THE ROLE OF OPPOSITION IN POLITICS

Politics is defined as the activities associated with the governance of a country or area, especially the debate between parties having power. With emphasis being laid on the second part of the definition of this term, it is clear that when there is no credible opposition that stands up to debate vital issues pertaining to the masses, governance is reduced to mere foolishness.
Debate in this contest connotes carefully conducted researches, questions and answers with depths and meaning to the needs of the people, sometimes ignoring the right doings of the current government and focusing on the wrong ones, and deep accurate exchange of information between the opposition party, the ruling party and the public. If any country practices anything inferior to these standards, then it cannot be said that this country practices or understands the concepts of politics.

The pages of history
Opposition can be boldly found on the pages of history that holds the words of governance. If we choose to go back to the days of the Ming dynasty, the days of the Louis of France, the Czars of Russia, the kings of Persia, the pharaohs of Egypt, the days of the glory of Rome and even the days of our forefathers as Africans, we realize that there is something similar through all these years of power and governance irrespective of the time or place and that is opposition. In the courts of the Louis, there were courtesans who did not agree with him, opposition led to the death of Julius Ceaser, and even though kings were seen as gods in the days of our forefathers, the gods still stood against them when they were wrong. Hence, we cannot deny that if there is no opposition in the game of power the people are doomed to be ruled by spineless and pathetic excuses of leaders.

Opposition in modern Politics
If there is a phenomenon similar to the politics of all developed nations of the world today, it is credible opposition. We all know about the battle between the democrats and republicans, the Christian democratic union and the social democratic party of Germany etc. This parties do not fight so hard against each other just for the fun of it, this fight, this ugly struggle to bring the other political party down is the reason for the developments we see and envy in these modernized countries.

Where there is no opposition.
We can take north Korea as an example of a government without opposition. North Koreans cannot honestly say that they enjoy freedom, talk more of the dividends of democracy. Whatever is going on in this country could be clearly deciphered as dictatorship. A president believed to be a god that can order the execution of anyone at any time, a country where the people are not free enough to choose the kind of hairstyle they want on their own heads, a country where the president cannot be publicly criticised, does not enjoy freedom. Why does he have this much power? There is no worthy opposition.
The gods that got power drunk in history, could go crazy because there was no opposition. Men that declared themselves greater than gods could only do so because none could challenge them, thus they get so bored of enforcing their own will on the people and decide to go into supposedly interesting acts which does nothing but enslave and bring suffering to the people, who are supposed to be the ones for whom the government was created in the first place. Sadly, this is still a menace that combats African politics in general; a pest that feasts heavily on our governance. None of our countries can be recognized as modernized because it actually takes action on the side of the government to bring changes and like it is been commonly said in science, every object remains in a position of rest until it is moved by a force greater than the force that keeps it on the spot where it stands.

What do we mean by opposition?
Opposition is not a group of illiterate and pathetic excuses for men and women standing together to take the control of the governance of a country. Such an alliance can never be credible opposition because a fellowship of men without integrity is synonymous to a ship filled with fools; the force of the knowledge of the ones on board cannot move the ship forward even if it they are in the middle of a river. From this definition of politics, it is safe to say that the foundations of a functioning government, is electing into power and opposition, people that have the understanding of the means, debate; elites that can identify the sufferings of the people and convey these pains of the masses into strong arguments that can shake the current government. The same way it is foolishness to give the responsibilities of an elite to a illiterate is the same way it is utter foolishness to vote into power people that do not even have a clear understanding of what debate means. A country cannot survive on leaders who are not matured enough to express their opinion without throwing tantrums around like children. A leader is not a child, he is a man that possess the abilities to govern the affairs of a people; abilities that includes self-control, something that cannot be found in the one we call African leaders.
Parliament is supposed to be a seat of elites, men that actually know that liquidity is not something you name your daughter. Lawmakers are not elected to exchange fist and throw chairs all around the house, its parliament not sport entertainment.

Effects of opposition
-The dirtiest secrets of a ruling party can only be researched and revealed to the general public by the opposing party. Why do we need these dirty secrets? We need them in order to know the truth about the people we vote into power. As hard as it is to believe, politicians come to the masses with a smoke screen when they are in search of votes and they play this game so perfectly that we tend to believe them always. The more we know about who they are, the more enlightened we are, and the better the decisions we take as regards putting men of integrity into power, something that seems so lost in African politics hitherto.
-opposition keeps the ruling party in check. When politics becomes a game of power between political parties, the urge to satisfy personal desires dwindles because the party in power understands that once power is lost, it may never be regained possibly because a credible opposition researches the weakness of the current government and makes them its own strength and guess who benefits from all of this, the masses. A political party will take the conscious decision of removing its own aspirant if they sense that his reign will lead to their lost of power. It no longer becomes a game of just becoming a president, rather a game of becoming a president that will satisfy the people so much that they would want to vote into power whoever he recommends. This is what governance is all about.
-opposition builds a sound future. As long as today remains the foundation for tomorrow, the kind of politics this generation witnesses remains the foundation on which they will build the governance of their own time and even raise their children with. The foundation is the only curse that never stops affecting the future, if we don’t understand the power of opposition in politics as Africans, we cannot teach our children how to build a strong opposing party and that means we might remain in the political darkness that we are currently in until the end of time. If this were not to be true, the Korean president will not take power after the death of his father, princes will not become kings. It is supposed to be democracy; monarchy is not a fair system of government especially not in the modernized world we live in.
-opposition keeps the weaklings away. The word weakling here does not refer to physical strength, it refers to thieves in the clothes of politicians, it refers to illiterates that desire power over elites, it refers to men and women that values financial gains over their integrity, it refers to rulers that do not have the love of the masses at heart. It there is strong opposition they would not count it a worthy journey to fight for power since all they want is not to build a legacy but just to loot the treasury of the lots of the people, any man that adds another mans sweat to his profits is a pathetic excuse of a man. These are the words of our ancestors, when did we stop believing in them?
In conclusion, i believe we have the resources, we have the means and all we need is proper governance and that is a feet we can never achieve until we learn to build opposing parties, not the kinds we have but men of integrity united with the common purpose of a building a governance that brings peace and progress to the masses.

By
Olofintuyi Moyinoluwa
Loftypapa@yahoo.com