Nigerian leader denies one-party plan after accused of rejecting opposition
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) – Nigerian President Bola Tinubu denied Thursday that there were plans to turn Africa’s largest democracies into a one-party state, which led him to oppose his use of state mechanisms to convince high-profile opposition politicians to bias their deficits in order to ruling the party.
In recent months, several governors and federal lawmakers have left opposition parties to join all the progressive Congressional parties in Nigeria. Council President Abdullahi Ganduje also said that Nigeria is “not wrong” to become a partisan country, which has angered many people in a region where democratic space is shrinking.
In his Democracy Day address to federal lawmakers, Tinob said he would be the “last man” to advocate for Nigeria to abandon its multi-party structure and adopt a one-party system.
“At any time in the past, there are no instances now, and in the future, I will not see the concept of a one-party state as a benefit to Nigeria,” he said.
Meanwhile, dozens of young people held protests at the U.S. economic hub, where they accuse the government of bad governance and national resources at the expense of millions of citizens.
Debo Ologunagba, spokesman for the main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party or PDP, said the weakening of opposition membership was due to Tinubu’s pursuit of “compromising state institutions” of opposition politicians.
Nigerian law enforcement agencies are often accused of unilateral struggle against corruption in support of members of the country’s council.
Nigerians should resist the “scene of deceiving an authoritarian one-party regime in Nigeria”.
Some members of the board of directors also criticized any action towards the one-party system.
“One-party dominance is a sign of the death of democracy,” Council Senator Ali Ndume told the Associated Press. “We need to have a system that makes it difficult for people to decay.”
