After uniting the victory over President Bora Ahmed Tinubu with a gold platter in the 2023 presidential election and handing him in the process, Peter Obi and Atik Abubakar have nurtured the government of the day with spectacularity. This attitude arises from the partial fulfillment of his role as an opposition figure, or perhaps the fear of his political self-imagining. They are everywhere and are commenting on everything. They exchange accusations without pulling punches even when unnecessary. Meanwhile, they have since abandoned their political parties, the vehicles they had taken on candidacy, leaving them in abandoned.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) now exist as mere shadows of their former selves. The people elected on their platforms are abandoning these wrecks in large numbers. Thanks to their principals, their principals would rather reflect on their next election. For the duo, hope is rapidly turning into a nightmare. The parties are slipping out of grasp as the days pass. There is growing concern about the possibility that their parties will dry out them by the next election cycle.
Since 2023, when the battle has been won and lost, the opposition has steadily dried up. A considerable number of politicians from the PDP and LP have been exiled to the governing party. The latest such incident involves the asylum controlling the APC of Delta Governor Sheriff Obolevwai and his predecessor, Ifani Okowa (Atik Abubakar’s former vice presidential candidate in the last presidential election). It is not without ideology, beliefs, principles and trust that we wonder about the motivations of our political class. Just a business.
According to the report, around 30 lawmakers abandoned the opposition within two years of the 10th Parliament. This Exodus is a PDP, losing its governor and vice presidential candidate. Rivers State remains at the edge of the cliff. Meanwhile, APC members are already in the expected celebration mode, ensuring a “stroll” and securing a second term for the president.
All of these political permutations should raise great concern for Obi and Atik. Instead of engaging with stakeholders to activate their party, they will take part in issues with people suffering on Twitter (x) and comment on all street level issues. Peter Obi had no established pedigree in LP. He effectively led the party to serve his destructive purpose. This approach may not have been an issue if he led the same energy towards party re-equipment. Unfortunately, he lacks the discipline of a dedicated party guy. What party democracy allows them to abandon the very platform that made them famous?
In this Defection Circus Show, LPs lose more because they don’t have grassroots structure. The presidential candidate in the last election was a surge from pillar to mail to continent, and coordinates photography opportunities with prominent figures while the homefront burns. Obi appears everywhere except where he should be. He is obsessed with finding out what is “what is” and “what should be” without realizing the confusion in his party. Through the LP’s leadership crisis and the resignation of his important allies from the party, Obi has not intervened meaningfully. Instead, he projects the image of a peace-loving gentleman. Really? Even when “your house” is on fire?
It could be attributed to a wave of exile in the ruling party, or to a pure despair among political actors who have either condemned the president’s approach to politics, or perhaps to a pure despair among political actors who have lost it. They may also condemn the opposition’s confusion over the fear of the ICPC and the EFCC. This is often deployed by the ruling party and to target the opposition. Here is the difference between ideologically principled politicians and politicians who can’t stand anything and can fall into anything.
Nevertheless, opposition leaders similarly abandoned their responsibility and failed to keep their homes organized. Our political class generally performs less opposed. They will always rush to places where power exists, and political parties will act as vehicles for special purposes to gain power in Nigeria, so working with the party of power, even if the constitution does not explicitly protect it, is essential to enjoying absolute immunity.
Foreseeably, Senate Speaker Godwill Akpabio exploited the vulnerabilities of these opposition vulnerabilities against Lambusto Peter Obi in response to his light pal’s comments about the current government. While speaking in a memorial lecture in honor of the late Edwin Clark, Obi lamented the state of the country, saying, “We are not a democratic country. Let us tell the truth. The labor of the heroes of the past is in vain,” Senate President Akpabio responded harshly. Despite his claim that “people who are aiming to be presidential candidates are causing mouths and confusion,” the opposition Senate president’s assessment seems accurate.
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Despite these observations, we recognize that the most important thing for the political class is that Nigerian political sharks survive infected waters. They are drawn to where bread is buttered among wealthy power brokers. This appears to be more important than loyalty to any political party. However, this reality should not prevent party leaders from cleaning their homes before examining other people’s closets.
We deal with politics in light emptying, but we expect positive outcomes so that rhetoric is increasingly supplanted and individual merits outweigh political affiliations. In Nigeria’s distinctive political equations, neither party loyalty nor voters really matter. Obi and Atik have to do quite a bit to justify the hopes of nearly 200 million non-APC members turning to their opposition to cleanse the stables of Nigerian politics.
Zainab Suleiman Okino takes a chair to the Blueprint Editorial Board. She is also a syndicated columnist and is accessible via: (Email protection)
