The evolution of opposition politics in Nigeria

Democracy without a strong opposition is a contradiction in terms especially in this part of the world. With the emergence of APC (All Progressive Congress) and subsequent defeat of the ruling PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) in the March/April 2015 general elections, the need for a strong opposition has again proved its essence.

Since 1999 when the current democratic dispensation began, the PDP had ruled unchallenged because of the fragmented opposition parties. And this has been the story since independence in 1960. Throughout Africa, dominant one parties are making caricature of democracy.

Democracy in Nigeria as a matter of fact started during the colonial era when different political parties and associations were formed for the agitation of independent from the British which was ruling the country. Although these political associations could not form any government until the formation of the regional government, which ushered in the independent of Nigeria from the British.

In the  East we had the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons/National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) in the North we had the Northern Peoples Congress(NPC) and the West we had the Action Group (AG).  In these regions there were opposition parties but they were not effective. It was only in the West where the AG was facing very stiff opposition from the NCNC which initially won the majority in the Western parliament and was heading to form the government when the table was turned against it. In a way, that marked the beginning of known and glaring opposition and cross carpeting which in today’s politics means defection.  In the West then, the NCNC gave the AG a good fight and the two parties more or less shared the Region.

The tag opposition party actually came in the first Republic when the NPC and the NCNC formed the federal government and Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the Action group left the western Region as Premier to the centre in the parliament to lead the opposition. That was the period when Nigeria actually felt that the country had an opposition which gave suggestions and as well condemned, when necessary to put the Sir Tafawa Balewa’s NPC government on its toes.

In the second republic   when we started the Presidential system of government, there were many opposition political parties but the most focal of all the five political parties, of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Great Nigeria’s Peoples Party (GNPP), and the Nigerians Peoples Party (NPP) was the Unity party of Nigeria headed by the same Chief Obafemi Awolowo who was the leader of opposition in the first Republic.

To actually make the opposition to the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) effective ahead of the 1983 general elections,  when the accord between the Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s NPP and the NPN broke down, Chief Awolowo along with the young  governors in other political parties, like Chief Jim Nwobodo, (Anabmra state) Late Abubakar Rimi, (Kano)) Alhaji Balarabe Musa (Kaduna), Bisi Onabanjo, (ogun), Alhaji Lateef Jakande(Lagos), Late Chief Bola Ige, (Oyo), Alhaji Abubakar Barde Gongola State,   Pa Adekunle Ajasin,(Ondo) and Abubakar Muhammed Goni( Borno)  formed the progressives Peoples Alliance (PPA). It was this block alliance that formed a strong opposition to the NPN though they could not sustain it, as they all faced the 1983 general elections differently; a situation which at the end of the day gave the NPN what was called a land slide victory. The NPN’s victory caused commotions in many parts of the country, especially in the West where houses of the opposition were burnt. The crisis and the allegation of massive rigging by the ruling NPN led to the Military coup of 1983 by the General Muhammadu Buhari’s Military government.

The present political dispensation which started in 1999, about 16 years ago, to a large extent was a different ball game because for the period which the PDP was in government the country never witnessed a strong opposition. The reason for this was a result of the fact that the political parties which could have stood in opposition were not settled as they were bedeviled with serious internal crisis which did not give them the opportunity to scrutinize the government.

Again those in the political parties were not consistent as they kept jumping from one political party to the other. The beneficiary of the   instability in the parties was the PDP, which to some extent consumed them because of their members flocking to the party on daily basis based on  the notion that it was only in PDP that they could benefit politically. The only political party that was to have stood as a formidable opposition, between 1999 and 2003 was the Alliance for Democracy (AD) but because they wanted to protect Obasanjo who is from the South West which they believed was representing the turn of the area to be at the centre, it chickened out.

This was what led to its disintegration before it eventually died. The Action Congress (AC) which came after the AD in the South West and which could have been an opposition party, did not have the muscles under the presidency of Obasanjo to do so.

Nigeria in the past 16 years of the ongoing political dispensation started experiencing real opposition with the emergence of the   Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) which had six states of Lagos, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Ogun and Edo.   These six states gave the party the strength to mount formidable machinery used to confront the PDP.  It also set up a powerful publicity organ at the National level headed by a lawyer and a journalist, Alhaji Lai Muhammed.

The same powerful publicity machinery was set up in all the state of the federation but was more effective in the states under the party’s control.   The CPC which could have played this role in the North only had one state and lack the financial capability to do so unlike the ACN with six states that had enormous resources from their s states to tackle the PDP.

Also, the All progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) which was relied upon to play the role of opposition in the South East, failed to do this because of the inconsistency of their leaders who after using the party to get to power always abandon it, a situation which has always made the party to be left in the cold with local loyalist who never had the strengths and the financial wherewithal to fight as members of opposition in the Eastern states.

In the South– South, PDP was in total control until lately when the likes of the former Rivers State governor Rotimi Ameachi moved from the mainstream political party in the zone to form a formidable opposition which was felt in the areas during the last general elections in Nigeria.