10 November 2009
editorial
The polity has of late been awash with talk of the imminent emergence of a 'mega-party' that its proponents say would present a more robust opposition to the ruling People's Democratic Party, which has been in power now at the federal level since the return of democracy to the country in 1999.
This party longevity, the prediction by its top leadership that the party plans to be at the helm of the nation's affairs for another sixty years, and the controversies surrounding the election of some of the members to public office, have all tended to foster the view that the country is drifting, by some crooked design, towards a one-party state.
A fortnight ago, a National Democratic Initiative (NDI) was launched as a forerunner to the floating of National Democratic Movement (NDM), the much-heralded opposition platform to provide counterbalance to the PDP behemoth.
Those behind the effort to give some backbone to the weak opposition are well-known Nigerian personalities. They include the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) candidate in both presidential elections of 2003 and 2007, General Muhammadu Buhari, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, himself a presidential candidate of the Action Congress(AC) party in the 2007 election, Chief Olu Falae, an ex-Secretary to the Federal Government, and a past presidential aspirant, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, former governor of the old Kaduna State, Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State, Chief Anthony Enahoro, a minister in the First Republic , Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, a past governor of Sokoto State, and a host of other equally prominent Nigerians.
The idea of a strong opposition is a welcome one. Indeed, any democratic polity without a strong opposition would amount to a farcical democracy. Oppositions play vital roles in providing alternative choices to the electorate. They point out failings of the ruling party in useful and constructive ways that contribute to essential voter education. Crucially, they are ready-made alternative administration should the electorate determine that their current rulers have not proved themselves good enough and throw them out.
Our experience in the last few years, particularly from the aftermath of the 2003 elections, and the scandal that trailed the outcome of the 2007 presidential poll, has been less that savoury. Politicians, whether of the ruling party, or outside it, have turned elections into do-or-die affairs, literally. Members of opposing parties see themselves as mortal enemies in a simple contest of political representation. That this has been a long-standing part of the politics in this country is the failure of both the government in power and the parties in opposition.
Politics is about civic responsibility and the duty of the ruling party to initiate and execute programmes for the well-being of citizens and the society. Where the political arena is turned into a pitch for mudslinging, all are smeared, and the electorate are worse off. So far, even with a Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) that is supposed to aggregate the interests of all the 50 or so political parties against those of the PDP, the opposition has so far failed to get its acts together. It is in the light of this that we think that a strong opposition in the country is long overdue.
We have our reservations, however, whether those pushing the NDM, in the mix that it is presently constituted, have the right public presence and sufficient credibility in the eyes of Nigerians to press the agenda that they now canvass. Some have legal and political issues that bring unwanted baggage to the table. They all probably mean well for the country, we have no reason to doubt their intentions; a couple or so of them command considerable admiration and respect among Nigerians.
Moreover, the government-along with the ruling party-has proved incapable of solving the myriad of real problems that confront the nation today. In the ten years that the party has been in power, there is not much beyond a long list of promises that it has done that we can point out with confidence that we are moving forward to a better future, making the presence of a credible opposition critical. NDM is welcome, provided that when it metamorphoses into a formidable opposition party, its agenda would be seen by Nigerians as transparent, with no hidden motive of trying to grab power for its sake.
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