disposition of opposition political leaders in the country is quite disturbing. It is not enough to complain that President Asiwaju Tinubu is bad without corresponding initiative to ensure that 2027 result in the defeat of APC at all levels. If APC is defeated in 2027, what is the guarantee that the new government to emerge post President Asiwaju Tinubu will not be worse. As Nigerians, we are witnesses of how governments at all levels progressively become worse. With all the confidence many of us had in former President Muhammadu Buhari, arguably his performance failed to meet public expectations, perhaps worse than former President Goodluck Jonathan. Certainly, President Asiwaju Tinubu is on track of becoming worse than former President Buhari.
Given all our experiences in this Fourth Republic, no opposition political leader in Nigeria should expect citizens to blindly trust him/her. Opposition political leaders must work hard to earn the trust of Nigerians. With the way President Asiwaju Tinubu is undermining and destroying all structures that should ordinarily enforce accountability and make government responsive to the needs of citizens, it is necessary for Nigerians to relate with all political leaders with caution and suspicion. Citizens have every right to be strongly suspicious and worried that successive governments will be worse than preceding ones. It is incumbent on all opposition leaders to therefore prove otherwise and convince Nigerians about the prospect of a better future. Arguably, the best signpost for a better future will be indicative by the quality of relationship among opposition political leaders.
So long as relationship among political leaders in the country is limited to support for personal ambition to emerge as candidates, it signposts a looming danger and prospect of producing a government worse than the current one. No need to make any deeper enquiry. Experiences under former President Buhari and now under President Asiwaju Tinubu are enough warning, which if ignored could destroy any prospect of guaranteeing that an Atiku, Obi, Kwankwaso or any other president produced by any of the opposition leaders (including the orphaned APC leaders) becoming a better responsive government. In any case, part of the reasons that account for the failure of former President Buhari’s administration is the fact that relationship between him and other APC leaders, including President Asiwaju Tinubu was dictated by consideration to produce candidates and win elections.
Short of that nothing is important, which invariably produced an imperial former President Buhari, which is now inherited by President Asiwaju Tinubu and progressively being transformed into Emperor Asiwaju Tinubu. With that, culture of impunity has become more entrenched and sadly corruption has become worse in every respect. Selflessness is no longer public service requirement. One of the strong success factors for the emergence of a better, more responsive government, capable of effectively responding to the challenges facing Nigerians is level of selflessness of opposition leaders. Once opposition leaders are only relating with each other based on agreements around personal ambitions to emerge as candidates for 2027, being selfless will never be a consideration. To be selfless would require that all opposition political leaders set aside personal ambitions and work for the progress of Nigeria.
For opposition political leaders to prove that they are selfless they should demonstrate strong commitment to rescue Nigeria from the current state of hopelessness by opening and relating with each other unconditionally. If truly opposition political leaders are committed to rescuing Nigeria from bad government, why must relationship with other opposition political leaders be limited to only guaranteeing their emergence as candidates for elections? Largely because relationship is narrowed to guarantee emergence of candidates, negotiation to contract agreements in terms of policy directions of governments is completely absent. So long as issues of policy direction of government are taken for granted, the risk of producing government that abandoned its campaign promises will be high. Which means that just like former President Buhari government jettisoned the APC manifest, and current President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government shove aside the Renewed Hope Agenda, any successor government promising better future for Nigerians will end up only making empty promises to Nigerians and abandon them once elected.
Proving otherwise will be for opposition political leaders to demonstrate stronger commitment for stronger relationship among themselves devoid of personal ambitions, which should inadvertently lead to structured negotiations to produce stronger political platform capable of not just defeating President Asiwaju Tinubu and the APC but also contracting alternative policy agreements that are needed to resolve critical national challenges. Issues of policy negotiations around alternative policies are not matters for occasional press statements by individual opposition political leaders. These are issues that require deeper scrutiny, consultations and engagements producing resolutions that commit opposition leaders to sets of actions to mobilise human and natural resources to produce targeted deliberate outcomes.
The current isolationist disposition of political leaders is quite worrisome. With such isolationist disposition, commitment to produce the needed alternative political platform capable of both defeating the APC and putting Nigeria on the path to recovery and national development is weak. Nigerians must hold all political leaders – both the ruling and opposition political leaders – responsible for the current bad situation in the country. We must honestly acknowledge that all the factors that are responsible for the failure of APC and its leadership since 2015 are dictating the behavioural conducts of opposition political leaders. Unless opposition political leaders move away from their current disposition of contracting relationship based on individual ambitions to emerge as candidates, the prospect of producing another government that will be worse than President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government will be high.
Nigerians therefore must call on Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi, Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and all the orphaned APC leaders to wake up to the responsibility of rescuing the country from bad governance by commencing structured negotiations devoid of personal ambitions aimed at producing alternative political platform in the country. Negotiation to produce the alternative political platform must necessarily include negotiation to contract new policy commitments to resolve challenges facing the country. For instance, beyond lamentations and condemning current government whenever the problem of insecurity result in avoidable loss of lives and property, what is it that opposition political leaders propose to undertake when elected to recruit enough security personnel and equip them adequately to secure the nation? Given the crisis in the educational sector at all levels resulting in more than 15 million out of school children, what are the specific proposals of opposition political leaders? How does the opposition political leaders intend to manage the economy differently to produce the desired outcome of reducing poverty, unemployment and developing the productive capacity of the country?
If Nigeria is to come out of the current mess, we found ourselves in, aggressive human development policy to replace the current avaricious disposition, which has damaged psyche of leaders so much that management of government and public policies is reduced to permutations that invariably makes public resources personal wealth of government officials. Consequently, road constructions and phantom projects with hardly any direct impact in developing the productive potentials of citizens are now the priority. Unlike in the early period of our independence especially in the First Republic when leaders prioritise building schools, hospitals, processing industries, etc., as leaders of today, we have lost capacity to take these initiatives, which are compellingly necessary to harness the productive potentials of our citizens.
With such reality, our population has exploded without corresponding capacity to expand public schools to absorb all our children. The consequence is the estimated more than 15 million out of school children, which are largely in the North. Expanding the capacity of public schools to absorb children being born is about building new schools. While acknowledging that many tertiary institutions such as state universities have emerged in the last 25 years, sadly, the most important, which is about building more primary and secondary schools have been neglected. In fact, without fear of contradiction, in the last 30 years, it is doubtful if any new public primary school or secondary school has been built by any state government in the country. At best, may be additional classroom blocks and renovation of existing ones could have been executed. The fact of the existence of millions of out of school children reflect this reality of complete neglect.
How are the opposition political leaders strategising to re-orient political leaders in the country to address these challenges? Beyond individual press statement, Nigerians legitimately expect political leaders to be meeting and debating proposals around all the country’s challenges. In addition, given all the confidence invested in APC, former President Buhari and President Asiwaju Tinubu, and in the end betray the expectations of Nigerians, what is Nigerian political opposition doing to guarantee that when elected they will not jettison their campaign promises? This is largely a function of how much commitment opposition political leaders are willing to demonstrate to build structures of accountability, which will regulate the conducts of all political leaders. For instance, to what extent are opposition political leaders committed to building structures of political parties?
Once commitment of opposition political leaders is only about supporting their personal ambition to become candidates for 2027 elections, it only means that opposition political leaders are not committed to building the structures of political parties. Weak commitment to building the structures of political parties is responsible for the current tragedy whereby Nigeria is a democracy that despises meetings. We are a so-called democratic nation that undermine and destroy all structures that promote negotiations. Because of our inability to negotiate our differences, we have been unable to convert our diversity into resources and assets for nation building. Consequently, political opportunism has taken centre stage and political leaders, including opposition politicians, cheaply use our differences to hoodwink citizens.
The political challenges facing our dear country are very clear. What is required to develop alternative political platform to rescue the country is also very clear. It is all about whether opposition political leaders in the country are willing and committed to developing stronger relationship based on disposition to be selfless. Being selfless is all about capacity to invest higher levels of trusts among all opposition political leaders without limiting it to personal ambition to emerge as candidates. The other related issue is the question of negotiation to produce alternative policy proposals, which opposition political leaders will be committed to implementing if elected.
No doubt, Nigerians are going through very harsh excruciating conditions. Since the commencement of the Fourth Republic, it is a case of progressive degeneration that invariably brought the country to its knee whereby public resources are now practically the private resources of so-called elected leaders. Developing alternative political platform in the country should be about restoring the virtue of selflessness among political leaders in Nigerian politics. Opposition political leaders must recognise the urgency requiring strategic initiative to produce the alternative political platform to rescue Nigeria.
The reality is that if by the end of December 2024, no structured engagement has commenced based on strategic initiative to develop the alternative political platform, oriented based on selfless disposition of opposition political leaders, it simply means that any opposition to APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu in 2027 will be based on personal ambitions of individual political leaders. If that is the case, the risk of producing a government that is worse that the current one will be high. Irrespective of whether the government is led by Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi, Sen Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso or any of the orphaned leaders of APC, any successor government that emerged based on personal ambition of political leaders risked being worse. The challenge is whether opposition political leaders will prioritise the safety, wellbeing and progress of Nigeria as a nation over and above personal ambitions.
May God Almighty touch the hearts of all opposition political leaders in Nigeria and endow them with the virtue of being selfless and strengthen them to deploy it to negotiate a new alternative political platform for Nigeria capable on contracting agreements around new policy orientation for the country to be implement by a successor government to be elected in 2027. May the new alternative political platform to be produced by opposition political leaders in Nigeria gained national acceptability across every part of the country. May the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu be the last bad government in Nigeria. Amin!
