PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has dismissed the notion that he supports a one-party state in Nigeria.
Tinubu stated this while addressing the joint session of the National Assembly in commemoration of June 12 Democracy Day in Abuja on Thursday, June 12.
He said he was addressing the matter, which has raised serious concerns across Nigeria for weeks, to “put a terrible rumour to bed.”
The president said those who believed that the APC was pushing for a one-party state were wrong.
“While your alarm may be a result of your panic, it rings in error. At no time in the past, nor any instance in the present, and at no future juncture shall I view the notion of a one-party state as good for Nigeria.
“I have never attempted to alter any political party registration with INEC,” Tinubu stated.
According to him, no one should blame anybody seeking to escape from a sinking ship, even without a life jacket.
He pointed to his political history, emphasising he would be the last person to advocate a one-party state.
The president said in 2003, when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held sway and “tried to sweep the nation clean of political opposition through plot and manipulation”, he was the last of the progressive governors that stood in his region – the South-West.
“In all their numbers and false grandeur, they boasted of ruling, not governing, Nigeria for the next half century or more. Where are they now? Yet, I stood alone. My allies had been induced into defeat. My adversaries held all the cards that mortal man could carry.
“Even with all of that, they could not control our national destiny because fate is written from above. A greater power did not want Nigeria to become a one-party state back then. Nigeria will not become such a state now. I dare not do such a favour to any political adversary by repeating the same mistake of political overreach,” Tinubu stated.
He assured that a one-party state was not in the offing and would never be in Nigeria.
He, however, stated that the ruling party would be guilty of political malpractice if it closed the door on those from other parties seeking to join the APC.
He used the opportunity to welcome governors Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta and Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom States, and other members of the National Assembly who recently defected to the APC.
He added that political parties fearing their members leaving should examine their internal processes and affairs rather than blaming him or the APC.
“I will not help you do so,” he said of the troubled parties failing to put their homes in order, adding, “It is, indeed, a pleasure to witness you in such disarray.”
A reporter with the ICIR
A Journalist with a niche for quality and a promoter of good governance