The sight was not just bewildering it was also shocking. Dateline was Thursday, May 29, 2003. Venue was Aso Rock Presidential Villa. It was the cake-cutting ceremony to celebrate the second term victory and second swearing-in ceremony of then President Matthew Okikiolakan Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo. Joining Obasanjo to cut the celebration cake were two governors and some party leaders of the supposed opposition All Peoples Party, APP (which later became All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, before a faction of it morphed into General Muhammadu Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change, CPC.
By this time, the only other opposition party, the Alliance for Democracy, AD, had lost all but one of its six governors in the South-West geo-political zone, which was its stronghold. Apart from Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State, who survived through his grit, determination and an insider dealing of a leader of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the other five bit the political dust. Adebayo Adefarati of Ondo State, Lam Adeshina of Oyo State, Niyi Adebayo of Ekiti State, Segun Osoba of Ogun State, and Bisi Akande of Osun State, all lost the governorship election of that year. Through subterfuge, reliance on ethno-cultural bias, alleged manipulation of election results, and strategic deception, Obasanjo was able to bulldoze his way through and get PDP to take over the five states.
By this time, the only other opposition party, the Alliance for Democracy, AD, had lost all but one of its six governors in the South-West geo-political zone, which was its stronghold. Apart from Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State, who survived through his grit, determination and an insider dealing of a leader of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the other five bit the political dust. Adebayo Adefarati of Ondo State, Lam Adeshina of Oyo State, Niyi Adebayo of Ekiti State, Segun Osoba of Ogun State, and Bisi Akande of Osun State, all lost the governorship election of that year. Through subterfuge, reliance on ethno-cultural bias, alleged manipulation of election results, and strategic deception, Obasanjo was able to bulldoze his way through and get PDP to take over the five states.
In fact, according to a February 25, 2004 Report extracted from the 2001-2009 Archive of the US State Department, “the elections (of 2003) also resulted in the ruling PDP winning 70 percent of the seats in the national legislature and 75 percent of the state governorship.” That was how strong the PDP was.
Prior to the bizarre events of May 2003, and under the guise of forming a Government of National Unity, GNU, Obasanjo, upon assuming office in 1999, rewarded the National Chairman of the APP, Senator Mahmud Waziri, with appointment as his Presidential Adviser on Inter-Party Affairs. Meanwhile, Obasanjo had two other Presidential Advisers on National Assembly Matters and another one on Political Affairs. So, what was the brief of Waziri, if not to use him as an instrument of destabilisation of the APP?
In that same 1999, for AD, Obasanjo reached for and appointed one of the leaders of Afenifere and AD, late Chief James Ajibola Idowu Ige (Bola Ige), SAN, as minister of power. He then grabbed Dupe Adelaja, daughter of Afenifere and National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, Leader, Pa Abraham Aderibigbe Adesanya, and appointed her as Minister of State, Defence. All these happened between 1999 and 2003.
So, how did these two opposition parties disappear from the political firmament – or as they would love to delude themselves, become a shapeless shadow? It is because those who are supposed to be in the opposition are afflicted with a cocktail of malaise that renders them both toothless and irrelevant over time. This report has codified them into 10.
