adeyeye
Adedayo Adeyeye is the National Publicity Secretary of the Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faction led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi. He speaks to SAM NWAOKO on what he thinks of the state of opposition in the country and why. Excerpts:
WHAT would you make of the near absence of opposition in Nigeria of today?
We can easily attribute this to the current leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Since the beginning of this democratic experience, they have been in opposition. They enjoyed it and gained very valuable experience as they had a field day. They thrived as they opposed the government and nobody, in any way, tried to stop them from being the opposition leaders. But immediately they came to power, they have been trying hard to deny others the same right they enjoyed for about 16 years. They don’t want opposition. And particularly because they have no plan and no purpose, they know that opposition will expose them. And so, they don’t want any opposition to expose them. If they had any policies or programmes, they would have been more receptive to the opposition. But because they have no plans and no policies to make Nigeria better, they have decided that the best way to have any chance of returning to or retaining power, is to prevent the opposition from existing in the country. That’s what has been happening.
However, despite that, we have tried within the limits of our ability, despite all the impediments, all the constraints and all the hurdles placed in our way, to raise our voices and let Nigerians know the harm this government is doing to the growth and prosperity of the country.
Are there dangers you see the trend you highlighted above portending for the country?
Any democracy without opposition is no democracy. It is dictatorship; pure and simple. Some countries are one-party states, do you call that democracy? Some are multi-party states but to all intents and purposes, are one-party states because parties other than the ruling parties are not given any freedom to function properly; they are not allowed to expand or to recruit new members or to even criticise the government. As far as I’m concerned, any democracy where there’s no robust opposition is a dead democracy; a pure dictatorship. And that is what the APC people are striving towards. I want to say it categorically that the APC people have never been democrats. They don’t believe in democracy; they never cherish democracy. They were only jostling for power and immediately they got that power, the next thing is to kill all opposition. This has always happened in history. If you look at history of the communist takeover in many countries, they would come to power through the ballot and immediately they take over through the ballot box, they constitute themselves into pure dictatorship. It has happened in so many countries. And we hope that will not be the case in Nigeria.
So, you believe it is the ruling party, which is the APC; that is behind the crisis in the opposition parties, especially your PDP?
I have said it many times. Everybody knows it. Even a layman on the street knows that the APC is behind the crisis in the PDP. Their theory is very simple: By ensuring that there is no viable opposition in Nigeria there is no party to take over. Nobody to take over from them and when there’s no opposition and nobody to take over from them, despite all their inadequacies and their misrule, they can be guaranteed the fact that they will continue to run the country. So, this is their theory, their strategy they have come up with to retain power at all costs. Even though they may not be popular or they may not enjoy the affection and support of the masses, they will continue. This is the simple strategy they have devised. They way they can accomplish that is to kill the opposition, which is the PDP. That has been the experience. That is why, today, PDP is in turmoil.
So, they are the ones behind the problems in the PDP?
I’ve challenged the other group in our party, which the APC is supporting, to utter even a single word of criticism against the government, but they have refused. How can they criticise their masters? They’re mere lapdogs, who would never criticise those who are their backers. So it is clear from that, that they are being sponsored and being financed by the APC leadership. This is the experience. That’s what is going on. Otherwise, the two of us would have been raising issues that have to do with the welfare of the country and we could have moved on from there.
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