from Omachoko
In the light of the above could it be that the Nigerian opposition has not reached its 10,000th hour of practice? Could it be that it needs to practice more on strategy and politicking?
2015 is already upon us. This is clear to see from all the Power plays we see in the ruling PDP and its Government. This has been the recurring pattern for the last 14 years or so: PDP ‘wins’ the election as usual, it will then spend the first year in power it celebrating with its leaders at all levels of Govt especially at the center for ‘winning the elections’ and other various milestones most notably ‘first 100 days’. Fast forward to the second year when rumours of alleged desire to run for a 2nd term begins to surface, the presidency will deny it. Then there will be open clamour for president to run again (bear in mind he has barely halved his first term.) and the rest as we all have always known are mere formalities.
There is the recurring drama from the opposition as well (bear in mind that a lot of us haven’t agreed on what or who that is). So the opposition’s mantra is ‘if we didn’t win then it was rigged’. 1st year : opposition vilifies the Govt and party of the day, refuses to accept election results and drags (as we like to say) the ruling party and its candidates to election tribunals, as usual that fails some of its party members defect to the ruling party. Then there is 2 years of slumber, occasional bursts of outrage from the opposition here and there. Fast forward its election year there is a flurry of activities cross carpeting and all. Those out of favor with the incumbent cross over to the opposition. Then after a few hurried alliances here and there its election day there is rigging across board but the opposition will start crying foul before results are out. I don’t need to bore you with after election battles.
The 10,000 hour principle made popular by the awesome author Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers. It was based on a study by Anders Ericsson, you can find the central idea in the 5th paragraph of an updated excerpt here. The principle postulates that the greatest people in any field of human endeavour have at least put in 10,000 hours of practice into whatever it is that makes them great. Obviously like all theories it is not absolute however the central idea is true. Success requires endless shifts of practice. In the light of the above could it be that the Nigerian opposition has not reached its 10,000th hour of practice? Could it be that it needs to practice more on strategy and politicking? Could it be that needs to practice the art of brand differentiation? Let’s look at the APC fiasco for example I mean could the party chieftains not have waited until they had registered the name with INEC before announcing it to the world? That move was like scoring an own goal immediately after the blast of the whistle to borrow from football. One can only hope that it is sorted out as quickly as possible.
The opposition needs to understand a few things. Firstly outrage and angst are not an end in themselves but are rather vehicles so when they campaign they should emphasize the outrage quite alright but then go ahead to clearly outline what solutions they hold. Secondly they need proper strategy and on-the-ground politicking. They should not be afraid or shy away from playing the game of politics. I say this because too many times our opposition politicians sound too much like activists and we all know that hard-line activists don’t win elections however good intentioned they are. Lula of Brazil is a good example he ran 3 times for office before winning, each time he kept moving to the middle (in other words he sounded less radical) he won and Brazil is all the better for it. Thirdly which it seems they have gotten right this time is not to wait until a few months to elections hoping that outrage and angst will kick the ruling party out. Lastly the opposition must be different and it must have a central theme. Labour UK is known for standing up for the working class while the Tories are for business people and the ambitious. APC (I use them because they are the most visible opposition so far) in this case has to choose a central theme, some sort of party dogma, ideology if you like and begin to communicate clearly at every given opportunity.
One thing is for sure if the opposition begins to practice for leadership it might take ’10,000 hours’ but they will eventually find themselves at the center in government and ‘clothed in immense power’. One can only hope that when that day comes they will have a sense of history and the courage to create the future of our dreams.
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Read this article in Omachoko
Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.
