Against the backdrop of a general perception of the good that government of national unity portends, it has inherent within it slippery peels. It is more like the proverbial Greek trojan horse.
On the one hand, government of national unity is usually appealing in Parliamentary democratic set ups across the world, because of the way the Parliament is structured to override the Executives. Actually, in Parliamentary democratic system, the authority lies in the Parliament. Not the Executive arm. That is why a simple “Vote of no Confidence” usually leads to early resignation of the Prime Minister, and followed by snap or general elections.
But the dynamics are quite different in Presidential democratic system. The authority of State resides with the Executive arm. And elections are at known intervals. In our own situation, four yearly. This is what Nigeria currently practices. It is the major reason why government of national unity based on Opposition parties is utterly a no no for the health of our government, party and nation.
With the heterogenous nature of our country and citizens, we have often taunted the ideas of government of national unity without actually distinguishing which we meant to refer to. Or better still, confused it with the involvement of opposition parties in the incoming government. This issue has gained serious traction within public and media spaces recently, as we all await President Tinubu to form his government. I dare to safely assume that, what Tinubu actually intended when he spoke of a government of national competence, is not to imply the bringing of people from other opposition parties to run the APC-led government. This suffices to equally safely adduce that, what he meant is to bring competent Nigerians of all ethnic considerations and religious or ideological leanings into his government as long as you have the intellectual capacity and political experience to bring value to the affairs of the State under his leadership.
Firstly, every political party within a Presidential Democratic system is wired on a different ideological strand, thus basically aiming to frustrate the ruling government by presenting a different alternative to the people. Never seeing anything good in the government of the day is like the creed and call to duty of opposition parties. This means that they will not support all or most policies of the current government. They will mobilize the people to see your government in bad light at all cost. And in this direction, the media comes very handy. We saw its climax in the Buhari days from the PDP and other opposition parties.
Secondly, they will never bring their best ideas to the table to help you. This is because they weren’t formed to advance your own cause or interests, but that of their own political parties and leaders. When you manage to succeed as a government at the end of the day- that is if they allow you, the President and his team or our party cannot claim the glory of our government’s achievements solely, as they would always emphasize and make the public case, that their ideas too was what you used. In essence, we will have to share our glories with them.
Let us not take the fundamental flaw of the arrangement of government of national unity for granted; which is that you can never trust the opposition, their intentions and leaders. No matter how cooperative they may seem, they will come into your sphere, understand you from within, corrupt your ideas, loyal men and plans if given the opportunity, and finally defeat you or undermine your success in the next elections. Let us use the last National Assembly leadership election as an example to buttress this point further.
The truth is that there eggheads within the governing party who understand the ideal Progressive values and should be at the forefront to execute the egalitarian society conceived around these ideals and principles, as rightly espoused by our Renewed Hope contract with the Nigerian Citizens. Obviously, we believe in the sacred wisdom of Mr President and other party leaders to guide the party through this issue of national and party importance. On this trajectory, we cannot fail nor falter.
– Abdulmuluku writes from Abuja
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