Can the Peoples Democratic Party play the role of the opposition left behind by the APC in the 7th assembly? Samuel Oyejola asks?
The People Democratic Party(PDP) for 16 years has been in power and had run the affairs of the country at the federal level.
But with the emergence of retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari after the presidential elections, the party has inexorably metamorphosed into the opposition in the executive and the National Assembly.
It should be noted that prior to the emergence of the 8th Assembly, the All Progressives Congress of Nigeria held all aces in the assembly with majority members in the House of Representatives.
Although the initial merger of the ACN, ANPP, CPC, and a section of APGA led by the Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, did not gave the APC members who formed the opposition the needed figure to form the majority and restructure the house leadership but the game changed with the defection of five aggrieved governors from the PDP to the APC alongside most House of Representatives members.
But intriguing as it was, the principal officers in the house were unaffected by these changes. This was in consequence to the leadership of the Speaker of the House, Aminu Tambuwal who prevailed on members of the APC in the house to allow the status quo remain.
Being the ruling party for over a decade and a half, political analysts and Nigerians in general wonder what the PDP would bring to the floor of the house as the opposition. Nigerians will not forget quickly the footprint of the APC opposition in the 7th assembly and the impact it had in that dispensation.
The opposition would not succumb to the pressure of the PDP majority on issues that bordered on the welfare of Nigerians. Budgets are extensively discussed and scrutinized by the opposition even when the majority has soft side for it. Nigerians will not forget quickly the resounding voice of the opposition leader in the house, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, who led the members to oppose the ruling part on issues regarding Nigerians’ welfare.
Nigerians will continue to wonder what kind of opposition the PDP would portray in the eighth assembly. With the wave of defection in droves from the PDP to the APC, there is scepticism about the viability of the PDP to withstand the APC in the house as a result of the exodus of its members. Notwithstanding, Nigeria craves for a viable opposition to checkmate the much touted change the APC has promised to bring to Nigeria where necessary.
In the senate where the PDP would also be coming in as opposition expectations remain the same as it is with the House of Representatives. Nigerians are watching what would be the fate of the two-term Senate President David Mark who had presided over the senate as a result of the majority of the PDP in the chamber.
Although he would be going back to the senate, Nigerians are keeping their fingers crossed. It would be vividly recalled that he barred members of the PDP in the senate who wanted to cross to the APC from doing so as a result of the fall out of the merger of the five aggrieved governors with the APC.
Since the inception of this democratic dispensation the NASS has been able to pass over 200 bills which are now Acts.
Will the PDP add value to this as the new face of the opposition?