From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
One indispensable feature of Nigeria’s 65 years of democratic journey, particularly in this Fourth Republic political dispensation, has always been the destabilising hostilities, wrapped in all manners of antics and tactics that the parties in power usually unleash on the opposition during, and in the build-up to major elections.
The relationship between the opposition and ruling parties, in almost all the republics, analysts say, has been acrimonious, cantankerous, endless war, and anything devoid of cordiality. It has been characterised by perpetual intense strategy and struggle to snatch and consolidate their grip on power.
In most cases, the modus operandi to exhibit the antagonisms among them is usually in the form of verbal attacks, physical abuses, smear campaigns, media onslaught, and igniting of internal leadership crises in the opposition camps, including the use of crippling, and instigated lengthy litigations as instruments of destabilisation.
As years rolled by, the aspect of sponsoring endless leadership crises in the opposition parties has not only assumed an epic proportions in every build-up to any political dispensation but has also become the normal first rule of engagement, and a major assignment for the ruling parties once they assume power.
The ugly situation may not be peculiar at the federal level as it is also the trend at the various states across the country, where the ruling parties also use all kinds of coercive instruments to frustrate the opposition. And the mode of operation displayed in the form of deployment of crushing, intimidating, oppressive weapons, has equally remained the same
Though debatable, from several accounts, the highly antagonistic, hostile wrangling between the ruling and opposition parties may have largely accounted for the historic rise and fall of the different democratic dispensations, described in the Nigerian political lexicon, as republics that the country has gone through since gaining independence, 65 years ago.
In retrospect, there was less pronounced acrimonious rivalry among the political parties in the first republic, which spanned six years from 1960 to1966, perhaps because of a loose centre-type of administrative and political structure largely due to their regional outlook under leaders representing their regions as premiers at the federation.
From the archival records, the dominant political parties during that dispensation, comprises Northern People’s Congress (NPC) which represented the interests of the Hausa/Fulani northern region, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) (later renamed National Council of Nigerian Citizens), represented predominantly the Igbo Eastern region, and the Action Group (AG) the canopy, the Yoruba region operated from, more or less, featured more of regional instead of political rivalry.
Like the first republic, the third republic, 1992–1993, with a flexible democratic military arrangement that did not give such room, the intense rivalry between the ruling and opposition parties was not equally pronounced.
Therefore, in the category of the dispensation with less rivalries among political parties are the five parties formed during the third republic, which were popularly tagged the five leprous fingers. They were the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP), Congress for National Consensus (CNC), Grassroots Democracy Movement (GDM), Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN), and National Centre Party of Nigeria (NCPN).
It was the dispensation that almost ushered in the fourth republic with the five parties unanimously endorsing late General Sani Abacha as their sole presidential candidate, without display of any form of hostility or supremacy among them.
Besides the Abacha’s five parties and the frictionless first republic, almost every other ruling party had bluntly deployed threatening, frustrating antics to weaken any strength left in the opposition.
During the second republic, 1979-1983, the Alhaji Shehu Shagari-led National Party of Nigeria (NPN) had constantly squared up for supremacy with the Nnamdi Azikiwe-led Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP) and Obafemi Awolowo-propelled Action Group (AG). It has remained the same antagonistic scenario since the fourth republic in 1999, to the present day.
It was as if the ruling parties, from all indications, have resolved, during every political season, to adopt stiffer and more stringent measures to tighten the grip to strangulate and suffocate the opposition to the point of reducing them to a feeble competitor.
Recall that when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held forth as the party in full control of power and authority, the measures to destabilise the opposition were serially so ferocious that it even bragged to remain in power unchallenged for 60 years.
While making the controversial comment in 2008, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, then PDP National chairman, had boasted: “Some time ago, I used to read in the newspapers that the umbrella of the PDP is torn. Each time I read that, I would laugh and then say to myself that the umbrella is still strong and very intact and ready to accommodate more people.
“The PDP is a party for all, and it is set to rule Nigeria for the next 60 years. I don’t care if Nigeria becomes a one-party state. We can do it, and the PDP can contain all,” he declared.
An attestation to it was the recent confirmation by former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who disclosed that the PDP was conceptualised to rule Nigeria for 60 years, clearly underscoring the mentality of the ruling parties.
Revealing that retired military officers were solidly behind the party, Babangida h noted that, “From formation stage, I saw the PDP as Irish Republican Army (IRA). We are the military wing of the PDP. We took a lot of interest. When I say we, I mean my boss, T.Y. Danjuma, Obasanjo, Gen. Aliyu Mohammed, and I. We started it. I thank God we came up with the old concept. I believe one of our compatriots, who said PDP would rule for 60 years.”
And true to his threats, PDP was on the trajectory to consolidate its hold on power stoutly solid until the unexpected and unthinkable happened during the 2015 presidential election when the political rave of the moment, the All Progressives Congress (APC) coalition, swept it off its feet to end its 16-year rule.
But, while it was in charge as the ruling party, PDP possessed overwhelming and domineering physical, tactical, and legal powers to manoeuvre the political landscape, perpetually manipulating the political landscape to subjugate and reduce the opposition parties to an inconsequential level.
It was during the PDP administration that such derogatory political mantras like “write the results and declare PDP winner, let the opposition go to the court or take their case to God,” dominated the Nigerian democratic lexicon.
The ruling parties in Nigeria have equally become so power drunk to the point of frustrating a greater number of the opposition members and reducing them to mere endorsement instruments, ever willing to collapse their structures to aid the party in power to constantly emerge victorious.
Under PDP as a ruling party, despite other visible and viable opposition parties, like then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) among many others that prominently operated then, none of them were able to provide the needed spark and bite to subdue it and wrest the power, until they came together in 2013, ahead of 2015.
Incidentally, the trend appears to have continued, as the current ruling party, the APC, seems to have even been serving the worst unsavoury dish to the opposition parties since it came to power after the 2015 presidential election.
Chairman of the APC Caretaker Extra-Ordinary National Convention Planning Committee and the current Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni, had, while in charge, declared that his party was working towards retaining power at the federal level for at least 36 years.
Speaking while inaugurating the party’s 61-member Contact and Strategy Committee at the APC National Secretariat, Abuja, Governor Buni said, “Our vision is to provide a wheel that will drive the party to go beyond seventh, eighth, and ninth terms of the office. When we succeed in doing this, APC will definitely achieve more than what it is expected to improve the lives of Nigerians and make Nigeria a great country.
“The constitution of the Strategy and Contact committee, therefore, is to consolidate the achievements we are making in building a strong party with a solid structure that would enable APC to stand the test of time. This committee is therefore very key to our process of transition towards successful congresses and national conventions and to establish a very solid, reputable, and reliable future for the party,” he boasted.
In line with that arrangement, the ruling party has stopped at nothing in proving that, as the ruling party, it is completely and absolutely in charge and ready to crush any threat from any opposition party that constitutes any impediment.
The traumatising state of the opposition parties, analysts say, has constantly come in different forms and shapes, but the one that has assumed the dimension of a political cultural identity is the trend of the ruling party allegedly sponsoring certain members of the opposition to foist a lingering internal leadership crisis, which usually lasts for many years
Despite the warning from the adage that no kingdom reigns forever, the current ruling party seems to have done worse to crush the opposition by matching the oppressive pedal on them to ensure that they face breathing difficulties, particularly in destabilising their leadership at the national level.
The APC, according to the leaders of the opposition parties, seems to have stopped at nothing in ensuring that there is no unity among the opposition party chieftains, leaders, and members, including allegedly taking the frustrating battle to the doorsteps of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Little wonder that almost all the 18 registered opposition parties in the country are struggling to resolve one leadership crisis or another, which is currently threatening the possibilities and chances of their fielding candidates for the forthcoming 2027 general elections.
From all indications, Daily Sun can confirm that the realities on ground have shown that many of the opposition parties are perpetually battling to remain relevant, fix their insoluble perennial crises especially the prominent ones like the PDP, Labour Party (LP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), and the new kid on the block, the opposition coalition African Democratic Congress (ADC).
If the ruling party had adopted the physical and psychological intimidations, it would not have bothered many pundits, but in most cases, the party in power would even go the extra length of using anti-corruption agencies to coerce opposition party leaders, chieftains and members into joining the ruling party.
The new national chairman of APC, Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, only recently downplayed the relevance and strength of the opposition parties, declaring that they lack the forte to withstand the rampaging APC force.
Hear him: “There is no opposition for now. I have zero fears for the coalition champion on the ADC platform. Otherwise, why is it that APC won, in landslide victories at most places, in almost all the by-elections in the last two years?”
While appraising the solution to the trend of the ruling party going hard on the opposition parties, the National Secretary of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), High Chief Peter Ameh, explained that Nigerians must go beyond rhetoric. In contrast, the opposition must wake up to the realities of the ruling party’s antics.
Ameh told Daily Sun that, “The solution is going beyond rhetoric. The opposition must wake up to it if it means going the extra mile beyond what we are doing now. Look at what Senator Natasha did. It took the crowd intervention before the Senate agreed to open her office.
“She was able to stand and prove that the oppressive tenderness of the ruling parties will cow only those who have no courage to stand up to challenges. If we effectively mobilise properly and stampede some of the anti-people policies of the government by conducting peaceful protests most of the time, you will find out that the people will even be more ginger.
“The people are even weaker and feeling very bad that the mandate was not given to the person they actually felt did not win the election. But, democracy is not a one-day journey; it is a long marathon. They have started it by creating a spark in our electoral cycle, which had never happened. For a party without any structure and elected members, to be part of the competitive parties for an election was a very serious fight that never happened in our history,” he argued.
He equally charged the youths to wake up from their slumber to turn the tide in the forthcoming presidential election, emphasising: “Going into 2027 election, we should know that there is the possibility of the ruling party winning to continue breathing down on the neck of the opposition and Nigerians.
“What happened in the 2023 presidential election, when the opposition candidate gave the ruling party candidate run for their money, could still happen in double fold because we now have an informed youthful voting population. Most of our voting population is driven now by more enlightened youths. They are more educated, more tech-savvy, but 60 per cent of them have no job.
“The government is not expanding opportunities for them. They are only using rhetoric and misinformation as an administrative tool. The youths are not seeing the reality, because if the government claims to have created jobs, the people will see it. If the government say it has given households billions of Naira, the people ought to see it too, especially the beneficiaries.
“If the government of the ruling party continues to spew false information and lies to intimidate the opposition and consolidate power, then the challenge remains for the people to act, in the best interest of their own country, to be able to put somebody on board whose statement will match with tangible results that people can see,” he suggested.
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