On the Ideals and Roles of the Opposition Party: An Overview of the Leadership of the Enugu state All Progressives Congress (APC)
*Osinachi Ezema*
Now, since it is not just the actions of the party in power that builds or destroys democracy in a state, but the inactions of the opposition, let us attempt to define the role of the opposition party and by so doing distinguish its kinds.
To be in the opposition party is not to oppose the government in power for whatever it does just for the fun of the noise and dust of the distractions.
To belong to an opposition party is in fact much more tasking, not just because to wrestle political power from an incumbent is in itself difficult, but because to constitute an opposition is to wrestle ideas with the material powers, programmes, and policies of the incumbent. So, we must distinguish two kinds of opposition: vacuous opposition and critical opposition.
A vacuous opposition is not just vacuous because it happens in a vacuum, that is, where the motivation for the opposition is merely to replace a sitting government for the sheer taste of power, but because it is of no more content than the selfish desire for inclusion in the plundering of state resources. Such an opposition measures its victory in three ways: inclusion in the balkanization of the state resources, in which case an opposition party yields to being funded by the incumbent. A ready example was in the case of Ben Nwoye, the former state Chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Enugu state, who in an unprecedented show of shamelessness, adorned himself in the APC clothes to endorse a guber candidate of the People’s Democratic Party while a candidate of the All Progressives Congress was contesting the same position in the same election.
The second way the vacuous opposition measures its victory is that it takes power whether or not it has anything different to offer the state. The third is that it succeeds in happily wooing a threatened and exhausted incumbent into its fold, not to buy into its alternative programmes, policies and ideas, but to include it in the project of resource plunder. Just again, the character of Ben Nwoye comes to mind, as he goes around pleading with the exhausted government of Peter Mbah to come over to the APC. This opposition is an opposition to oppose and be opposed.
Now to the critical opposition!
A critical opposition, if we sought to characterize it in heroes, finds an apt place in the ideological characters of Chief Uche Nnaji, Honourable Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, and the State Party Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Enugu state, Hon. Ugochukwu Agballa.
A critical opposition is that opposition which so well constitutes itself as an alternative leadership, providing a vision of governance that not even with all the intimidating powers and resources of the party in power can it stop men and women desirous of real governance from daring to abandon it and to take solace in its ideas, alternative leadership, policies and programmes.
Such opposition must be peopled by men and women of integrity who build and keep a system that rewards loyalty and hardwork not to them as individuals but to the labour of bringing its alternative programmes and policies into power. The watchword of the critical opposition is enshrined in democracy, that is to maintain a space where multiple and alternative voices are competitively heard and not stifled.
As such, the critical opposition is not afraid to build its party, to commit its resources, time and energy to marketing its ideas. It is not so desirous of numbers without membership commitment that it is scared to do away with members who neither see the vision of the party nor are willing to make the commitment to the tasking project of the opposition. Such an opposition is not violent or willing to take power at all costs, even at the expense of the masses. It is patient in educating the populace, in winning the people.
Then, soon comes the moment when the swollen numbers in the incumbent begin to pour over into the ideas of that opposition. This moment is not one to celebrate as one of final victories for the critical opposition. The desperation of an exhausted incumbent is so dangerous and restless that it soon targets a fresh capitulation of the hard fought democracy, by seeking to pour itself into the opposition, to continue its aberrations there, that is, to kill the voice of alternatives which define democracy.
The role of the critical opposition at this moment is critical.
Ladies and gentlemen, Ndi Enugu, shall we let the exhausted government of Peter Mbah and the People’s Democratic Party in Enugu state pour into the rejigged All Progressives Congress and continue its political aberrations against the masses there, or shall the doors of democracy be held strong against such intentions?
But how do we know an exhausted incumbent? It is, among others, an incumbent that does not only seek to empty its exhaustion into the opposition, but requires to be unopposed in the internal primaries leading to the party’s candidate choice. Such is the demand of Peter Mbah Government today in its desperation to join the All Progressives Congress.
The critical role of a critical opposition is not to stop anyone from joining its party, not even the despairing incumbent. It is to commit to the democratic principle of a free and fair elections, even unto the primaries, so that the people are offered the benefit of choices that define democracy.
I have said that if we sought to characterize the critical opposition in heroes, we find it aptly in the ideological characters of Chief Uche Nnaji, the Honourable Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, and the State Party Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Enugu state, Hon. Ugochukwu Agballah. It is not easily pointed where such men have been seen in the contemporary politics of our nation, and it is for this reason that we not only look to them for emulation, but ask that they be studied by other states desirous of democracy in the redemption of its people.
Osinachi K. Ezema.
