The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Umar Damagum, and his Social Democratic Party (SDP) counterpart, Shehu Musa Gabam, have faulted the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman, Umar Ganduje, on one-party state.
Naija News reported that Ganduje, while speaking with State House Correspondents on Friday at the Presidential Villa, said APC’s progressive governance draws opposition politicians.
He stated that the fear of a one-party state was unnecessary since politicians joining the party were not coerced.
“A one-party state is not by force. It’s by negotiation. It’s because other political parties see the effect of the positive governance of our party. If they decide to come to our party, willingly, I think there is nothing wrong with that,” he stated.
Speaking with the Nation, Damagum and Gabam said a one-party state can only happen in Ganduje’s imagination and not in Nigeria.
The PDP Chairman, Damagum, said, “One-party system can only happen somewhere else, not in this country.
“Recall what history says about anybody wishing for a one-party state. Where will such people end?”
On his part, Gabam noted that like PDP, APC continues to overestimate its grip on power in the country.
He stated that only Nigerians can say the true situation of the economy and whether defections into the APC were caused by true governance.
“The PDP, the party in power before the emergence of APC, passed through that route some time ago, deluding themselves that they would be in control of levers of power forever, but that fell on their faces.
“It is Nigerians who are in the best position to tell if their lives have changed for the better or that they have been impacted positively under the APC.
“The motivation of the ongoing gale of defections, particularly by some governors and elected political office holders, is not altruistic. It is self-serving and undeniably done for self-preservation,” he said.
Gabam, who spoke through the party’s spokesman, Rufus Aiyenigba, told the Nation that a one-party state would lead to authoritarian rule.
“Nigerians are in agreement that the power of choice through democratic options that multi-party democracy offers is one that cannot and should not be compromised.
“A one-party system breeds authoritarian rule and erodes the freedom of the electorate.
“It is not debatable that Nigeria needs a strong opposition for democratic consolidation,” he said.