President Buhari and Nigeria’s Headless Political Opposition -By Chris Chukwubuzor Azuka

President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s president

President Buhari is currently pressed on both sides, and the challenges he faces are widespread and enormous. To say that the expectations of the citizens from the president are high is just an understatement, especially from the perspective of a generation of young Nigerians whose lives have been torn apart by joblessness, poverty, and wanton deprivation over the years, in a nation that is, without a doubt, a land of prosperity and plenty; but whose hopes and dreams were rekindled by the message of change proposed by the President and his party, the APC in the course of the last general election. The complex task of rebuilding a nation ravaged by decades of destructive and institutionalized corruption seems so overwhelming for a president but who seems determined, to make a difference.

The rapidly weakened economy and it’s concomitant negative effect on the currency and cost of essential commodities in the market places, mainly caused by the free fall of crude oil prices in the international market. And, the worsening energy crisis and, the continuous scarcity of petroleum products at our filling stations, coupled with widespread insecurity and seeming restiveness across the country are some of the major challenges facing Mr. President at the moment. But as Nigeria transits from the old to a new era, and as expectations grow, we must recognise the fact that these problems are the consequences of the past years of abuse of our nation and her resources by our shameless corrupt leaders, especially, under the sixteen consecutive years of the PDP administration. These problems needed time, patience and resources to be fixed. It will be foolhardy to expect the president to fix them overnight.

One of the greatest problems facing the president today is the apparent lack of true understanding of the immense challenges facing our nation on the part of some of our citizens. This growing misgiving is been fueled by the opposition leaders who continue on daily basis to castigate and disparage the president, blaming him for having failed to resolve Nigeria’s problems within the nine months he has been in power, needless to add that the majority of the problems we have today were created by these so – called opposition leaders in the sixteen years they were in power.There are also conspiracies by some individuals and groups who want to frustrate the efforts of the president. Such conspiracy could be seen in the emergence of the leadership of the National Assembly who are supposedly APC members, but whose loyalties are elsewhere. The controversial ‘Budget padding’ and the global embarrassment it caused the nation, not forgetting the impediments from a judiciary that is tainted with corruption. Then the coordinated media blackmail and institutionalised pressure on the president from different quarters to turn blind eyes to the years of looting of our common patrimony by our former leaders.

Corruption is been fought headlong and the government is truly committed to holding our corrupt leaders accountable for their actions. A new Value System is been created too as we chart a new political direction for the nation. The president has won back some degree of respectability for our country in the international comity of nations. The government is already deep in her efforts to clean the rot in the power and energy sector and the Economic Summit scheduled to x-ray and propose way forward for our country’s economic reconstruction starts today. Mr. President is irrevocably committed to the industrialisation and diversification of our economy. The rail lines are being fixed, and the president is also planning to clean up the oil spills in Ogoni land and other parts of the Niger Delta region in order to give the people the fresh breath of life that they richly deserve, just to mention a few. Yet in spite of all these efforts, the opposition leaders have continued to ask, what has President Buhari achieved so far? The answer is so much!

You would recall that three PDP administrations spent N2.7 trillion on projects in the power sector in the past sixteen years, with little to show for this. They also spent several billions of dollars on refineries, yet more fuel importation was their achievement in that sector. Several trillions of naira budgeted for the maintenance and reconstruction of our road networks, rail and other basic infrastructure under the same period were largely embezzled. The PDP swept one corruption scandal after another under the carpet saying corruption was a family affair. And, the power drunk mentality of the party was not only fully manifested in its claim that it would rule Nigeria for sixty consecutive years, but also in its current obnoxious hope that it would come back to power in 2019. But will Nigerians be willing to go back to the Egypt they left 2015? Therefore, let it be known that President Buhari is only cleaning the rot left behind by the PDP so that change could stand on a new foundation. If those funds were judiciously spent, the naira would not be in free fall today and Nigeria would not be importing refined petroleum products anymore. The unemployment level would have fallen considerably as we would have a reasonable amount of energy to empower our industries. So whoever is angry at the mess which Nigeria is in today should know the proper quarter to channel his or her grievances.

No doubt, the major role of the opposition is to vehemently object to government policies and actions it considers detrimental to the aspirations and welfare of the majority of the citizenry. Any viable democracy needs an honest, knowledgeable and intelligent opposition to thrive. But the question remains, what exactly does it mean to oppose? When the role of the opposition leaders in a democracy is simply reduced to criticising, attacking, condemning and disparaging the government, as PDP leaders are currently doing, without providing any alternative to what that government has on the table, do such leaders not risk been seen as headless political elements; some virulent agents of decay?

According to Wikipedia, “in politics, opposition comprises one or more parties or other organised groups that are opposed to the government, party or group in political control of a city, region, state or country. It is the party that goes against another party”. As for me, a democracy without competition is an empty process because there is nothing democratic in any democracy where there are no competing alternative forces for power. Political power should be honestly and competitively derived and must be earned by whoever tends to hold it. One of the major problems that hunted our democracy, especially in the last sixteen years stemmed from the fact that political power was not honestly contested for, and won by most public office holders. It was just distributed to them as gifts. Some people who were not even mentally, emotionally and in some cases, medically fit for leadership were beneficiaries.

The availability of strong, vibrant and intelligent opposition parties and leaders is one of the most critical elements of participatory democracy anywhere in the world. In fact, a democracy without a principled and vibrant political opposition is like a fully-loaded tipper truck which has no brakes. Apart from acting as the braking system to executive recklessness and arbitrariness through the mobilisation of effective public opinion against such vices, a credible political opposition does not just oppose or criticise but also provides credible alternatives to the government policies, proposals and actions it feels strongly about. It also engages in the generation of honest discourse or debates on critical national issues as they affect the people. Such issues may border on education, security, economy among others.

Political opposition is predicated on the promotion of a sound conflicts of ideas, principles and opinions, as it constantly engages the government on topical issues. For instance, in the United Kingdom, the opposition forms the shadow government and constantly challenges the ruling party word by word, idea by idea – demonstrating in the process, its vision, intelligence and integrity, all through principled and purposeful engagement. The opposition does not just wake up every morning and start castigating and condemning the government or wish it could bring it down with bare hands. A responsible opposition also works closely with the government in promoting and safeguarding a country’s national interest whenever the need arises.

Opposition hasn’t actually thrived in Nigeria over the years due to the nature of our political system. That now needs urgent transformation, in spite of the little progress made so far. The emergence of APC a few years ago, was however a significant milestone and a defining moment in this direction. The apparent concentration of too much power and resources at the centre, especially in the absence of strong democratic institutions, made it very difficult for those who found themselves outside the federal government to mount a strong opposition to the often corrupt, irresponsible and abusive federal power. The PDP has never been in opposition before now, and that may explain the combative and seemingly unintelligent nature of its engagement so far. Having failed as a government in the immediate past, does the PDP have what it takes to succeed as opposition party?

Chris Chukwubuzor Azuka is National Coordinator, Save the Dream Nigeria- Project, and can be reached at azucomms2000@gmail.com