By Paul
Utho
“We’re Our
Own Dragons As Well As Our Own Heroes, And We Have To Rescue Ourselves From
Ourselves’’ – Tom Robbins
Following the results of the 2015 general election wherein the All Progressive Congress (APC) swept the polls, Nigerians expected the opposing political parties to present a stiff opposition, challenge the APC on governance, the delivery of dividends of democracy to the people and to hold them accountable on their electoral promises.
Nine months down the line after the APC took over as the ruling party, Nigerians are yet to see any real opposition from the other political parties, except the APC opposing itself in most cases. While the APC continues in its policy somersaults, internal party wrangling and denial of campaign promises to Nigerians, the other political parties are on sabbatical and are yet to come to terms with the enormous responsibility expected of an opposition in a peculiar democracy like ours.
The main opposition party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) which had been in power for the greater part of our democratic experience seems to be the major culprit in playing the role of an opposition and meeting the expectations of millions of Nigerians who not only voted them in the last election but have continued to keep faith with the party. Instead of dusting itself off the defeat of the last election and consolidating on its recent successes in the Bayelsa gubernatorial election and Supreme Court judgments on Rivers, Akwa Ibom & Taraba State election tribunal cases, the PDP has been bedevilled with one crisis or the other.
Following the results of the 2015 general election wherein the All Progressive Congress (APC) swept the polls, Nigerians expected the opposing political parties to present a stiff opposition, challenge the APC on governance, the delivery of dividends of democracy to the people and to hold them accountable on their electoral promises.
Nine months down the line after the APC took over as the ruling party, Nigerians are yet to see any real opposition from the other political parties, except the APC opposing itself in most cases. While the APC continues in its policy somersaults, internal party wrangling and denial of campaign promises to Nigerians, the other political parties are on sabbatical and are yet to come to terms with the enormous responsibility expected of an opposition in a peculiar democracy like ours.
The main opposition party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) which had been in power for the greater part of our democratic experience seems to be the major culprit in playing the role of an opposition and meeting the expectations of millions of Nigerians who not only voted them in the last election but have continued to keep faith with the party. Instead of dusting itself off the defeat of the last election and consolidating on its recent successes in the Bayelsa gubernatorial election and Supreme Court judgments on Rivers, Akwa Ibom & Taraba State election tribunal cases, the PDP has been bedevilled with one crisis or the other.
