Former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, IBB, has dismissed suggestions that Nigerians will accept a one-party state.
Babaginda, who was Head of State between 1985 and 1993, claimed that a one-party state tends to lead to dictatorship.
He made this known on Friday during an appearance on Channels TV’s Inside Sources with Laolu Akande.
His words: “I have been in a military regime, and the Nigerians I know won’t allow a one-party state. I have been a military man. And I know dictatorship is not good and can’t be good in a civil society.
“Nigerians who I know won’t allow a one-party system and will talk you out of it until you get tired.”
IBB also reiterated his call for a two-party system, stating that it prevents rancour and will save the country a lot of funds and issues associated with a multi-party system.
He said: “Immediately after independence, Nigeria tended to gravitate towards a two-party system. The number of parties formed a coalition to gain power. It happened in the first and second republics. It showed up again in the third republic and the current republic.
“At the time, we believed Nigerians were capable of a two-party system because it saves you a lot of ‘wahala’ and no rancour. You can choose from A or B.”
According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, there are 19 registered political parties in the country.
OBSERVERSTIMES recall that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last general elections, Atiku Abubakar, has lambasted the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) over alleged plan to derail Nigeria’s democracy using subterfuge.
He noted that President Bola Tinubu had “already appointed his loyalists as Resident Electoral Commissioners who have now been confirmed by Senator Godswill Akpabio, his lackey” adding that the ruling party sought to “impose a one-party state on Nigerians.”
Atiku spoke through his Media Adviser, Mazi Paul Ibe, in a statement, in Abuja, on Monday evening.
He explained that the ideal notion of democracy does not just reside in a representative government but is essentially rooted in the plurality of ideas.
Atiku said, “Sadly and suddenly, we have seen a trend whereby the range of opposition engagement continues to be narrowed by the ruling party in Nigeria.
“Either through the electoral process where opposition parties are rigged out with brazen impunity, or during the post-election court processes where the judiciary is conspicuously doing the biddings of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), it has become increasingly apparent that the democracy in Nigeria is in a state of ill-health.
“It gets more curious that all the states where the courts have made controversial declarations are states being controlled by the opposition political parties.