Where are Nigeria’s opposition parties?

As long as laxity continues to erode our political system, we should forget about entrenching good governance in Nigeria. Indeed, good governance entails meaningful cooperation between the ruling party and the opposition parties, which goes beyond the state’s authority or political will. Opposition political parties and their representation at the legislative level are undeniably important components of any democratization and good governance plan. Alas! That is not the circumstance in Nigeria, where the opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has failed woefully to check the excesses of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which has made Nigerians to be taken for granted.
Before APC seized power from PDP, the national ruling party employed a bunch of political campaign smears against the PDP. For a fact, Nigerians voted for APC because the party seemed to be an anti-corruption, anti-Boko Haram, pro-good administration, and pro-improvement of commoners’ living conditions campaign. What has been frighteningly happening in the country lately appears to be that, nothing is being changed to fulfill their campaign promises. Nowadays commoners are being killed daily, yet it appears that there is no powerful political opponent that can criticise the national ruling party as they did in 2011 and 2015.
However, when the then President Goodluck Jonathan administration removed subsidy on petroleum products at that time, Nigerians bought petrol at the mere sum of N85 per liter compared to the Buhari administration, where petrol is sold at N175 per liter. Surprisingly, President Muhammadu Buhari and his political engineers came out and protested in the streets with papers containing captions against the old price.
From all sides, the country faces multiple, unprecedented, and daunting security challenges. With no end in sight, many people in some sections of the country live in fear every day, waiting for the worst to happen.
It really should be remembered that the ruling party enjoys widespread support in all corners of the country. This has never been the case before, even though Nigerians have shunned unnecessary sectionalism, regional differences, religious extremism, and discrepancies to save their country from 16 years of misrule from the hands of unpatriotic Nigerians who squandered everything our forefathers left behind. Our hopes were dashed when the APC emerged unprepared to free the country from the pangs of insecurity, especially in the North-west, where a group of hooligans and terrorists known as “bandits” tested Nigerians’ collective resolve.
We reckoned that by banding together, the opposition could checkmate the ruling party on all fronts, benefiting our people. Instead, they have abandoned Nigerian commoners to their fates, which is not supposed to be so. Even though this is not rooting for PDP’s return to power, our people’s lives have become endangered. There is no sense of direction.
Sadly, survival has become a privilege these days. Unfortunately, we are in this situation with all of our country’s resources at our disposal.
However, we cannot say that the current government is doing nothing about these challenges but they are not doing anything revolutionary. Meanwhile, if there is a strong opposition that consistently pressurises the national party about their assigned responsibilities of safeguarding the lives and property of all Nigerians, they would undoubtedly be fully committed to living up to their campaign pledges.
Tajuddeen Ahmad Tijjani,Galadima Mahmood Street,Kasuwar Kaji, Azare, Bauchi state