The role of opposition in democracy cannot be overemphasized. Vital and strong opposition is necessary for Nigeria’s democracy to work and to develop. It is to the benefit of the whole country, especially the ordinary people, that the opposition plays its role effectively so that it can give them the choice whenever they go to the polling booths. The intelligent, well-educated and experienced politicians in the opposition are the only way for the people to benefit from it.
The role of the opposition is not just to oppose the ruling government, but to hold the government to account. The opposition is meant to go about in a positive way in order to get the government adopt the positive proposals and ideas. Hence there are the occasions when the opposition should agree with the government, especially if its policies receive wide support. It’s only natural for the members of the opposition to agree when the people’s well-being is taken into account.
Following the victory of the APC and its presidential candidate Major General Muhammadu Buhari at the March 28 presidential election, a wind of defection has since hit the camp of the outgoing ruling party, the PDP. The recent mass defection of the PDP high ranking chieftains, deputy governors and state commissioners even when their bosses, the state governors, are still the members of the PDP has become a worrisome and unhealthy trend in Nigeria’s democracy. However, the APC members see this trend as a good omen that would eventually boost the political fortune of the APC ahead of the April 11 governorship and State Assembly elections.
Giving the immense role that the opposition is supposed to play in holding the ruling government duly accountable to the people, it is wrong for anyone who truly believes in democracy to celebrate the defection of “quality” men and women from the PDP. It’d be much better for them to remain in the PDP and form a strong and formidable opposition that would hold the incoming government accountable to Nigerians after its inauguration come May 29, 2015.
Now that most of the political “heavy weights” are defecting en mass from the PDP into the APC, the APC-led federal government is likely to rule Nigeria without the strong opposition. This wouldn’t be in the best interest of the common men on the “street” as the opposition is supposed to be their voice. Quality opposition speaks for the market women at the village markets and the unemployed youth. Formidable opposition should be the voice of the weak and the vulnerable in the society.
The PDP and indeed all other political parties should rise above the mentality of “I must chop with them” and brace up to the challenge of playing the very important role for the best interest of our democracy. Undoubtedly, since the formation of the APC through the fusion of the ANPP, the CPC, the ACN and a faction of the APGA over a year ago, the Nigerian masses and indeed the political arena have never had it so good since the return to democracy in 1999. The APC was watching with kin interest and always willing to criticize, and the PDP administration was careful and people-centered in most of its policies and programs. This is exactly the same role Nigerians expect the PDP to play after the May 29 handing over.
The PDP should realize that the reason why Nigerians were able to vote out the PDP at the last presidential election was majorly because the APC played its role so well. If the PDP is really serious about coming back to power come 2019, then they’d better put their house in order and move swiftly to halt these defections from under the umbrella. If the PDP refuses to play its role as the opposition it’ll risk being rejected again, and the voiceless and vulnerable will be left to suffer the excesses, recklessness and lack of ideas of the ruling government. Stop these defections in the interest of democracy. Nigerians need you to form the quality opposition to put the APC- led federal government on its feet.
Source: Naij.com
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