_By Garba Shehu_<\/p>\n
Last week, the Nigeria\u2019s senate majority leader reintroduced
\nanti-sexual harassment legislation to parliament, following a serious
\nexpos\u00e9 by the BBC of a sex for grades scandal at the University of
\nLagos.<\/p>\n
The bill had been tabled before \u2013 in 2016 \u2013 but it was not passed:
\nsome members of our party, working with the opposition, then stronger in
\nnumbers than today, blocked it.<\/p>\n
This time around, there has been no such attempt by the opposition
\nPeoples Democratic Party, PDP, to scupper the legislation. We cannot
\ntell whether they remain opposed to it, for they have been too busy to
\nlet the 200 million citizens of Nigeria know. Instead, last week \u2013
\nwhilst this matter was in the Senate, and the first Federal Budget
\nfollowing our February General Election, was being tabled before the
\nHouse – the opposition\u2019s full attention was elsewhere: on the affairs
\nof the President, who we were told by the internet, was planning to
\nmarry in secret to one of his cabinet ministers.<\/p>\n
The interminable nonsense of fake news is hardly unique to Nigeria. In
\nthe United States, Britain \u2013 indeed across much of the democratic
\nworld – we see waves of falsehoods and untruths peddled across digital
\nand mainstream media. It has led to journalists and the press to become
\nless trusted than almost any other profession or estate. Yet elsewhere,
\nwhether the fake facts emanate from governments or oppositions, neither
\nhave sought to abdicate their unique responsibilities in the act of
\ngovernance.<\/p>\n
In Nigeria, the opposition is close to reneging completely on the
\ncompact it holds with the voters. Every modern democracy exists for its
\nchecks and balances. Voters may elect a government to govern but they
\nalso elect an opposition \u2013 to oppose, to scrutinise, and to hold the
\nmajority to account. In the absence of either weight or counterweight,
\nthe scales of democracy become imbalanced. This cannot continue for long
\nwithout the full functioning of governance being affected.<\/p>\n
Whether citizens voted for President Buhari and the All Progressives
\nCongress (APC), or for the opposition\u2019s presidential candidate and his
\nPeople\u2019s Democratic Party (PDP), no one voted for failure. They may
\nhave voted differently on policy and personality, but regardless of a
\nvoter\u2019s choice of candidate and party, for their vote they expect
\nresponsibility. No voter expected, nor wanted, the opposition somehow to
\nsimply go missing. But that, effectively, is what they have done.<\/p>\n
Immediately after the February election that saw President Buhari
\nre-elected to a second four-year term, and his APC secure a workable
\nmajority both in the Senate and House, the PDP went to court to
\nchallenge the result.<\/p>\n
The world over election losers tend towards \u201clawfare\u201d once they have
\nlost the campaign battle in the field. None can begrudge the PDP their
\nday in court: yet it was never in doubt that they would fail to persuade
\nthe judiciary to overturn President Buhari\u2019s 4 million votes and 14
\npercent margin of victory over his opponent.<\/p>\n
\u201cBiased judges!\u201d screamed the opposition. Perhaps. Judges do tend to
\nbe biased – towards the facts. Yet those, it would seem, matter no
\nlonger to the opposition at all \u2013 for last week they opened their next
\nsalvo in lawfare by taking their exact same, fatally flawed case to
\nNigeria\u2019s Supreme Court. We must sincerely hope the opposition have
\nthe wherewithal to appreciate they will fail once more, given the facts
\nand the math remain the same.<\/p>\n
The opposition\u2019s over-excretions are leaving a mess for the elected
\ngovernment to clean up. These do not just extend to the fact that even
\nthe most serious, and well-intentioned anti-sexual harassment
\nlegislation needs scrutiny, or the fact that the opposition yelled
\n\u201ccorruption, padding!\u201d at the Federal Budget \u2013 even before it had
\nbeen tabled. More importantly, it leaves a stain on the terms of
\nacceptable debate.<\/p>\n
The median age of our 200 million population is 18 years old. Over 100
\nmillion Nigerians have access to the internet, and to cell phones. Many
\nwill, of course, see the opposition\u2019s fake news and failure to hold
\nthe government to account fully and sanely for what it is: dereliction
\nof duty. But there will be those who do not.<\/p>\n
Nigeria is leading the fight in Africa against terrorists claiming to be
\nadherents of Islam. This battle is being won – but not without cost. Our
\nfight matters not just to our country, or West Africa – but to the whole
\nworld. We are defeating the terrorists both through military and through
\neducative means. We hold up to the terrorists the inalienable truth that
\nsociety is better when there is reasoned debate, the exchange of views,
\nargument without harm \u2013 and that it is through this process of consent
\nwhich leads to unity.<\/p>\n
Without that process working as it should, not only is good governance
\nthreatened but it imperils the principle of our system of governance \u2013
\nbased on scrutiny of the executive based on facts \u2013 and makes it out
\nto be a sham. It imperils the principle of governance by consent which
\nis the firewall against impressionable young people being swayed towards
\nterrorists, whom it emboldens. Nigeria\u2019s opposition is missing. We
\nneed them back.<\/p>\n
_GARBA SHEHU IS SENIOR SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT (MEDIA &
\nPUBLICITY)_<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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