ACCOMPLISH MAGAZINE DEC 2023

FEATURE / ANALYSIS
moments, he even provided shelter
for those regarded as outcasts. Hence,
among his contemporaries, he may
be one of the few politicians who never
jumped ship, irrespective of the political
atmosphere or dwindling fortunes - thus
providing a body of knowledge of how
to stay focused, maintain grit and be
single-eyed to a vision.
The nation was ready for a change
of government in the February 2023
presidential election - but the chief
opposition had a blurred view of the
bigger picture and egos imprisoned
reasoning. For instance, when an Iyorchia
Ayu, the party chairman, refused to
sacrifice his office for the greater good of
the party, it was a case of not seeing the
power of stooping down to conquer!
The entire party went on an ego trip to
prove needless points thus losing sight
of the prevailing mood in the country. Of
course, it was time for that opposition
party to self-implode because it was in
a big mess; a condition that could only
lead to a total shipwreck.
It is interesting to note that the then
sitting president was against the
candidacy of Asiwaju. His party
chairman was not pretentious about
taking sides with the the president.
Furthermore, the Senate President at the
time was drafted into the plot for purely
ethnic manoeuvring. The former Central
Bank of Nigeria governor’s naira redesign
policy was merely doing the bidding
of his paymaster. With that policy that
seemed to target Tinubu, President
Muhammadu Buhari destroyed the
Nigerian economy, making it worse than
it was months before the 2023 elections.
In the face of all these, Nigerians were
ready to answer the big question for
change but, the PDP, the face of the
opposition, as it were, came to the ring
without its boxing gloves - leaving a
newly repackaged, no-structure Labour
Party, flagging a Peter Obi of little
national relevance, to become the toast
of Nigerians within a few months of the
election – what a tragedy for our brand
of opposition.
So, when Atiku Abubakar told the
leadership of the Inter Party Advisory
Council, IPAC, a few days ago that the
opposition should regroup and form
a synergy to unseat the incumbent, it
came as a call in the right direction.
This is because, if you cannot defeat
a Tinubu who was outside Aso Rock,
who fought the tide of his party against
his candidacy, you may not be able to
unseat him as a sitting president with
haphazard, egocentric, greed-driven
and fractured opposition. After all, the
man may court over to himself half
of the strategic membership of the
opposition parties before the expiration
of his first four-year tenure because
when Tinubu was through with Lagos as
governor, the opposition went extinct.
He knows the game and plays it with
uncanny mastery.
So, if the opposition goes into silent
mode and hopes to resurface three and
a half years later to disturb our peace,
sadly, democracy will remain fragile. As
usual, the opposition is currently nursing
the pains of defeat, so committing to
giving the incumbent a run for their
money by promising to shadow the
ruling party’s activities for the next
four years is a mere fallacy because
if you have lived long enough in this
country, you will understand that after
the docility of followership, the porosity
of the opposition is another bane of
democratic development.
Nigerians want to see a virile opposition,
know what a shadow cabinet actually
does, and see the key actors remaining
in opposition persistent in the political
space for the next three years;
reasonably interrogating all the policies
and projects of the ruling party. The
masses crave an opposition that would
sponsor investigative inquiries into the
business of governance and expose
any form of infractions, corruption and
dislocation of our collective patrimony,
and as a matter of duty, provide credible
alternatives to critical national issues
with clear roadmaps and solutions - not
fair-weather opposition that has been
the norm while the country suffers untold
calamities.
In the next six months, can the present
opposition of both parties provide
the kind of leadership Nigerians hope
for? And, it is worth the mention, Your
Are the key
players in the
opposition rea
to sacrifice
their ambition
if it takes tha
to unseat
incumbents?
• Cross section of court room
•Lawyers
34 | Accomplish Magazine