President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has assured Nigerians that he will not preside over a one-party state. Nigerian, he said, will not become a one party state under his watch.
“Nigeria did not become a one-party state at no time in the past , in the future shall I not hold a one party state,” the president said today in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
President Tinubu made the remark on Thursday while addressing a joint session of the National Assembly, in commemoration of this year’s June 12 celebrations.
The Muhammadu Buhari administration, in 2018 declared June 12 the national democracy Day, in memory of the late winner of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, MKO, who died in prison without being declared winner by the military regime at the time, which had annulled the election.
Tinubu spoke amid recent suggestions that he’s trying to turn the country into a one -party state due to the gale of defections that have trailed the opposition political parties into the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC in the past few weeks.
The magazine reported that no fewer than two state governors, Sheriff Obovrewori and Umo Eno of Delta and Akwa Ibom states respectively, from the major opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, senators and House of Representatives lawmakers have recently dumped their party for the president’s party, amidst fear from not a few Nigerians that more defections of key opposition leaders to the APC are still being expected before the 2027 election in the country.
Recall that President Tinubu had while reacting to the gale of defections from the PDP into the APC said the former is a ‘sinking ship without a life jacket”.
According to him, he cannot be blamed for the defections , saying it’s the rights of the defectors to determine which political party to join.
Speaking at a national summit in Abuja the nations’ capital, president Tinubu gave a word t o those blaming him for the gale of defections that have swept opposition parties in the country, and those accusing him of planning to turn the country into a one-party state.
Tinubu: Before I skip: I just need to tell those ones saying a one-party system is no good that one party is ruling and driving the aspirations of Nigerians,” he said.
“Where do they stand? You don’t blame people bailing out of a sinking ship when they have no life jacket. I am glad of what we have, and I am expecting more to come; that is the game. We are in a constitutional democracy.
“Don’t forget that the freedom of movement and freedom of association are not criminally punishable. Welcome to the progressives; sweep them clean.”
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