APC deliberately pushing Nigeria into one-party state – NNPP

The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has said the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is deliberate about causing divisions in leading opposition parties in order to push Nigeria into a one-party state.

The national publicity secretary of the NNPP, Ladipo Johnson, in an exclusive interview with Tribune Online in Abuja on Sunday, said it is not a coincidence that his party, the PDP and the Labour Party are passing through internal crises but which have seen members of the PDP and the Labour Party specifically moving to the APC at the National Assembly recently.

To Johnson, the only defections or crisscrossing that could be checked is the Constitutional amendment where a politician once elected on a party platform must not move or jump to another party till the end of his tenure. He also added that power reside with the people who can recall such an errant through collection of signatures from his constituents.

The NNPP spokesperson said that President Bola Tinubu has by the appointment of Nyesom Wike as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), polarised the PDP and in whose firm grip the National Working Committee of the PDP is.

“Many people have stated and insinuated that the current administration seems to be working towards one-party state. Democracy is such that people have freewill. What you find is that the leading opposition parties have internal issues. Some are very clear about what caused or have caused the problems that they have.

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“For instance, you have the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory still member of the PDP and it is suggested by many that he’s in the control of the National Working Committee of the PDP. And as such, the PDP has like a conflicting role as an opposition party yet its dominant figure is a member of the cabinet, member of the Federal Executive Council of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

If you look at the Labour Party as well, it has many issues. Even with NNPP, our own party, you have people who have been expelled from the party trying their best to please the party in government by causing or attempting to cause crisis within our party (NNPP). These they have be unable to do because we were able to push them out before they got a foothold.

“So the crisscrossing that you have at the National Assembly is not a surprise. It is something that the party at centre has worked towards, it didn’t just happen. And for our democracy with regards to the role of opposition parties, it’s not a healthy development. There are certain ways one could look at it. The most direct way or the easiest way is to say that individuals have the right to change their minds or want to go to different party.

“Some of the things that could be looked at to curb the occurrence of such is Constitutional amendment. The Constitution says at the moment that if the party is factionalised or so, then they can change parties. But the way to fix that is to simply state that if you are elected on a platform of a particular party you have to remain in that party till the end of your term and may move on elsewhere if you so choose. Something like that could be considered.

“But the bottom line is that the people, the electorate, should take a closer look at those that they have voted to represent them if they voted for that person on the platform of a party then they can vote that person out if they are not happy with the fact that the person has crossed to another party”, Johnson told Tribune Online.

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