Worried by the deepening vacuum created by the incapacity of opposition coalition to forge a united front against the ruling government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a frontline opposition leader and former chairman of Volkswagen, Professor Pat Utomi, has walked into floodlights as he announced the launching of a cross-sectoral think-tank to provide policy-based solutions to problems haranguing the country.
Known as the Big Tent Coalition Shadow Government (BTCSG), Utomi explained that the platform is aimed at narrowing the vacuum created by a weak opposition that has proven incapable of providing strong and virile opposition under the nation’s present political dispensation.
Launched last Wednesday, the BTCSG, according to Utomi, is a “national emergency response” that has been planned to monitor government actions and provide solutions in critical sectors of the economy, such as the economy, education, healthcare, infrastructure, law and order, and constitutional reform, among others.
While many are in support of any platform that would necessarily engender viable measures that would make the government accountable to the people, many are suspicious of the inclusion of ‘Shadow Government’ as contained in the name of the group founded by a politician whose interest and intentions in politics are not hidden.
Legal Fireworks
In a bid to end the smoke caused by the creation of BTCSG, the Department of State Services (DSS) this week moved swiftly to cage what it described as an illegality that must not be allowed to stand. Through its legal representative, Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN), in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/937/2025, the DSS argued that ‘Shadowy Government’ is not only an aberration and gross attack on the Nigerian Constitution, but also a threat against the country.
Warning that the formation of BTCSG is a plot to create chaos, and that “if left unchecked, may incite political unrest, cause inter-group tensions, and embolden other unlawful actors or separatist entities to replicate similar parallel arrangements, all of which would pose a grave threat to national security”.
Calling on the court to declare the purported ‘Shadow Government’ or ‘Shadow Cabinet’ being planned by Utomi amounted to an attempt to create a parallel authority not recognised by the Constitution, the secret police urged the court to declare that “under Sections 1(1), 1(2) and 14(2)(a) of the Constitution, the establishment or operation of any governmental authority or structure outside the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) is unconstitutional, null, and void.”
Justifying BTCSG
If ‘Shadowy Government’ had not been included as part of the coalition name, there would have been no apprehension over the essence of the group. Utomi, who was the 2007 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), said the platform is only the coalition of civil voices devoted to the provision of alternative voices on non-partisanship status.
The former adviser to President Shehu Aliyu Usman Shagari in the Second Republic left no one in doubt that the primary pre-occupation of the BTCSG is for public debate and creating synergy in promoting intellectual engagements in resolving problems militating against the Nigerian State. In his words: “Let me state this plainly, the Shadow Government is not a rebellion. It is not a claim to executive authority. It is not a parallel structure to the state. Rather, it is a citizens’ platform for responsible democratic opposition – an initiative rooted firmly in the Nigerian Constitution, which grants every citizen the right to free expression, peaceful association, and the duty to hold the government accountable to the people.”
Sharing the burden of leadership as demonstrated in various challenges facing the country, Utomi said, “To our leaders in government and security institutions, we acknowledge the weight of national responsibility that you carry. We respect your offices, and we salute the sacrifices of those who serve this country under difficult conditions. This initiative is not designed to undermine your authority. It is designed to awaken our shared responsibility. We do not come with violence or confrontation. We come with ideas, dialogue, and discipline. We urge you to see this not as a challenge to the state, but as a contribution to the nation.”
Suspicion By DSS
Being one of the nation’s public intellectuals, Utomi knows that when the term, ‘Shadow Government’, is mentioned, it assumes an open metaphor for obfuscation of facts by the opposition under a parliamentary system. Nigeria is running a presidential system and, therefore, the basis for the formation of ‘Shadow Government’ is non-existent. The eminent question now is not the reason behind the existence of BTCSG, but how it should operate without appropriating to itself a function that is far above its powers. Utomi has explained the reasons behind the formation of the coalition, but the secret police are suspicious of the motives that may be veiled from the public.
Utomi is a person of deep interest and is neutral politically. The formation and functions of the BTCSG may be interpreted beyond what Utomi has said. The adoption of ‘Shadow Government’ may be to attract the interest of the public, but it’s still an anomaly. The legal fireworks by the secret police are poised to keep the coalition matter on the front burner of public discourse in the coming months. Changing the nomenclature of the coalition by deleting ‘Shadow Government’ could achieve the objective of portraying the non-partisanship status of the think-tank. In the presidential system that Nigeria operates, there’s no room for ‘Shadow Government’. The Utomi platform is only a political mirage that is part of the political razzle-dazzle prevalent in Nigeria’s politics. Taking Utomi to court over ‘Shadow Government’ by the DSS only oxygenates the coalition for public discourse and relevance. In other climes where the level of consciousness among citizens is higher, opposition politicians are expected to rise to the occasion to deepen democracy.