SINCE last year, when the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) started ‘acquiring’ State Governors, lawmakers and other politicians elected on the platform of other political parties, especially those from the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), many political watchers have cried out in alarm that Nigeria is gradually drifting towards a one-party state.
How is it difficult to realize that many of the political parties in Nigeria are bereft of any ideological leanings and are just there as special purpose vehicles to political power?
In saner democracies, defections often signal deep disagreements about policy or principle. Hardly will you see a Democrat in the United State of America (USA) becoming a Republican. But in Nigeria, our politicians merely exchange jerseys like a Chelsea player moving to Arsenal. They change parties as traders change market stalls – not to serve the people, but to remain close to the corridors of power. The wave of defections into the APC in recent times however defies both logic and conscience.
After a decade of governance, the APC’s record reads like a tragic summary of promises betrayed. The eight-year rule of the late President Muhammadu Buhari was an example in classical failure. When President Bola Tinubu came on board two years ago, his policies have left many Nigerians wondering whether they made the right choice or not in electing him to office. Inflation has eroded the incomes of most average families; insecurity has multiplied across regions, and poverty has become a national identity.
According to World Bank statistics, over 75 per cent of rural Nigerians now live below the poverty line. Between 2016 and 2023, more than ten million Nigerians slipped into extreme poverty. The cost of living has soared beyond imagination, while wages remain frozen in time. The economy might be growing on paper, but the pockets of the people are shrinking in reality. If performance were the measure of loyalty, the APC should be losing members in droves, not gaining them. What we see instead is a desperate rush to align with a government that has failed to inspire hope or deliver prosperity. It is like repainting a collapsing building and calling it brand new.
The ruling APC produced 15 State Governors during the 2023 general elections. It gained two more following victories in two of the three off-cycle governorship elections held in November, 2023. In the build-up towards the 2027 general elections, the party has succeeded in attracting 15 other opposition Governors to its fold.
The question to ask is what is making the APC the beautiful bride that all the opposition parties’ Governors are courting now? In answering that question, we should not lose sight of the state of the major opposition political party in the country – the PDP.
It was the party at the helm of affairs in 1999, when the nation returned to democratic rule after years of military intervention in our nation building. At the peak of its power in 2007, the PDP had 28 states, the All Nigeria People’s Party had five, the Action Congress had one, the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) had one, and the Progressive People Alliance (PPA) had one after the Imo State Governor elected under its watch switched over to the PDP.
Then, the PDP boasted of being the largest political party in Africa and vowed to rule for 60 years. But it could not manage its success and was defeated by the APC in the 2015 general elections.
The dominance that the PDP enjoyed few years ago is what the APC is enjoying now, and has made Nigeria to be termed as a nation on the brink of a one-party state. But is the fear that Nigeria is gradually sliding into a one-party state real or justified? I do not think so. Nigeria can only officially become a one-party state if the Constitution prescribes it. That possibility is highly remote in a highly diversified nation-state where freedom of association and assembly can never be outlawed.
Under the current presidential system, the 1999 Constitution (as amended) guarantees a multi-party system which fundamentally satisfies the criteria of diversity, representation, and inclusivity. The prevailing political order reflects the plural nature of Nigeria’s society and accommodates diverse ethnic, religious, and cultural groups, thereby offering platforms for varied interests.
Indeed, the Constitution, in Sections 40 and 42, guarantees the right to freedom of association and the right to form and join political parties. These rights provide the foundation for the multi-party system, which ensures that no single party can dominate the political landscape unchecked.
Currently, 21 political parties are recognized by law in Nigeria. In essence, they are recognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as political parties in the country. So, the fear of a one-party state does not arise at all. What we have on our hands is the dominance of one party, the APC, over all others. And this should not be a surprise as most of our politicians and even political parties lack clear-cut ideologies. They are there to navigate the means to an end – the attainment of political power.
Typically, in a system where one party dominates, it holds most, if not all, political power. Though there may be other parties, which are basically emasculated either through their own design or conscripted. Ask any of the Governors that decamped from the PDP to the APC why they took such a step, they will tell you that it is due to the crisis in the PDP.
One might as well ask who were the architects of the crisis in the PDP? Many of them would point in the direction of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as well as former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike. Atiku, in 2023, failed to respect the unwritten rule in the country that power should rotate between the North and the South after eight years. He was bent on contesting the presidential election immediately former and late President Buhari left office after eight years in power. If he had won, the North would have been in power for 16 years straight. But Wike, though a member of the same PDP, felt that power should shift to the South. He worked against his own party, catalyzing the end for the PDP.
That could not have been conscripted by the ruling APC or President Tinubu. It is the PDP that failed to put its house in order, and like in politics and war, Tinubu only exploited the crisis in the opposition party to feather his own nest.
Tinubu alluded to this while addressing the APC’s Renewed Hope Agenda Summit held in Abuja, recently, when he said, in response to the rising fears about a one-party state, that a one-party system cannot exist in a democracy. He, however, went on to say that those decamping to the ruling party should not be blamed. “You don’t expect people to remain in a sinking ship without a life jacket. I am happy with what we have accomplished and expecting more people to come; that’s the game.”
Indeed, that is the game of politics, as the ruling party should not be the one to try to fix the crisis in the opposition political parties for them. Now, the PDP seems dead and buried while the Labour Party (LP) is also haemorrhaging. Two factions are after the soul of the party, and its Presidential candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi, has dumped the party.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC), that was designed as another special purpose vehicle to political power by politicians is already convulsing at infancy. There are three factions within the party, with all of them laying claim to the soul of the party. Even if Tinubu is a wizard behind the crisis within the opposition parties, those in the parties helped to seal their own fate by opening their flanks wide open for him to operate. Opposition parties and their leaders should have done their homework well to prevent anyone from taking advantages of their inadequacies.
Can Atiku make the type of sacrifice that Tinubu made when he gave up his Vice-presidential ambition in 2015? Can he step down for another candidate? Also, can Peter Obi dump his presidential bid to pair with Atiku as his running mate? Can there be a compromise within the ranks of ADC leaders?
Nigeria as a democratic Republic should operate under a multi-party system in which political power is shared amongst a variety of political parties. This will ensure checks and balances, promote a pluralistic approach to governance, and prevent the concentration of power in the hands of a single entity. This can only be possible if we practice politics with principle in Nigeria. Those in the opposition that are crying foul today have all been part of the clique that have held the country down for several years. They are on the streets today because they are out of power and are hungry (apologies to Rotimi Amaechi). Once they succeed in hijacking political power again, they would be worse than those in government today.
Be that as it may, a democracy without opposition is like a body without a heartbeat. The opposition parties swim in an ideological vacuum, without clear, coherent beliefs and guiding principles. The sole motivation is floating a vehicle that can catapult their leading lights to power. The link between ideological doctrine and corresponding governance focus is lost. Since there is no unifying idea, individual opposition parties work at cross-purposes, oblivious of the fact that there is strength in unity and cohesion.
What we have in Nigeria is a dominant political party with several other fringe political parties. Their coming together to challenge the behemoth that the APC has become has been a major challenge due to the ambition of several of their leaders. Should Tinubu and the APC be held accountable for their problem? Hell, no. Let the opposition parties put their houses in order and face the challenges that lie ahead fair and square.
See you next week.
- Akintunde is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Glittersonline newspaper. His syndicated column, Monday Discourse, appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Monday.