We’ve come a long way from the one-party state lament, by Rotimi Fasan

It’s been just a matter of weeks since the political temperature of this country was constantly raised by claims that the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) was bent on making Nigeria a one-party state. We were inundated with stories, not proofs, that the opposition parties were not being allowed to thrive, even when what was most obvious was the failure of the leading politicians in these parties to do the work of opposition parties or provide the leadership necessary for them to succeed. The scant regard for democratic ethos, which some of the politicians themselves like to describe as a lack of internal democracy, would not allow the political parties to thrive. 

The ADC was a small party that existed only on the sidelines before the likes of Atiku Abubakar, Rauf Aregbesola and David Mark embarked on an aggressive takeover of its leadership. They saw the party simply as a means to achieve an immediate need. It was no more than what Nigerians now call a special purpose vehicle. So, a man like Alhaji Atiku, who has contested for the presidency on different political platforms for nearly forty years, saw nothing wrong in moving into the ADC in 2025 and taking over its leadership because nothing mattered more to him in those circumstances than his obsessive drive to be president. The same was the case with the NDC candidate, Peter Obi, who has also proven to be a political journeyman who has moved back and forth from APGA to the PDP, LP and ADC before finally berthing at the NDC, which is at this moment proving to be very hot for his kind of one-man politics. But for the fact that INEC rules no longer permit any careless hopping around, there is no doubt that Peter Obi would not be in the NDC at a time like this, when he is not having it as smooth as he did when he was dominant in the LP.

From the constitution of the party’s campaign council to who keeps the party’s purse, Obi and his followers are being subjected to the discipline of a party not organised around the former Anambra State governor. Seriake Dickson has his own mind and his own agenda for setting up his party, and would not be dictated to by anyone, certainly not Peter Obi or any of his followers. Dickson is definitely not a Julius Abure and would not be tossed around to please one man. He is his own man, who holds court and calls the shots from the private confines of his living room, much like a medieval potentate.

When these opposition politicians screamed that Nigeria was being turned into a one-party state, they were not being honest about what their real problem was. It is the ghosts from their past and their lack of preparedness for the game they had enlisted for that are holding them to account. While one would admit that politicians are not averse to underhand practices to outwit their opponents, claims that the political space was being constricted to squeeze out opposition parties in order to make the APC the only political party in the country frequently strained credulity. Established parties that are better positioned than their counterparts try to lure members of other parties into their folds with juicy appointments, contracts or raw cash. We all know this. But it is not often the case that they go out of their way, in a brazen display of might, to snuff life out of their opponents just to ensure that only they exist. Or buy out their leadership, as some of the opposition politicians who are the first to complain have done.

Making life difficult for their opponents is the game most politicians play, and that is not limited to Nigeria. It can be seen in many parts of the world. It was rife in the early years of party formation in Nigeria, when politicians could not bear the idea of others competing with them for votes among their base and in what they considered to be their catchment areas. This was the case in the first few years after independence, when certain parties dominated the politics of some regions. In the North, it was the Northern Peoples’ Congress, while the Action Group and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons were respectively dominant in the Western and Eastern regions. Members of the other parties were openly hounded, brutalised and, in some areas, charged for phantom crimes and thrown into prison. That has so far not happened in the last three and a half years, when the president could be called names, even dubbed a criminal, and openly disrespected, whereas in the past such opposition figures would have been dealt crippling blows, if not mortal termination. We know how the likes of Gani Fawehinmi were beaten within an inch of their lives right in court premises during the military era.

President Olusegun Obasanjo was not subtle in his treatment of opposition elements in his second term. He crushed the AD in all the Yoruba-speaking states and boasted that the election through which he made Umar Yar’Adua president would be a do-or-die affair. Even Yar’Adua himself was appalled by what happened. Yes, Bola Tinubu has, in executing his political moves, told Nigerians that all is fair in politics, but he has not been openly hostile in the manner of some of his predecessors. When his opponents, who scream about a one-party state, attack him, they do so as if they expect him to fund and help them manage their political affairs. That is what Nigerians can hear sometimes when Peter Obi tells them that if he becomes president, he would do this and that for opposition parties. He often comes short of saying he would run their affairs for them.

The one-party lament is, however, subsiding, and since the APC formally flagged off its campaign in Kaduna last weekend, the opposition has been singing a different tune. What we are now hearing is that the crowds at the APC rally were either AI-generated or hired. One wonders why that should be the business of opposition parties that have been moving from one town hall and party venue to another in the name of campaigning. As they always do, as if they need the APC to prompt all seventeen of them, they are beginning to flag off their campaigns for 2027. Uba Sani has shown the way. We should hopefully sleep now without the noise of a one-party state.