By Dr. Emmanuel Izuogu
Many years ago, Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo, wrote: “The opposition is the guardian of democracy, ensuring that power does not corrupt and that the government serves the people. Without a robust opposition, a nation risks becoming a dictatorship, where dissent is silenced and the people have no voice.”
The Great Sage, as he is popularly known, a title that encompasses the reverence and awe in which he was held, saw the role of the opposition in a democracy as crucial for ensuring accountability and good governance. He believed that an effective opposition acts as a check on the ruling party, preventing the abuse of power and promoting responsible leadership.
He saw the opposition as a vital part of the democratic process, contributing to policy debates and offering alternative solutions to national challenges. In point of fact, he left the impression that a virile opposition is indeed a sine qua non for sustainable democracy, ensuring political stability and preventing tyranny.
No wonder, Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu eulogized him as “the greatest President that Nigeria never had.” The role of opposition in a democracy is sacrosanct. It is essential to the smooth running of any representative democracy. In certain developed countries, it has helped in galvanizing the citizenry to partake in government’s activities; define issues in the psyche of the ruler and the ruled; present political candidates whose candidature is founded more on issues and less on tribe or religion; or race.
Government must, therefore, at all levels strive to open the channels of expression and encourage individuality of opinions as this helps in opening up debates for the polity, leading to better thought-out policies. Suffice it to state that, if Chief Obafemi Awolowo were to revisit Nigeria today, even for a moment, he would definitely be overwhelmed with trepidation as to the state of Nigeria’s democracy under APC.
But before we go any further, let us hear about President Tinubu before he became president. In a speech delivered on August 23, 2012, at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., on the critical role of opposition in building democratic institutions, he intoned: “I have devoted most of my adult life to promoting democracy in Nigeria. The battle has been neither short nor easy. Those politicians who never invested themselves in this clash between liberty and blind might not fully appreciate, nor do they seek to advance the cause of democracy.”
In another speech at the inception of his presidency, Tinubu said: “In 2003, when the then-governing party tried to sweep the nation clean of political opposition through plot and manipulation, I was the last of the progressive governors standing in my region. Even with all of that they could not control our national destiny because fate is written from above. A greater power did not want Nigeria to become a one-party state back then. A one-party state is not in the offing nor should it ever be. We must welcome and accept the diversity and number of political parties. Our efforts must never be to eliminate political competition but to make that competition salutary to the national well-being by working across the political aisle whenever possible.” (Premium Times Nigeria)
It is amazing how time and dispensation change everything. In politics, ideology is amorphous. Democracy is a system of government which allows public expression of opinion and accommodation of divergent views. In a democracy, the government has a right and duty to govern. The opposition’s right and duty, if it believes the public interest is at stake, is to oppose the government’s policies and actions by every legitimate parliamentary means. These principles are cast in stone. However, certain developments in the Nigerian polity would lead critics to believe that the incumbent government is agnostic to these tenets of democracy.
It also appears the extant APC-led government does not subscribe to Awolowo’s notion of democracy vis-à-vis the role of the opposition. Neither does it agree with Tinubu’s prior vision of the same. It would be difficult to convince any sane person otherwise. Why does the government appear to be rattled by the recent coalition of opposition under the banner of African Democratic Congress (ADC)?
It appears that the President’s vision on the role of opposition in a democracy became dark and surreal after he assumed the office of the president. He appears to have developed a predilection to obliterate any form of organized opposition, through all manner of intricacies and labyrinthine plots.
Why does it appear that certain government agencies are being weaponized to harass and hound the founding fathers of the newly inaugurated African Democratic Congress, ADC? For instance, in a publicly issued statement on Tuesday, August 12, Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC interim national publicity secretary, alleged that the anti-graft agency EFCC has embarked on “a choreographed media trial” against key figures in the opposition.
He cited the overnight detention of Senator Aminu Tambuwal, former Sokoto State governor, and the EFCC’s “urgent” request for information on the seven-month tenure of Emeka Ihedioha, former Imo State governor, as politically motivated actions. He also faulted the commission’s reported move to investigate David Mark, the party’s interim national chairman, over his tenure as Senate President.
It may be instructive to reiterate that the aforementioned are part of ADC founding fathers. Any assumption that these are circumstances of accident amounts to a grotesque parody. David Mark’s tenure as Senate President ended June 6, 2015. Emeka Ihedioha was removed as governor by the Supreme Court on January 14, 2020. Aminu Tambuwal’s tenure as governor of Sokoto State ended officially on May 29, 2020. The question is: why now? Why immediately after the inauguration of what political pundits have described as the most formidable opposition in the history of Nigerian politics.
The records are indeed very stubborn. They do not bend to amnesia, and history tends to cast very long shadows. History and records are replete with opposition politicians from PDP, Labour Party, and others who defected en masse to the ruling APC under pressure, often after questioning by the anti-corruption agency, the EFCC. Some critics are bound to argue that this is less about ideological conviction and more about coercion via state power. For instance, Ifeanyi Okowa, the former governor of Delta state and PDP vice presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, defected to APC while he was under investigation for allegations involving corruption by EFCC. It appears that his sins have now been forgotten. Timipre Sylva, the former governor of Bayelsa State, was accused of laundering over N19 billion but shortly after he defected to APC, all his charges were dismissed by a Federal High Court. Ditto for Godswill Akpabio, the former PDP governor of Akwa Ibom and incumbent Senate President, who in 2015 was under investigation for the whopping sum of 108 billion. The list goes on.
Senator Adams Oshiomhole, the erstwhile APC chairman, is on record for saying on January 17, 2019, at APC presidential campaign rally in Benin that “Once you join APC, all your sins are forgotten.” It was reported by multiple outlets like The Cable, ThisDay, and others. It took seven years for him to make any public attempt to retract the same. Such is the untrammeled behavior of the powerful. This is not democracy as perceived by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and this is certainly not the democracy articulated by President Tinubu when he was in opposition. This could not be democracy as enshrined in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution as amended, which guarantees the right to political opposition through Section 40, which ensures the freedom of assembly and association. The said section allows individuals to freely assemble and associate with others, including the right to form or belong to any political party.
This is not democracy; it is nothing short of tyranny. No true democrat could importune this development.
•Dr. Emmanuel Izuogu writes from Nkwerre, Imo State.
