How Atiku, Wike killed political opposition

But for the erstwhile highly regarded governor of Anambra State and Presidential candidate of the Labour party in the 2023 election, Mr. Peter Obi who dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the twilight of campaigns for the just concluded but rigged Presidential election for Labour party, Nigeria would’ve today be operating without any organised political party running as opposition to the central government- All Progressive Congress (APC).

Thanks goodness, Peter Obi and the Labour Party is the only credible political opposition platform in Nigeria.

Little wonder then, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whose election victory as declared by the discredited INEC is being challenged in Court, has gone as far as allegedly funding a faction inside of Labour Party with lots of slush funds to create the impression of a parallel leadership but to no avail. The veil been worn by the hire lings has fallen off their faces and their real but notorious identity is unveiled as procured saboteurs and internal moles bought by APC to destabilise LP and make it easier for the APC to set up the scenario for a one-party state in Nigeria. It is heartwarming that the genuine leaders led by the Edo State born activist Mr. Abure is also a hard fighter through the court system. The high court in Abuja seems to be a perfect bonanza forum whereby the Federal government always procure jankara market injunction to try to truncate the running of Labour Party by the genuinely recognised hierarchy headed by Abure. So Labour Party has taken over the role of a credible opposition but it is not properly funded like what PDP used to be just before the ‘devil’ infiltrated and planted a sword of discord amongst the key players funding the party. Secondly, the sponsored faction within Labour Party is doing so much damage because they possess enormous cash from the central government or monetary backers of Bila Ahmed Tinubu.

However, since the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) conceded the 2015 Presidential election to the All Progressives Congress, it became the official opposition political behemoth.

But not anymore! Not with the in-fighting that has torn the party to existential shreds now.

PDP is now a paper weight as it has been reduced to the rubles of political infamy. It is now a political Ogbanje.

The Central characters behind the crisis that has effectively torn PDP apart are erstwhile Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for 8 years Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the immediate past Rivers State Governor Mr. Nyesom Wike. Nyesom Wike is Ordinarily a lawyer by training but for thirty years, he has circulated in the political firmament of both Rivers and the centre either as local council administrator, chief of staff to a governor, to the ministerialnposition as junior minister for education for 5 years and then chief executive of Rivers State for 8 years. So, both him and Atiku are politicians whom can be considered as career politicians.

The cause of the fight is contestation for power and control of the top levers of authority within the PDP. The love of power is the root of political in-fighting usually. So is the case with PDP and amongst these contestants for the soul of PDP who have now ended up chieving the actualisation of the eventual decapitation of the hitherto formidable political opposition platform in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and turned it into a Banana political contraption with no clear direction.

Their problems fundamentally began when Atiku Abubakar kept insisting on contesting the position of President of Nigeria under the PDP’s platform twice-first in 2015 and again in 2023.

He failed woefully in those two times and has never relented but kept holding the PDP by the jugular.

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the wealthy retired Customs chief, literally behaves like the General overseer of PDP since 2019.

Atiku’s most recent foray into the presidential race, is the immediate trigger that decapitated and incapacitated the PDP and made its position as credible opposition untenable and unrealistic.

Atiku’s alleged selfish clinging onto the ticket of presidency under PDP especially in 2023 when it was clearly the turn of the South after Muhammadu Buhari’s eight years for the North had elapsed was the last stroll that broke the Camel’s back.

Then again, Atiku blamed the then Rivers State governor Mr. Nyesom Wike for failing to let the party micro -zone the position of presidential candidate to the South East in 2023. Atiku is correct in this line but only to the extent that he could’ve sacrificed his personal ambition to let the South have it even if it turned out to be the same Wike who hates South East passionately. If Atiku had allowed the South produced a strong Presidential candidate in 2023 with a strong Northern Muslim as Running mate, the PDP could have won in 2023, that is if INEC that is ethically challenged allowed for a free and fair election. But Atiku kept pushing to be President and then the same APC that destroyed Nigeria for 8 years under the rudderless and colourless regime of Muhammadu Buhari, produced a contrived winner in the person of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The incredibly garrulous Nyesom Wike ran for that position of a Presidential candidate and was defeated at the Presidential primary by Atiku after spending so much money allegedly from the coffers of Rivers State. He felt very bad but thought he could at least get the less fancied position of a Running mate to Atiku Abubakar.

After failing to clinch the presidential ticket of PDP, Mr. Wike began subterranean campaigns to become Atiku’s running mate but Atiku chose the Delta State governor Okowa Ifeanyi and therein began the real fight within the PDP. PDP is obviously a shadow of itself. PDP is not just ethically challenged but exustentially battered and muddied. Senator Dino Melaye had narrated how Nyesom Wike bombarded him with phone calls to urge him to lobby Atiku Abubakar to name him as the running mate. But this dream crashed when Atiku Abubakar out of fear that Nyesom Wike was too strong-willed to be a VP, chose the less noisy politician in the person of Okowa who also governed the rich state of Delta for 8 years and is by no means a poor guy.

The former governor of Rivers state and a lawyer, Mr. Wike is obviously one of the main financiers of PDP so he has a lot of influence and hold on the PDP so much so that he formed a gang-up against PDP’s Presidential Candidate alongside five other heavy weight PDP governors. They confronted PDP and demarketed Atiku.

The war within PDP raged and weakened the strength of PDP for the 2023 Presidential race just as the five PDP governors led by Mr. Wike openly worked for the APC and now Mr. Wike is a ministerial nominee under Tinubu’s APC-led government –in what is considered a historical political aberration. He even said he is ready to serve even as Women Affairs minister.

Even with a clear evidence that Mr.Wike stood against the chances of PDP in the 2023 poll, the PDP has no moral power to discipline him because the party is inherently soaked in the muddy water of breaching violently, their own constitutional provision on power rotation by presenting Atiku a Northerner as Presidential candidate in 2023 even after the North has had 8 years under Buhari.

So it is fair to say that PDP is now self destruct.

First, PDP’s refusal to concede the Presidential ticket to Southern Nigeria is a violation of its constitution. This much has been clarified by a leading light in constitutional law in Nigeria.

The erudite Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), says the constitutions of the two major political parties in the country support zoning and power rotation.

His statement came then during the campaign time amidst the political tussle between the northern and southern regions over which part of the country will produce the next president.

Then, as intensive lobbying was ongoing ahead of the 2023 elections, southern governors have maintained that the next president must come from their region, while their northern counterparts, in a meeting in Kaduna, on September 27, said the position of the southern governors contradicts the provisions of the constitution.

Reacting to this issue, on recently, the senior advocate of Nigeria said the framers of the Nigerian constitution made provisions in the law to accommodate national cohesion through the distribution of power in the country.

The Lagos lawyer, Mr. Adegboruwa said section 14 (3) of the constitution stated clearly the need for zoning and power rotation to ensure national cohesion so that there will not be dominance of a particular ethnic group or tribe.

“When we examine various sections of the 1999 constitution, it is clearly written, especially in chapter 2, that the framers of the constitution had envisaged that we were going to get to this stage in our national lives,” he said.

“So enough provisions have been made to accommodate national cohesion, to carry everybody along in governance and to ensure unity, equality and justice in the distribution of power and offices.

“In particular, I’ll refer to section 14 of the 1999 constitution, in particular section 14(3), which talks about the need for there to be a spread in the distribution of offices and composition of government, in such a way that there is no dominance of a particular state, ethnic group, or a tribe should have that dominance in terms of the sharing of power.

“So in that regard, it is meant that we should promote national cohesion and unity and a sense of loyalty amongst all the ethnic groups and indeed the geopolitical zone that makes the federation of Nigeria.

”Their Excellencies on their position that rotation is contrary to the constitution of Nigeria; the section they referred to in particular only talked about the mode of election, how a person can be elected as a president of Nigeria.

“But the constitution itself before that provision had envisaged that there must be that national spread and balance, in such a way that a particular ethnic group or tribe is not seen as dominating.

The well knowledgeable Mr. Adegboruwa said the constitutions of the All Progressives congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also support the principle of zoning and power rotation.

“It is not anything new, it’s been in the Nigeria political system. The PDP in article 7 of its own constitution specifically stated that it will adhere to the principle of zoning of elective offices between the various regions in Nigeria,” he said.

“And even in the APC constitution, article 7 also specifically says that the party will promote national unity.”

He, however, added that in a sane clime, the origin of a president of a nation should not be the bone of contention, saying what matters should be merit and drive for national cohesion.

The law scholar, Mr. Adegboruwa also said the controversy on the issue of zoning is the handiwork of the country’s political elites, who are after their own personal interests and not the interest of the nation.

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“Ordinarily, nobody should be concerned about the origin of the president of a nation, if governance follow a particular principal of which there is proportional representation appointment are based on national cohesion and merit,” he said.

“I think as a nation we need to ensure that we achieve common and good governance, infrastructure, and democratic system of governance”, he concluded.

But whereas the APC opted to respect their constitution and chose a Southern Presidential candidate, the PDP failed to obey their own constitution- thus escalating the internal moral contradictions that are now the generic canon fodder that imploded and killed off any kind of cohesion and unity within the PDP. Now PDP has become desolate and self destroyed. Now, anybody worthy of a good reputation, is decamping from PDP. The character who destroyed PDP alongside Atiku, Nyesom Wike had sort to exonerate himself by blaming Atiku for the misfortunes that have enveloped PDP as I write.

The former Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, had also described as unfortunate the unguarded public comments made by the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in an interview on a national television channel. This was when their in-fighting began during the campaign towards the February 25th Presidential Election.

As aforementioned, this media claim by Wike was in the heat of the campaign for the Presidential race.

Both Atiku and the Mr. Wike led rebellious five governors traded insults and verbal attacks in the media.

Governor Wike, as he then was, had maintained that the right thing such persons should have done, particularly the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the PDP national chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, would have been to reach out to him, but they have not. Wike also asked that the then PDP national Chairman bankrolled into office by Atiku and Wike, Mr. Iyu who is a Northerner, should resign so a Southerner becomes the party so PDP does not have both the Presidential candidate and the National Chairman from one zone. Mr. Wike who argued in this manner ended up backing Bola Ahmed Tinubu who destroyed the gentleman political agreement in Nigeria by selecting his fellow Muslim as his running mate thus making Nigeria for the first time to have both President and his VP from one religion which is a violation of the Federal character principle. Be that as it may, Wike still believes that Atiku destroyed PDP but this is not true completely since both of them destroyed PDP.

Then again, the erstwhile governor of Rivers State Mr. Nyesom Wike accused Alhaji Atiku of telling lies against him (Wike) in the interview. He made the accusation while speaking with journalists at the international wing of the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, in Ikwerre Local Government Area, shortly after his arrival from Spain on Friday.

Governor Wike pointed to how Abubakar used the occasion of the unveiling of PDP vice presidential candidate, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, and his appearance on a national television to lie against him.

He said: “But, there comes a time that people will understand and know the true facts. So, obviously, whether I will speak is not in doubt, to let Nigerians know the actual truth. Having known the truth, whatever they decide to do with it is left for Nigerians.

“Because, you can imagine, the presidential candidate of the PDP Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, when he unveiled vice presidential candidate, no right thinking lover of this party would say that the speech he made on that day was fair. Forget about the favour-seekers. Forget about the scavengers. But, I never reacted to it. That is because this party belongs to all of us.

“Thereafter, he appeared on Arise Television, see the statement he made. So many lies were told and you said I should not react to some of those issues. That would not be fair.”

The former governor Wike explained that after the PDP primaries, he returned to Rivers State to focus on fulfilling the remaining promises that he made to Rivers people. He said, already a number of completed projects have been outlined for inauguration and when that was done, he would respond to all the lies peddled against him.

“Assuming today, I’m not alive, obviously what they have said would be accepted as the truth. Look at his (Atiku) attack dogs, Sule Lamido, Babaginda Aliyu, Maina Waziri. Look at the statements they issued. Look at the abuses they rained on me, but I never reacted.

“And Nigerians will ask, you mean these things happened? So, it is important that as a person and for my own future, and for those who rally around me to say, look, this is not fair. So, I will make sure that I will react to them, line by line of the statements made by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar himself and his attack dogs.”

Governor Wike asserted that he contested the presidential primary squarely and emerged in the second position so he would not tolerate being disparaged. He emphasised on speaking to lovers of the party by putting the record straight so that they will know who is being truthful.

“Look at it, a presidential candidate who believes that he wants to win election, and somebody who contested fiercely with him that has never raised any issue. I just kept quiet, just minded my business, to see how my state can move forward.

“But, everyday, his people come up to attack me, to say one thing or the other. That’s quite unfair and so I should let Nigerians know at the appropriate time, that will be after the commissioning of projects that we have lined up. He admitted that Senator Bukola Saraki met with him in Spain, but said the former Senate President was not sent by anybody. Nyesom proceeded to start attacking Atiku and made demands including his precondition for reconciliation before the election that Iyorchia Ayu should resign so a Southerner becomes the party chairman which Atiku disagreed. He, Nyesom Wike then openly antagonised the PDP. And the PDP went into the presidential poll as a thoroughly disunited political party.

With the public humiliation of his PDP, Governor Wike is definitely above the law even as he had challenged the PDP’S hierarchy to suspend him over anti-party allegations which are now so apparent and see if he won’t demolish the PDP. His threats are being viewed with considerable respect by those parading about as PDP national hierarchy and Wike has not left PDP but he is romancing with APC and us now a ministerial nominee which is a political anathema in Nigeria whereby formation of central government is centralised around the principle of WINNER TAKES ALL.

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He practically has walked out of PDP and is actively serving the interest of the rival APC but the PDP’S leadership can’t suspend him. And Atiku is not in any hurry to let the PDP breathe. Atiku who is waging legal battle against the APC’S Bola Ahmed Tinubu on all fronts, is not relenting in his hostage taking of PDP. It is argued that if the court opted to compromise and validate the rigged election which produced Tinubu as President, Atiku may still be around to take PDP’S presidential ticket in another four years time. But by then, PDP would have been totally buried and its nunct dimittis would have sounded loud and clear.

Currently, PDP suffers gale of defections with credible members leaving the dead party in droves. The latest is Chief Anyim Puys Anyim who was Secretary of the Federal government under PDP and Senate President also under PDP. If he leaves, PDP in Ebonyi will collapse completely. He has just met Tinubu and APC national Chairman. His exit from PDP is imminent I’m told reliably.

But let me end by cautioning the President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to stop sabotaging political opposition and to stop funding the faction within the Labour Party. This is for his self enlightened interest.

I said the above words of caution to Tinubu because it is true that if multiparty democracy dies, then constitutional democracy is over meaning anything can happen including military take-over.

The reason the activities of both Atiku Abubakar and Nyesom Wike that led to the crippling of the biggest opposition in Nigeria-PDP is so treacherous, is that with no opposition party, the President will transform to a fascist and fascism is diametrically opposed to constitutional government because democracy thrives on freedom of speech and freedom of association in addition to other fundamental rights embedded in the grund norm.

What then is the Role Of The Opposition Party In Democracy, if we may ask?

We will quote from a scholarly work which states that in a democratic system, the opposition party plays a vital role in the functioning of the government. The opposition party also referred to as the minority party, is an essential component of any democratic society as it acts as a check and balance on the ruling party or government. The opposition party provides an alternate viewpoint, scrutinizes and challenges the ruling party’s policies, and holds them accountable for their actions. The role of the opposition party is crucial for maintaining a healthy and functioning democracy, as it ensures that the government is constantly being challenged and that alternative viewpoints and policies are being presented to the public. This article will discuss in detail the role, functions, strengths, and weaknesses of the opposition party in a democracy, highlighting the importance of its presence in a democratic system.

I then ask, What then is the Importance of Opposition Party?

The Straightforward answer to the above interrogation is that the importance of the opposition party in a democracy cannot be overstated.

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They play a crucial role in ensuring that the government is held accountable for its actions and policies. The opposition party acts as a counterbalance to the ruling party, providing an alternate viewpoint and challenging the government’s policies and actions.

Besides, one of the most important functions of the opposition party, says this scholar I’m quoting his thoughts, is to act as a watchdog, monitoring the government’s actions and highlighting any issues or problems that may arise.

This, the author argued, helps to ensure that the government is always working in the best interests of the people and that any issues or problems are addressed. This is essential for maintaining the trust and confidence of the people in the government and democratic institutions.

The opposition party also provides a vital role in the democratic process by presenting alternative policies and proposals to those of the government. This allows the public to have a choice and a voice in the political process and ensures that the government is responsive to the needs and concerns of the people.

Additionally, the opposition party plays an important role in fostering a healthy and robust political discourse. They provide an alternative perspective and challenge the ruling party’s policies and actions, leading to a more informed and engaged public. This is essential for the functioning of democracy as it allows for a free exchange of ideas, and helps to prevent the ruling party from becoming too entrenched and entrenched in power.

Furthermore, opposition parties serve as a safeguard against abuses of power and authoritarian tendencies.

They are the ones who will point out the wrongdoings of the government and will provide a barrier against the government becoming too powerful and oppressive. This is essential for maintaining democracy as it ensures that the government is always held accountable for its actions and policies, (Source: Geeksforgeeks).

So we ask Wike and Atiku, what will it profit you, if out of your selfish pursuit of opportunistic power, and then through your active sabotage of pluralism, you have destroyed Nigeria’s biggest opposition party?

Certainly, generations unborn will mark you both as enemies of constitutional government in Nigeria. This history is already written in our hearts and minds.

*EMMANUEL ONWUBIKO is head of the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA and was NATIONAL COMMISSIONER OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF NIGERIA.