The Challenge of The Opposition

The Challenge of The Opposition

 

 

By Otunba Segun Showunmi

 

Nigeria – A great Leader whose ruling party kept winning election after election was accused of stifling the opposition, he responded in the negative saying no, it is not exactly so, he opined that it is true that elections are a sort of referendum.

While it is a referendum on the ruling party’s performance, it is equally a referendum on the opposition and the hope it is out to bring. Truer opinions on elections have not been said.

I insist that in our environment the vehicle which is the political party must understand that except for making money from candidates that they can have, if they don’t shape up it gets even harder to defeat a ruling party.

Those who like to act smart with worthless things will always be in agony about valuable things.

I do not see the fixation on who the next chairman is either acting or substantial will be, I am fully persuaded that our issues require honesty, clear thinking, reduction in the blame games and bulk passing.

We must look beyond our caucuses, we must reduce the tendency to look for a scapegoat, and we must understand that certain circumstances and entrenched cultures are responsible for our woes and until we are willing to deal with them we most likely are on a mission to nowhere.

We must be embarrassed with ourselves that while the ruling party is battling with an economy that had tanked based on global trends and some misactions of the past we have wasted more than a year since the last election, ample time that we ought to have used to fix our party.

In a rather amateurish manner rather than looking at the processes, the procedures, the operational manual and our constitution, we are deluding ourselves.

Now that the almighty NEC has been called I believe we must wait for the outcome, whatever the NEC decide will speak to how seriously we expect members of the larger society to take our party.

It would be foolhardy to think 2027 is a stroll in the park, I disagree for it is said that one cannot solve a problem with the consciousness with which the problem was created.

What the Peoples Democratic Party needs is a complete overhaul, a soulful reconciliation, a reformation an ideological makeover and discipline.

I have looked through those who are angling for the responsibility and I consider myself Otunba Segun Showunmi as the only real chance the party has for I get it.

I get that a lot of give-and-take is needed at this point.

I get that we have lost the moral ground to criticize the ruling party for strictly speaking we both campaigned on these sickening neoliberal capitalist policies that have no accommodation for our people’s way of life not for the right to the happiness of the mass of our People who are overburden by a system that panders to the wealthy as though the poor are meant to be miserable in life.

I get that science and deep research must drive our operations and decision-making against haphazard gut feelings that are underpinned by vainglorious boasting that brings no favourable results.

I get that we need a funding model that is expanded so that all members are fee-paying as against the unholy pressure put on governors which gives a disproportionate right for their misbehaviour and excessive meddlesomeness.

I get that the party must be supreme and I will make it supreme.

I get that equity, fairness and justice must be operational guidelines as against rhetoric.

I get that there are enough numbers to defeat the incumbent but certainly not the way we are going about things.

I get that no individual can be in two parties at the same time nor serve two masters, I will come up with a doctrine of necessity that will deal decisively with the unusual situation we have now where one of ours the former governor of Rivers State Wike seems to be in and the destabilizing impact on the polity.

I get that without proper compliance with our constitution, electoral act and guidelines we will continue to overburden ourselves and the courts with needless court cases that tire out both the judiciary and ourselves.

We owe it to democracy that we strive to reform and preserve the PDP, it is all our legacy from the first elected president to the last presidential candidate not leaving out all who have at one time or another shouted power to the people in response to the shout PDP.

Otunba Segun Showunmi
PDP Ogun State. (PDP National Chairmanship Hopeful)

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