•Timothy Osadolor
Timothy Osadolor is a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and presently, the national deputy youth leader of the party. In this interview with Daily Trust, he blames the opposition’s inability to play its role on the prevailing hardship in the country and the influence of the ruling party.
How would you describe the state of the opposition in Nigeria?
The issue today is beyond opposition and even a one party state we are talking about. The average man on the street has been highly dehumanised.
This government has made it a practice to weaponise poverty and hunger to the level that a man who is struggling to eat once a day does not have the moral fiber to be talking about what is right or wrong. He needs to first breathe, eat and live to be strong enough to say that this is right or wrong. But that’s not to say that the opposition should collapse. And that’s not to say that the opposition parties, as led by the PDP, will not keep doing its job.
The three main opposition parties—the PDP, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and the Labour Party — are battling one form of crisis or another; why is it difficult for the opposition to put itself together?
I just told you that this government has learnt the craft of weaponising poverty and hunger, as well as the economic hardship in the land, to the point where Nigerians are just pleading to eat to survive.
You cannot ask a man who has not eaten, or who is struggling to eat to start fighting. I am not saying that everything reduces to food for opposition parties and all of that, what I am trying to say is that this government has made it a hobby to weaponise hunger and economic policies in such a way that if you are seen to be in a key opposition and they don’t know how to cripple you or go after your businesses, they would send the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arm of their government after you to collapse you, or they would send the Department of State Services (DSS) after you to cow you into submission.
What they are doing is systematic. We have seen it time and time again. Once any prominent figure makes one or two statements, you would hear that the EFCC or DSS has invited him to explain what he said or what he is doing and all of that. All of these are systematic ways to cripple and wind down the opposition.
So, we should stop fooling ourselves and living in the Animal Farm kingdom in this place. We should live as a country and people where justice, truth and fairness reign supreme.
What would you say about the inability of the opposition parties and their leaders to come together?
Let me also say that the opposition leaders are not really out of blame in this regard. You mentioned three major political parties. Well, aside from the showing that Kwankwaso and his followers in the Kwankwasiya movement made in Kano, we saw how well he fared in other states across the country.
So, when you are talking about opposition parties that have spread, aside from the PDP, the only one that made an attempt at having a spread was the Labour Party. And its flag-bearer was booted out of the PDP during the primaries.
So, even Kwankwaso and his followers in Kano are products of the PDP. You see, if you ask Kwankwaso and Peter Obi and they would swear on the Quran and the Bible, let them tell you the truth – ego is an underlying factor that pushed them out of the PDP. If they are ready to work with anybody that emerges, things will be better. It must not be Atiku, Kwankwaso or Obi.
At the end of the day, if they want to work sincerely for the overall interest of Nigerians, it is time they locked themselves in a room and developed a group with a national spread.
What is the way forward?
Going forward, Nigerians must not give up hope. We have seen the darkest part of the night. The truth is that even India, with all its challenges was promising to come and give us food and support. It is an aberration. It is something that does not add up. India has over 1.3 billion people but they have attained food sufficiency.
What is our problem in this country? The way forward is that Nigerians must reject ethnicity, nepotistic tendencies and regionalism and look for who the cap fits and support such a person. We must look for such person and rally around that figure.
