OPINION: What Obi, Atiku Should Do For Tinubu

Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, was the U.S. Senate Leader in 2017 when Donald Trump assumed office as President after a toxic presidential election. Hillary Clinton, his major opponent in the election, won the popular votes by nearly three million votes. But Trump emerged winner through the Electoral College votes.

But when the senate convened after a highly divisive election, McConnell gave a speech to rally his colleagues for the sake of the country. He said those who supported Trump and those who supported Clinton were all patriotic Americans who wanted the best for their country but only saw things differently. He said the election was over and it was time to build the country.

Nigeria’s presidential election of February 25 was similar to the 2016 US election in its impact. It was a nation- defining election which polarized Nigerians along ethnic and religious cleavages. The major opposition parties rejected the results but avoided violence by going to court.

But after the Supreme Court judgment which affirmed that President Bola Tinubu winner of the election, the bickering over the election effectively ended.  The parties that lost the election must now take on a new role as opposition parties.

Opposition parties are critical to democracy as they hold ruling parties and government accountable. They scrutinize government decisions, policies, and actions – and play oversight over the Executive and the public administration. A virile opposition defends voters’ interests and provide alternative visions, policies, and leaders to the governing party.

Since the final court decision over the presidential election, candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi and that of the People’s Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar appeared to have settled into their new roles. However, for some reasons, Obi appeared the more active of the two. The LP leader is still young at 61 and could take another shot at the presidency while age is no longer on the side of the former vice president who’ clocked 77 last month.

Obi has issued public statements regularly to criticize the ruling government. He called out the Tinubu administration last month on the signing into law of the N2.17trn supplementary budget, accusing the government of not prioritizing welfare of Nigerians. He also criticized Tinubu for proposing N15bn in the 2024 budget for the construction of new residence of the Vice President.

Recently, he also visited victims of the recent accidental military airstrike on Tudun Biri village in the Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State where he called for better financing of the Military and the establishment of a foundation to take care of the victims.

It speaks well for the LP leader that he’s not gone back to his shell after the election as some of the other candidates have done. Democracy cannot thrive without a credible and viable opposition that puts the ruling government on its toes. Opposition leaders who come and go after every election circle are self-centered politicians who feel entitled to power. Such have nothing to offer the people.

Obi is on the right track. He has to continue on this path and find ways to penetrate regions he lost during the last election while remaining relevant in the places he won.

But for many advocates of political restructuring like this writer, no opposition leader in Nigeria today has any worth if they’re not putting restructuring of the country in their public discourses. This country cannot achieve its potentials under a federal structure that stifles sub-national entities. No matter the economic wizardry of those at the helm of affairs of this country today, as long as states and local governments do not have any control over their resources, real economic growth would be stunted.  

Dr Abraham Nwankwo, a former director general of Nigeria’s Debt Management Office, argued in a paper advocating restructuring of the country that Nigeria would not achieve its full potentials until states become centres of production. He said the current arrangement where resources taken from states belong to the federal government and states go cap-in-hand to Abuja every month for money to run their states is retrogressive.

This is why unemployment and poverty rates in Nigeria have continued to hit the roof. According to the World Bank, poverty rate in Nigeria was projected to reach 37% this year, with an estimated 84 million Nigerians living below the poverty line — the world’s second-largest poor population after India. Unemployment rate was 33.3 per cent in 2020.

Progressive politicians in the country, including President Tinubu, have long advocated for restricting of the country within their various group platforms. Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Pan Niger Delta Forum, the middle-belt forum and elements in the Arewa Consultative Form have called for restricting of the current political arrangement to unbundle the federal government.

The federal government is overweight and the signs are visible to all. Nigeria has been fighting insurgency in the north east since 2009 without success while new deadly security threats have emerged in other parts of the country. The military is overstretched while the Nigerian Police Force and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps offer little protection.

Advocates of restructuring have also called for establishment of state police as panacea for the current state of insecurity. The paradox of a federation running a unitary government is behind the asphyxiating conditions in all facets of national life.

This is the time for opposition political leaders interested in a greater Nigeria, and not in just wielding power, to push the Tinubu administration towards positive restructuring of the country. Though an advocate of restructuring himself, Tinubu as president may be unable to appreciate the urgency of restructuring the country into a true federation.

This is why opposition leaders, especially prominent ones such as Obi and Atiku, are divinely placed to make this demand from the government of the day. Their role must not just be to criticize the president or run down his administration when it’s not doing well. They must stand for something more noble and enduring than just telling Nigerians they can do the job better.

What is better for Nigeria at this time is to peacefully restructure and avoid violent disintegration. The country is divided along regional and religious lines. Nigerians are losing faith in the federal government and in the political class. It is time for a radical but positive turnaround for the country. Let’s give power back to the states and stripped the federal government of excessive powers.

Let us reduce the struggle for power at the centre and make the presidency a place for patriotic and selfless Nigerians willing to serve others. Let’s begin to focus more on states and local governments. This is the agenda I expect the current oppositions leaders to pursue, not the usual I-can-do-better-than-you grandstanding.       

Tajudeen Suleiman, an Abuja-based journalist, can be reached via [email protected].

Disclaimer: This article is entirely the opinion of the writer and does not represent the views of The Whistler.