As Nigeria celebrates 14 years of uninterrupted democracy, the opposition has had one or two roles to play in stabilising the ship of democracy that set sail in 1999. Fourteen years down the line, EMMA ALOZIE looks at how the opposition, even in the face of self inflicted confusion, has helped to shape the democratic journey
Today marks Nigeria’s uninterrupted political journey from 1999 till date. It is remarkable because it is the longest stretch so far in the 53 years since Nigeria’s independence.
The landscape of opposition politics at least in this dispensation changed to the way it is now when the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, over the restriction of the registration of political parties. After this, the doors were flung open for people of the same ideological leaning to come together and form political parties. This perhaps gave rise to the plethora of parties that dot the political landscape of Nigeria.
Looking at opposition parties from 1999 till date, the progress or lack of it from them can be argued to be mixed. After the first elections in 1999, the then All Peoples Party, APP, had eight states of Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi, Kano, Jigawa, Borno, Yobe, Kwara, Gombe and Kogi, and the Alliance for Democracy, AD, had the six South West states of Lagos, Oyo, Ekiti, Ondo, Ogun and Osun.
These two opposition parties boasted of 16 states after the 1999 election, leaving the party at the centre, the PDP, with 20 states. However, in the 2003 election, PDP by whatever means, swept everybody away in what was described as a landslide victory. PDP clinched 30 states leaving the opposition hanging on with six.
In the 2007 election, the opposition led by Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria, swept the South West capturing the region and in subsequent 2011 election consolidated their grip in the region. So far, the opposition are in control of 13 states, though it is a far cry from 1999, but it is an obvious improvement on the years after 1999.
But the question is; has the opposition been able to shape the texture of the country’s politics cum democracy from 1999 till date? The answer to this question depends on who you are listening to. Some argue that the over dominance of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is as a result of the feeble opposition the PDP is receiving. In the same vein, others argue that the number of political parties has made the job of the opposition cumbersome, making them to speak in discordant tunes thereby empowering the ruling party the more.
On the other hand, proponents of opposition politics, no matter how feeble, believe that the little progress witnessed in the political landscape now is as a result of a very vocal opposition keeping the PDP on its toes.
Speaking on the role the opposition has played in shaping the democratic enterprise in the last 14 years, the national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Maxi Okwu did not spare the opposing. According to him, the role of the opposition in the last 14 years can be described as total failure. “Opposition has not done well at all. Ego is the problem we have in the opposition; people who want to be commanders without an army. This idea of a general in a small army or a big fish in a small pond is not helping matters at all.
“But it is heartwarming the moves being made now to unite the opposition. We are going back to the first republic where we had alliances. Until we are able to achieve what Ghana achieved, Nigerian democracy will still remain at the toddler stage. Nigeria’s democracy will not have come of age until we begin to alternate, until we begin to see incumbents voted out every four years.
“However, I thank God for 14 years of civil rule. Mind my word, civil rule because we are not in democracy yet! If we stay the course, we will attain democracy soon, perhaps in 2019. I say this because many of the ingredients of democracy are still very absent. The rule of law, participatory democracy and credible choices before the people are the main ingredients of democracy that are still not ingrained in our democracy,” Okwu said.
Barrister Abdul Mahmud, an activist and a legal practitioner, believes that to the extent the opposition have not been muscled out, especially at the federal level, they have served as a veritable check and balance to the powers of the president. “In strategic constitutional sense, our democracy has enjoyed the birth of constitutional oppositional democracy, only to the extent that the opposition has been allowed to flourish at the federal level where centrifugal forces don’t allow the president to be authoritarian. Here, the role of the opposition is serving as check to the government whilst it presents workable alternatives to government policies and programmes.”
He pointed out that the place of opposition in Nigerian politics largely depends on who is at the centre. “The years 2000-2007 were bad for opposition politics. Obasanjo with his life primed in the military did everything to destroy the semblance of opposition democracy our country enjoyed by fostering crisis in ANPP and ensuring our polity is dominated by the ruling, PDP. Presidents Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan have restored faith in oppositional democracy, but only to the extent visible government’s intervention appears not visible.
“In any constitutional democracy, three fundamental attributes are discernable: legitimacy, consensus and accountability. It is the attribute of consensus that allows competing party interests to compete and it is on the basis of competition that consensus emerges. Within the attributes, roles are often assigned to governments that have the mandates of the people and of the opposition that serves as the government in waiting. Both have and do perform critical roles in a constitutional democracy.”
For Ikpe Etuk Udo, the national publicity secretary of Labour Party, the opposition have thrived and have helped to strengthen the roots of democracy.