NEWS ANALYSIS: Opposition to the opposition — by Bamidele Johnson
The APC must be enjoying this ongoing interlude so much. It is a sort of political spa weekend. For the first time in a while, it is not the object of opposition abuse or being pelted with accusations of economic vandalism, putting democracy under threat and general incompetence by opposition politicians.
Instead, the opposition has decided to turn its considerable fervour upon itself, much like a colony of rats trapped in a refuse bin. While the APC reclines somewhere with cucumber slices over its eyes, the two opposition platforms have been going at each other with the kinda enthusiasm exclusive to inheritance disputes. Bolaji Abdullahi and the visibly unhousebroken Kenneth Okonkwo have been hurling Molotov cocktails at the NDC, whose prospects, admittedly, may already have been compromised by the departures of Obi, Kwankwaso and their followers.
Not to be outdone, Dele Momodu has been firing back. Though with rather less intensity. One gets the impression of a man returning fire while simultaneously searching for his reading glasses and chewing stick. His ADC, meanwhile, is behaving like a jilted lover who cannot get over the end of the affair, waking up every day haunted by the loss of the butt cheeks inna awo n’be nidi Awawu stylee. Every statement, every interview, every mournful press release somehow circles back to the NDC. It has become less a political party than a support group for the emotionally abandoned.
The latest complaint, according to my records, is that Obi appears to have hypnotised a particular section of the country and that this mass trance state may prove electorally harmful. Momodu, too, appears exercised by the NDC’s decision to zone the presidency to the South, arguing that the zoning debate is distracting Nigerians. The same Nigerians buffeted by petrol prices, power outage and food prices outrunning their incomes?
Still, he, like Abdullahi, did not entirely forget the APC, accusing the ruling party of engineering the prominence of the zoning debate in public discourse. Here we are. Insecurity has not abated, while economic hardship still grinds people into emotional powder. Inflation, especially with the rising petrol prices caused by Trump, has resumed acting like an escaped psychiatric patient. But the opposition, rather than exploiting the obvious vulnerabilities of the ruling party, has chosen to spend its time kung-fu fighting one another in the marketplace. A ruling party is the easiest to pick at, even if your party is chock-full of incompetent dunderheads, which I think is the case across the spectrum.
One is forced to consider the troubling possibility that they do not have anything better to offer than the APC presently does. Which, if true, is less an indictment of the APC than a wounding commentary on the alternatives. The SDP nor dey among. That one looks like it is Oroki Social Club of Osogbo or Jolly Sisters Club, whose members wear white blouses atop George up and down wrappers every Saturday
