A Critical Examination of Nigeria’s Opposition Landscape
As an opposition spokesman, it is tempting to blame the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for all the current challenges faced by opposition political parties. However, in this article, I aim to be critically objective rather than take a devil’s advocate stance.
The Nigerian opposition leadership has consistently demonstrated a lack of awareness and strategic thinking when engaging with significant political events. This tendency to overlook critical issues has led to the loss of valuable resources that could have strengthened the opposition. These individuals often end up being targeted and recruited by the ruling party. While it may seem unfair, it is a reality that must be acknowledged.
Nigeria’s democracy is at a crucial juncture. As the nation deals with economic changes and serious security issues, the fundamental mechanism of democracy—vibrant opposition—is noticeably weakened. While we often point to the APC for reducing political space and accuse it of pushing a one-party agenda, a closer look reveals that the opposition itself is primarily responsible for its weakened state.
The current condition of major opposition parties such as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) reflects self-inflicted decline. This decline is marked by internal conflicts and a lack of ideological depth. It is questionable whether the ADC conducted proper due diligence before forming its coalition. If not, it could be considered a grave mistake. The ADC was expected to bring hope to the nation, but instead, it has been plagued by continuous legal disputes, which are deeply concerning.
One of the most visible reasons for the opposition’s failure is its inability to act proactively. It lacks the necessary foresight to anticipate the ruling party’s strategies. The opposition seems confused about managing its internal affairs. The PDP, once a powerful national machine, has been in a state of crisis for three years. Factions loyal to figures like Nyesom Wike and Atiku Abubakar have turned the party into a battlefield of egos rather than a platform for governance.
Similarly, the Labour Party, which captured the imagination of millions in 2023, has been bogged down by leadership disputes between Julius Abure and factions backed by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). When a party cannot agree on who its chairman is, how can it convince the nation it is ready to lead?
In my studies for a Master’s degree, I found processualism fascinating. Unlike earlier structural-functional approaches that focused on stable social systems, processualism emphasizes conflict and its resolution as the primary drivers of politics and social transformation. It highlights that individual political agents use power, manipulation, and various strategies to achieve their goals. Many Nigerian politicians are driven by personal ambitions.
Processualism exposes us to the harsh nature of political interactions that reward cold-blooded, intentional, and unflagging strategies while punishing naivety and presumptuous cargo-cult mentality with persistent failure. The Nigerian opposition falls into the latter category.
The ideological void in opposition parties is a damning albatross. The absence of a clear alternative vision for Nigeria beyond the refrain of “APC represents bad governance” is essentially disingenuous. Prominent analysts, including Olisa Agbakoba, have noted that opposition parties often fail to engage on substantive policy. Instead of offering detailed solutions to the suffering of Nigerians, the opposition has largely limited its activities to reactive lamentations.
Recently, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, a foremost academic and former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, described the country’s opposition political parties as an “utter disgrace.” Arise TV’s popular presenter, Rufai Oseni, also referred to the opposition as a “coalition of jokers.”
Without a distinct ideological differentiation from the ruling party, the opposition becomes nothing more than a “special purpose vehicle” for capturing power, lacking the moral authority to inspire a weary electorate. The resulting organizational fatigue has triggered a wave of defections, further enervating opposition structures. Governors and lawmakers are jumping ship to the APC not necessarily because of shared values, but because their original parties have become “immobile or inoperable.”
The opposition’s leadership has no space for inclusive engagement, no matter how some of us have tried to engage. Unless you are a former Governor, former Minister, former or current lawmaker, no matter your capabilities or contributions to opposition activism, you’re neither appreciated, acknowledged, nor supported.
The Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, became a vibrant opposition megaphone going into the 2019 general elections. Through the personal efforts, fervent activism, and consistent opposition advocacy of my then colleague, now member representing Ideato Federal Constituency of Imo State, Honorable Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, CUPP was made popular and recognized as Nigeria’s leading opposition rallying point. To the best of my knowledge, aside from the early days of CUPP’s formation, no funding to support CUPP’s activism was made available by the leading opposition parties. Ikenga was funding his own office and activities as CUPP’s spokesman wholly. Same with me when I took over. CUPP became so much a thorn on the Buhari administration that the government decided to deregister all the political parties affiliated with the CUPP. 74 political parties fell victim of the sledgehammer of INEC’s deregistration rampage. For over ten years, since 2015 that APC came to power, INEC refused to register any political party until recently that two were reluctantly registered. This same CUPP has not received one kobo of support from the so-called opposition leaders since after the 2019 general elections. All my media activities since I took over fully as CUPP’s national spokesperson for over three years now have been wholly self-sponsored. That has significantly impacted on the effectiveness of CUPP so far because opposition figures have refused to give support, even minimally, and there is limitation to what a single individual can do.
The result is the lack of a combined biting force for the opposition that is supposed to be firing on all cylinders and aggregate all resources at its disposal. But the Nigerian opposition has reduced itself to reactive opportunism. Many valiant opposition voices and soldiers have become severely demoralized.
As the 2027 general elections approach, the window for redemption is closing. The opposition’s current strategy of blaming the Electoral Act or “state apparatus” for its woes rings hollow when its own house is on fire. Unless these parties can move beyond personality-driven leadership and prioritize service over internal squabbles, they will remain the authors of their own obsolescence.
The current opposition alliances have a lot to learn from the APC while the latter was in the opposition. I cannot imagine the APC being this lethargic with the current state of Nigeria if it’s the one in the opposition. If you don’t know how to play opposition, you don’t expect the party in power not to take advantage of your cluelessness. Integral to that is the not-so-noble past of some foremost opposition figures who had involved themselves in actions and utterances considered unjust and antidemocratic while in government at some point.
Nigeria deserves a strong alternative. But until the opposition stops fighting itself and ceases to underutilize its best materials, it cannot hope to fight for Nigerians. Desperately seeking for power is never equivalent to seeking good governance.
