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 Bola Tinubu in 2027. Opposition political leaders are being used loosely to refer mainly to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi, Sen.
Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and leaders of PDP, LP, NNPP and all the stranded APC leaders who are being deliberately and absurdly rendered idle by President 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 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 Tinubu’s government, are 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 Alhaji Abubakar and Obi is in the midst of a helpless survival leadership battle in LP and Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is over sighting 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 practice in Nigeria since the commencement of the current Fourth Republic. All these have contributed to emboldening Tinubu and his APC. Insensitive decisions, which further worsen citizens’ conditions of living, are being taken on a 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 some policy decisions of the government. And with hardly any sense of humility, President Tinubu and people in government audaciously continue to ask Nigerians to be patient while the government continues 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 Tinubu is bad without corresponding initiative to ensure that 2027 results 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 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 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 Tinubu is undermining and destroying all structures that should ordinarily enforce accountability and make the 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 the 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 inquiry. Experiences under Buhari and now under 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 Buhari’s administration is the fact that relationship between him and other APC leaders, including 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 Tinubu. With that, the culture of impunity has become more entrenched and sadly corruption has become worse in every respect.
Selflessness is no longer a 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 the 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 relationships with other opposition political leaders be limited to only guaranteeing their emergence as candidates for elections? Largely because relationships are narrowed to guarantee the 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 a government that abandoned its campaign promises will be high. Which means that just like the Buhari government jettisoned the APC manifesto, and current President Tinubu’s government shove aside the Renewed Hope Agenda, any successor government promising a better future for Nigerians will end up only making empty promises to Nigerians and abandoning them once elected. Proving otherwise will be for opposition political leaders to demonstrate stronger commitment for stronger relationships among themselves devoid of personal ambitions, which should inadvertently lead to structured negotiations to produce a stronger political platform capable of not just defeating 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 relationships based on individual ambitions to emerge as candidates, the prospect of producing another government that will be worse than Tinubu’s government will be high..
