Last week, the much talked about coalition of political parties finally landed with their choice of a platform, when they unveiled former President of the Senate, David Bonaventure Alechenu Mark and a former governor of Osun State and erstwhile political alter ego of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as interim national chairman and secretary respectively of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The coalition had earlier released some befuddling signals in the process of landing the ADC, having given indications that they were converging on the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and later the All Democratic Alliance (ADA). It has now emerged that the lethargic displays, signaling a disoriented search for anchorage by the coalition elements, were more of stratagem, subterfuge, and decoy aimed at beating the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in its own game.
As soon as the announcement of Mark and Aregbesola was made, the political scene became charged as if some fierce foray of sea waves had darted across the Ahmadu Bello Way, Lagos, in those hot days of Bar Beach surge. Government people, friends of the government, and acclaimed custodians of progressivism landed in the space, pontificating and articulating vibes that tend to showcase shock and disbelief. Maybe the strategists of the ruling party had gone to sleep to enable the Atiku-led coalition to slip through their close watch and pull through a major one. Maybe they underrated the coalition, or perhaps they were comfortable on the one-way, to the extent that they had concluded that no one could pass them by till arrival at destination 2027. There are clear suggestions that the ruling party was on a free ride.
First, its strategists have been able to put the three opposition parties that could collectively antagonize its 2027 comeback to sleep. The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been brought to its knees, the Labour Party (LP) is busy parading three factions and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) is roiling in an expulsion drama that questions its very existence as its factions had continued to proclaim the expulsion of the party’s most important export-Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso. If you recall that an arithmetic summation of the votes of the PDP and LP in the 2023 election nearly doubles that of the winner, Bola Tinubu, you will realise the importance of the internecine war being orchestrated within the three opposition parties.
But with the ADC coming from the blues; a frenzy was let out, and that should be understandable. It’s like a situation when you think the door is firmly bolted, only to see a mouse slip through. That the Mark-led team pulled a fast one beyond the eagle eyes of the Tinubu camp was written on the faces of many. The vituperations by the vocal APC elements in articulating condemnations, character assassination, high-volume political prattle, and cliches against leaders of the coalition say it all.
Their narratives have been somewhat bewildering. Some have called the coalition politicians a team of geriatrics, someone said they have been in government before and did not make anything out of it, some other commentators called them desperados, and others delved into personal attacks on David Mark, Atiku Abubakar, Aregbesola, Nasir el-Rufai, and Rotimi Amaechi. Like someone said that David Mark, as Senate President, could not fix the road that leads to his hometown, Oturkpo. I also saw a post in which someone accused Aregbesola of betrayal of progressive politics, and another commentator listed the arrowheads of the coalition and gave his character sketch of each of them
As for the accusations against Aregbesola, I wonder where those who have accused him of betraying progressivism, the Yoruba cause, and Omoluabi ethos are coming from. We first have to conclusively declare here that there is nothing about progressivism in the Nigerian polity of the Fourth Republic. Some parties choose to answer the name, but the practice is missing. The Yoruba would say that a child can choose to answer whatever name he fancies when in foreign land. But we are not confused by that. Progressive politics ended with the leadership of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the Second Republic. Maybe the nation would have witnessed another if Chief MKO Abiola had realized his ambition in 1993. And how do we say that Aregbesola has betrayed the Yoruba by opposing Tinubu? The former governor of Osun State has his political life to live, and that should suffice, and I heard our leaders say that all of us don’t sleep and put heads in the same direction.
It is unthinkable that opposition can be silenced in a democracy. There are always two sides of the coin, but if you desire permanent peace, go to the graveyard. Permanent peace is alien to the market, too. Politics is a marketplace. During the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, he was able to lure leaders of the AD and ANPP to his government to avoid opposition. He succeeded, but his government went on to experience internal turmoil that turned the seat of government into a Somali-like warfront. This is to tell us that politicians will always play politics. What is expected of the government is to govern the people with the sole aim of ensuring the welfare and security of the people. It is not a difficult task. But sycophants and cheerleaders make it tedious. Retired Col. Dangiwa Umar told the president last week that sycophants are the most dangerous product around power and that he should avoid them. I agreed with the fearless Colonel. A situation where government appointees were called to give their two-year scorecard but turned the gathering to a second term endorsement platform is the worst a leader should see.
So, to answer the Atikus, the David Marks, and all, the president should mandate his ministers to meet every criticism with facts and figures about our existential realities. If they say living standards were better under Jonathan with inflation at single digit, let us see why it is better with inflation at a rebased standard of 23 per cent. And tell us why some countries are doing five per cent inflation or less. If they say the roads are bad, David Umahi, the minister of Works, should come out to state how he has built a superhighway across the geopolitical zones.
If they say that the minister of power has introduced apartheid regime in the country via his Band A,B,C, D, etc. electricity supply template, let him tell us how that has guaranteed 24- hour electricity to 200 million Nigerians. Rather than engage in unhelpful arguments around power grab. Government people must constantly engage us on their stewardship output rather than telling us the dog is the mother of puppy.
In Shakespear’s Macbeth, we saw the proclamation: “Foul is fair and fair is foul,” by the witches as a somewhat reversal of the moral values and a kind of affirmation that what looks good may be bad and vice versal, but in politics, foul is actually fair and fair may be foul, but there is also the realistic affirmation of the saying that even among thieves there is honour.
If we have to put the various vituperations against the coalition leaders to test, you want to wonder whether they are also not true of the 2014 coalition that birthed the APC. If the 2025 coalition elements can be branded as power-hungry, what is different with the 2013/14 effort? The 2025 coalition can be branded geriatrics, the 2014 team equally had men in their late 70s and early 80s as leaders against the Goodluck Jonathan presidency, and if we want to say that the ADC coalition is peopled by desperados, what could be more desperate than the 2012 rejection of Jonathan’s push to remove fuel subsidy, even with clear articulation of the implementation structures and terms of the Subsidy Re-investment plan, while the opponents of that policy got power in 2015 and implemented the same policy with the cold-heartedness of an executioner? And if you brand the coalition leaders as former government officials, which of the people raising that argument has not been in government before? In the end, such arguments neither help the mover nor the country. Our leaders say that when you point one finger at your opponent, four others are surely pointing to you.
Therefore, rather than describe Mark and co as the “desperados,” reply the criticisms with facts and figures about your achievements. Someone accused David Mark of failing to fix the road that leads to his hometown. I think we need to address that on behalf of legislators. It would amount to an offside in football terms to accuse a legislator of failing to fix infrastructure. The roles of a legislature are largely intangibles, and every attempt to controvert that has led to unimaginable troubles. It is what a study I am involved in called aspirational gap on the part of the lawmakers and poor legislative culture on the part of the populace. A lawmaker is elected to represent his constituency, make laws for good government of the state, and oversight the other arms of the government. Fixing infrastructure is the duty of the executive arm.
(Published by Sunday Tribune, July 6, 2025)
