Amid the wave of defections from opposition party chieftains to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), one of its leaders and Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, on Tuesday declared that it was not the intention of the party to make Nigeria a one-party state.
The flurry of high-profile defectors to APC, the latest being Governor of Delta State, Sheriff Oborevwori, his predecessor, and the entire State House of Assembly members from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has raised concerns and allegations in some quarters that the ruling was intentionally and aggressively pursuing the cause of achieving a single-party structure for country.
Other governors and opposition leaders are being touted to follow suit, but Governor Sule reacted to this at the Presidential Villa, Abuja in an interview with State House correspondents shortly after he met behind closed doors with President Bola Tinubu.
He said the APC would be satisfied with having the loyalty or membership of 90 percent of Nigerian voters while the other existing political parties can make do with the remaining 10 percent.
He stressed that even if APC tried, it would still e impossible for a country like Nigeria to be controlled by one political party.
According to him: “I don’t believe, by the slightest of imagination, that we are going to be a one-party state. If you look at it, no matter how successful we are,
No matter what happens, there are people who are going to be in another party. Actually, we don’t even want Nigeria to be a one-party state. We just want to be the dominant party.
We just want to be the winning party. If we can win 90% of the votes, okay, that’s it. The other parties can win 10% of the votes. I’m not being sarcastic. I’m just trying to be serious with you.
There is no way we can be a one-party state. But every party wants to be the dominant party. Every party wants to win elections. Every party wants to be able to give back to society and to give back to the people. And I think that’s what our party is doing.”
The Nasarawa State Governor stressed further that the defections reflect an acceptance of the reforms and performance of President Tinubu’s administration.
His words: “It’s a reflection of the performance of our party and the performance of Mr. President. Mr. President is carrying out a lot of reforms. We saw the first reforms in the area of the unification of the forex.
“We saw another one in the removal of subsidy. We have seen one now in the power sector. In fact, one of the ones that interests me that we are doing is the one of skill acquisition and agriculture.
“The advantages of some of these reforms far outweigh the disadvantages. So, as a result of that, people who are happy with what they are seeing, they are the people who are returning to the party.”
Authority.
