THE LOGIC OF OPPOSITION By Obi Nwakanma The Nigerian political left is decimated, or at best lies flat on the ground like the lizard with a belly- ache. This fact itself makes one ask the question, what is the meaning of “opposition” in Nigeria, given that the field is absolutely dominated by politicians with the same fundamental worldviews about society? Extremely socially conservative and fiscally conservative, their political goals are far often too constrained by the immediate gratifications of power to warrant any ideological scrutiny in any case. Very often, a cohort of politicians gather together and call themselves “progressives” – and the term is indeed very ambiguous because no one actually knows from where they are progressing and to what. Once they are not in government, these politicians become vociferous critics of the government in power. It therefore seems like the logic of political opposition in Nigeria is dictated by the inconvenience of outsiderhood; or betterstill, once you identify with a political party with its ventriloquists issuing mostly from the West of Nigeria, you don the convenient and bogus term, “progressive” – which means, currently out of power. This is the central lie in Nigeria’s political organizing, and its major quandary: contemporary Nigerian politicians are drawn mostly from an extremely conservative cut of the cloth. It is difficult to make or discern any difference in ideas, methods, orientation, and goals in governance. In fact, there is no goal in governance other than the ambition to occupy public office by all means necessary and supervise the sharing of the dead elephant meat called Nigeria. This week, Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State described Mr. Chibuike Amechi of Rivers State as leader of the Opposition Governors Forum. It left me with a chuckle certainly, but what is Amechi in opposition of? Ideas? He is still in the PDP, a party shaped by the Right-of-the center ideas of Dr. Alex Ekwueme, if anybody cares to read the party’s charter; it is one that would make the American Republican Party feel like it has a Trans- Atlantic ideological ally. The New PDP is opposed to Jonathan, not because it does not share the old PDPs ideas; not on any clear principle, say against the president’s monetary policy, or policy on education or public health or Energy – and well of course the Jonathan administration seems to have no clear policies in these matters anyway – the new PDP simply is organizing to “return power to the North” from what I can understand. Last week, the gubernatorial elections held in Anambra State with the APGA, the PDP, the APC, the Labour Party, fielding candidates. Scratch at these parties, and you will find them all ideologically compatible at their basic genomic levels; there is no clear difference in their organizational methods and in their visions; they are hybrid of the same impulse that has governed Nigeria since the military era of Ibrahim Babangida, and there have been no changes in worldview because these were the people positioned to carry out the various local and international agendas of their sponsors on Nigeria. The APGA is little more than a provincial copy of the PDP. Its sponsors call it an “Igbo party.” It is not an Igbo party, and the Igbo should ask the party if it continues to make that claim, “what have you done for me lately?” The APC calls itself a “progressive” party for instance, but all you need is study their manifesto, and look at Lagos state, its beautiful bride, and you will see the true face of the party: it is party of the oligarchs – mostly those who are not able to fit their fat bumsies in the PDP “come chop” wagon. But they too exist on the right of the ideological spectrum. Their economic policies, like the policies of the governing PDP, seem like it walked straight out of Milton Friedman’s Economic textbooks, with its Darwinist impulse or what the Canadian Naomi Klein has called, “Disaster capitalism.” The most surprising of course, is the Labour Party. Aside from being profoundly disorganized as a political party capable of winning elections on alternative principles, the Nigerian Labour Party offered its ticket in Anambra state to Ifeanyi Ubah, a quintessential oligarch, playing the fields with no clear ideological anchor. Needless to say that the Nigerian Labour Party reflects the ideological confusion in contemporary Nigerian politics which seems to offer Nigerians no choice – no properly organized political parties to which Nigerians with different political values and ideas can honestly subscribe; no alternative economic and social goals anchored on a truly nationalist reform platform to which Nigerians can truly rally; and in the end, Nigerian political opposition seem aberrant, a ruse; a term in errors. People become “opposition” when they are edged out of their sinecures. They are not necessarily opposed to whatever is going on. For example, no one has challenged this administration’s penchant, following in the steps of the Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, to sell-off Nigeria’s national investment under a skewered policy of privatization. The privatization of Nigeria’s energy infrastructure is not only a long term national security risk, but it also places Nigerian consumers at the whims of those to whom their commonwealth has been ceded for mere pittance. It also closes the field for truly private endeavors in those directions. There is no visible benefit or accounting to the public about the nature of these sales. Now, the minister for Petroleum Diezani Madueke revealed two weeks ago, the Jonathan administration’s next move to embark yet again to finalize the sale of Nigeria’s National Refineries. It is true that Nigerians have been given the impression – a classic conservative argument – that governments have no business investing in public services and utilities. This is hogwash. All Nigerians need to do is look around and see the effects of radical privatization in other societies and they will shudder at the implications of these kind of unsustainable divestments that impoverishes the nation, but enriches a few oligarchs who establish monopolies that will in the long run be unregulated and fierce in its exploitation of the public. The economic empowerment of a few people in a society is not democracy, it is oligarchy. This is the legacy of the current ruling party – the radical and unsustainable impoverishment of the mass of Nigerians to the benefit of a few insiders and oligopolists. This happens as a result of the impotence of the Nigerian left and so-called leftist intellectuals, who frankly were always ill-organized, ill-motivated, and ill-equipped. Allied groups, like ASUU for instance has sustained a five-month strike that has crippled Nigerian universities. But ASUU is now also at the point where citizens will turn against it because their strike is beginning to hurt. But they have not embarked on the critical phase of that struggle, the hearts and mind campaign, with grassroots outreaches that should force the true stakeholders in Nigerian public education – the parents and students themselves – to write-in to their Reps in parliament, stage protests, organize massive sit-ins in the National Assembly and in Local government Headquarters nationwide, to demand the impeachment of the president if he fails to secure agreements that would reopen Nigerian universities and meet the terms of the agreement. ASUU is unable to do this because it is yet to see itself in the 21st century, and it continues to use the terms of engagement that worked with the military. It is important that it allies itself with the Nigerian Labour party, organize it, raise money to field and support its own candidates and secure its public interest in government. Perhaps only then might we begin to have a true political party defined by clearly alternative political ideas, and true political opposition. Published on Vanguard (online)
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 08:47:43 +0000
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