The Opposition from 2007

Eight years has flown by like a jot and a jolt! Goodness me, and the political class is jostling for power again!! The thing is so sweet those who have exhausted their tenure want more (as in the immoral Third Term misadventure) or are aspiring higher, while those who have been in the proverbial political wilderness desperately seek rehabilitation. Yet, very little desire for full accountability! Wow.

It is amazing how many so readily pass the buck. They'll blame everything on the executive, especially the presidency. Not for them the principle of collective responsibility. Not for them the question of "herd mentality", when they sold their conscience by neither speaking up nor shipping out. They loved to belong, and had their day in the sun, plus plenty a salad day to boot. It paid while it lasted. Now they mouth alibi and crave exculpation. Haba!

Oh, and those cross-carpeters! How they ogled and lapped up spoils and crumbs! The ruling PDP made a mince of many, made a Man Friday of others, made a monument of a few. We watched in utter dismay and amusement. Comical, theatrical and mysterious indeed. There was an unspoken code of compromise and comeuppance that nothing mattered anymore.

This lack of self-censorship, self-restraint as well as the drift to self-immolation soon engulfed the official opposition, rendering them sufficiently impotent and escapist that they became unofficial! If we admit that the ruling party has a crushing majority at all levels of governance, including most-inappropriately some souls in the supposedly independent judiciary, it is no consolation for political delinquency and self-distruct by the opposition parties. Nor could it excuse or justify the absence of constructive engagement and elevated contestation of public policies, with credible alternatives, both in parliament and in the people's domain.

Without putting a fine point on it, only the principled stance and stout opposition of some PDP members helped Nigeria defeat the Third Term monster. Paradoxically, several members of the opposition parties so betrayed their mandates and their constituencies by playing ball with the subversive elements! As they say, the rest is now history. We hear many of the Third Term and fraudulent-impeachments actors have been dumped in last weekend's PDP primaries. What poetic justice! Alas, the chickens are coming home to roost!! Next, posterity will claim its due.

Our plea this day is that after all permutations, alignments and realignments for election and balloting purposes, let winners be winners and losers transform themselves into credible and responsible opposition-democratic forces at all levels of governance. They should let those in office know that power can shift through by-elections, impeachments, recalls and...at general elections. Yes, no matter how long the incumbency.

The opposition next time must not abandon the struggle for only the press, labour, students and civil rights crusaders. Working with civil society is the greatest assurance we can have of a just and humane nation. ALL aspirants and their parties must imbibe this beauty, this reality.

Hey folks, remember, he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day! But he must return fully equipped, well prepared and highly motivated for the rematch. Yes.

Campaign Hints: We Need FACTS-n-FIGURES!

Just an early advice/warning to aspirants and political parties: Don't waste our time with bland and woolly talk. Use FACTS and FIGURES: from government/official and researched/unofficial or commissioned sources. Elections 2007 is no business as usual. No.

Nigerians need credible analysis, alternative propositions and enlightened debates/attestations: How will you plan, design and execute robust sustainable development within your sphere of governance and tenure? What will you do differently, given our known/expected resources? In particular, how will you tackle and fund education, agriculture, infrastructure and security? What game-plan do you have for rural development and rural-urban migration? How will you tackle the proverbial brain drain, turning it to brain gain? What's in store for the neglected and now-boiling oil-rich Niger Delta, with its restive and agitated populace?

And the mother of all factors: How will you deal with CORRUPTION???

No one should enter the fray be it at local, state or national level without a very clear vision and mission - based on sound reasoning, backed with FACTS and FIGURES. None.

Ups for Plurality

One of the defining and welcomed features of the new electoral order is the plurality of choice, as in 50 political parties! This should help diffuse the cut-throat competition and do-or-die mentality in the polity. Hopefully, it should also reduce the strangle-hold of erstwhile moneybags, the menace of godfatherism and the undue influence of party hierarchs/jobbers. New days are here, indeed.

Of course the screening of candidates must be thorough, and must include means testing and certification, including anti-corruption clearance. That done, let the game begin!

My word for the gladiators: Watch ya back!

Meaning? Ask your mom.

Voters Registration Exercise

The e-Registration of Nigerian voters was meant to be novel and fault-reducing. So far, it has been faults galore! Somehow, there is no shortage of complaints all over: from bad batteries to insufficient equipment, from inadequate training to invisible registration booths, from time wasting to power failure, and a general level of disillusionment.

If these were teething problems, they amount to worrisome signals and portends. No one is in a position to know what a failed exercise will look like; but we really don't want to know. It will be too dangerous, too self-destructing, too not-to-be-conjectured that we should just make this thing work! There are now strident calls for a prompt return to "manual registration".

I'm yet to join the nay-sayers, but you really can't flatly fault them. Turn on the TV day or night and see the unflattering reports with heart-wrenching visuals! Open the newspapers and you confront plenty bad news with photos and quotes! In all, the media is full of citizens lampooning, lamenting, lambasting and languishing.....

Who is listening? But more important: Who is ACTING???

2007 Transition is NOT negotiable. NOT!