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With the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party controlling 31 governors, many senators and members of the House of Representatives and most members of the state Assemblies, nobody can rightly dismiss the descent to one-party state as we move towards the 2027 election cycle. The decapitation of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) through crisis seemingly and allegedly engineered by the APC leadership is a signal that the country is drifting towards a one-party state. The gathering storm is ominous. It is as ominous as the cry of the bird, Ajonunu, which my village people believe signifies the death of someone.
Now, the new face of opposition, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has been enmeshed in leadership crisis that probably came from the same APC. With the opposition parties being in disarray due to both internal and external crisis, but more of external crisis, the likelihood of a lone party and lone presidential candidate for the 2027 general election is very high. Some critics have likened the unfolding scenario to resemble the Sani Abacha’s attempt to transmute himself from military leader to civilian President in the 1990s before fate intervened.
They say that the only difference between then and now is that Abacha’s failed transmutation was under military hegemony while the present one is under democratic rule. The latest sign that the one-party arrangement is not a ruse came recently with the removal of Senator David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola names from INEC portal by its chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan following Court of Appeal ruling in a case concerning the ADC leadership for all parties to the matter to maintain “the status quo ante bellum” until the pending matter before a Federal High Court Abuja is dispensed with.
In fact, INEC went further to derecognize the ADC leaders and says it will not enter into any communication with them or attend or monitor any of their activities pending the determination of the suit in question. With the tight schedule of political activities towards the 2027 election, this condemned move by INEC is aimed at denying the ADC from participating in the 2027 election. Considering that matters drag unduly in our courts, this matter may drag till everything about 2027 is over.
The decision of INEC to delist Mark and Aregbesola, key officers of the ADC, from its portal based on the maintenance of the status quo ante bellum has raised a lot of questions. Some say INEC is unduly interfering in the internal affairs of the ADC. Others say INEC is usurping the duties of the courts. Some say INEC chairman is no longer acting as unbiased arbiter, it is acting as a member of the ruling APC. Some even say that INEC is a wing of the APC. Although the APC leadership has stoutly denied these allegations and even the sinister allegation of turning Nigeria into a one-party state, the allegations are still reinforced.
It is this state of affairs that prompted the chieftains of the ADC, including Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, David Mark, Rauf Aregbesola, Rotimi Amaechi and others, to protest at INEC headquarters on Wednesday calling for the removal of INEC chairman and restoration of Mark-led leadership of the party. The protest is significant in so many ways. It has shown that the opposition can come together and speak truth to power. It has drawn global attention to the rot in our democracy. It has shown that it should not be business as usual as we approach the 2027 election year.
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The large crowd of Nigerians that demonstrated with the opposition leaders shows that Nigerians are not happy with the happenings in the polity, especially the muzzling of the opposition and shrinking of political spaces ahead of the 2027 elections. The political space is large enough for all the parties to bloom and sell themselves to the electorate. Nigeria was founded on the principle of multi-party democracy. From independence till date, Nigeria has never had a one-party state or a sole presidential candidate in any election.
No doubt, politics is a game. Those who play it must do so with observing its tenets, ethics and rules. It is surprising that elected governors are leaving their parties in droves trying to catch-up with the jollof rice and pepper soup at the centre. Even though the national power grid has collapsed several times, yet these governors want to connect all of us to the centre of political greed and gravity. APC says nobody is forcing them to join APC. Assuming nobody is really forcing them to APC, something must be forcefully pushing them into the national power greed.
One popular senator once said that if you join APC, your sins are forgiven. This illogical and unpatriotic political caveat is probably luring many political sinners into the APC fold, including those looking for more bread butter. From city boys to village boys and to tired ex-governors, the movement to the national power greed is unabated. Very soon, all of them will be croaking, on your mandate, on your mandate we shall stand. There is nothing wrong with one holding his political opinion or supporting whoever he wants. However, we say no to one-party arrangement. We say no to a sole presidential candidate. The beauty of multi-party democracy is that it allows for competition in the electoral process. Politics loses its allure if it is not competitive.
The APC should not gloat that everything is now working for them. They should be more worried over the alleged engineered crisis in the opposition, especially the ADC, the leading opposition voice. APC should be worried over the descent to a one-party state. We say so because it is not even in their favour. The descent to a one-party state will kill this democracy and ruin Nigeria. It will draw us back by many years. Those who wield power should guide it with moral fabric. Power without morality will lead to excesses. If one thing stands, another should stand beside it in line with duality in nature. Let our politicians learn from Chinua Achebe’s cautionary tale in Things Fall Apart, “let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too. If one says no to the other, let his wing break.”
This one-way movement to 2027 will be catastrophic if the situation is not saved on time. As the opposition ADC demonstrated against the descent to one-party state, some political actors are calling for the return of former President Goodluck Jonathan to Aso Rock. They say his time was many times better than the present suffering and smiling. This also makes Nigerian politics to be colourful. It is like different folks, different strokes. Like Lagos weather, Nigerian politics is unpredictable. Within 24 hours anything can happen. The power of the people will always triumph. Beyond the aluta, the opposition should be more serious and put more men to the job ahead of the 2027 political contest. Let them show APC pepper and behave like the housewife who holds the husband’s scrotum whenever his beatings become unbearable.
