SENATE President Godswill Akpabio on Friday said opposition political parties won’t get their acts together if they keep criticising everything about the President Bola Tinubu administration and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Akpabio spoke at the commissioning of the newly constructed Left-Hand Service Carriageway in the nation’s capital, Abuja. The event had some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftains like former governors Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Ayo Fayose (Ekiti) in attendance.
The Senate president referenced Tinubu’s statement during his Democracy Day address before a joint session of the National Assembly on Thursday, June 12, 2025.
Tinubu had refuted allegations that the APC was on a mission to asphyxiate opposition parties and turn Nigeria into a one-party state. The president, however, said he was happy to see the opposition in disarray.
On Friday, Akpabio said, “Like the president said that he does not want a one-party state for Nigeria. He is praying that the opposition would put their houses in order.
“Try and put your houses together before the next election so that nobody would accuse anybody of trying to stifle the opposition.
“But if you expect me as a representative of the president and as Senate president to chair over your troubles and put it together, I would not do that.
“That is why the president said he wants you to come together but if you cannot come together, he would not help you to come together. This is politics.
“And you will never come together when you continue to tell lies on daily basis. And when you criticise everything. Nothing is good in your country. Was Nigeria like this in 1960. Was Abuja like this three years ago?” he queried.
With a litany of court cases arising from intra-party squabbles and protracted leadership crises rocking main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), some politicians seem to have made the APC a darling, especially with the recent defection of two PDP governors to the APC — Sheriff Oborevwori (Delta) and Umo Eno (Akwa Ibom).
Some dissatisfied PDP, LP and APC chieftains have also joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in recent months amid talks of a coalition to unseat APC’s Tinubu who is seeking a re-election in 2027.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, who also spoke at the project commissioning on Friday, dismissed the coalition led by opposition arrowheads Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and Nasir El-Rufai.
Wike told the people of Abuja not to give “to those who you don’t know whether their names would be in the ballot or not”.
“Up till now, they’ve not settled among themselves which of the coalition. Is it the left or the right? Coalition that was born and died the same day,” he added.