Is President Tinubu turning Nigeria into a one-party state? By Reno Omokri

People should be careful about bandying terms that they obviously don’t understand. And one such phrase is the misuse of the term ‘one-party state’.

Please fact-check me: A one-party state is a type of governance structure where only one party is legally registered by the body responsible for managing political parties and elections.

The meaning could also be stretched to include a polity in which legal roadblocks, which do not apply to the ruling party, are placed in the way of opposition parties.

Examples of countries practising a one-party state would be the People’s Republic of China (PRC), with the Chinese Communist Party, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), with the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), and the Republic of Cuba, with the Communist Party of Cuba, amongst others.

In a nation where you have freedom of association and people, in keeping with that freedom, willingly choose to join the ruling party, the situation is not a one-party state. Rather, what you have is a dominant party.

Nigeria has been on this route before.

In 2004, the People’s Democratic Party had a record 28 Governors. Today, it can only boast of four.

If Nigeria was not a one-party state in 2004 under the PDP, why do some people want to delude themselves into believing that the All Progressives Congress has created a one-party system because it now has 28 Governors?

Have the other political parties been banned? Have legal roadblocks been placed in their way by the ruling party and its government?

The answer is no.

You cannot blame your inability to manage your internal affairs on others and then use that as your rationale to make claims that Nigeria is now a one-party state?

Curiously, some of those making these claims were in the PDP in 2004 with its 28 governors, and it was fair. But now that the reverse is the case, it is foul.

It is clear why the APC is having ground. Right from the 1959 Nigerian General Elections, Nigeria has had a consistent history of opposition Premiers, Governors, and Legislators joining the ruling party when the incumbent Prime Minister or President is doing well.

That was why the Premier of the Western Region, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, joined forces with the ruling Northern People’s Congress (NPC) through an alliance with his new party, the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), in 1965.

Before him, Mr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s party, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), chose to form a coalition with the Northern People’s Congress, rather than with the Action Group, to form Nigeria’s first central government in December 1959, chiefly because the NPC had won more seats than any of the other pre-independence parties.

The same pattern played out in the Second Republic when state after state switched from the Unity Party of Nigeria to the National Party of Nigeria, with even the former Biafran leader, Chief Emeka Ojukwu, joining the ruling party, which, in a twist of fate, was populated by men who either fought against Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War or supported the Federal Military Government’s efforts during the conflict.

Ironically, those now accusing the APC of turning Nigeria into a one-party state are themselves career party jumpers.

What would you call someone like Peter Obi, who has jumped from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to the PDP to Labour, and is now suffering from political multiple personality syndrome, given that nobody can say for sure if he is still in the Labour Party or has jumped ship to the African Democratic Congress?

Or someone like Nasir el-Rufai, who began his political life in the PDP, moved to the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), then the APC, from which he jumped ship to the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and after less than six months became a promoter of the ADC.

And the idea that the Tinubu administration is using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to target opposition politicians is just a tired strategy to avoid the elephant in the room.

Yahaya Bello is an APC member, yet he is being famously prosecuted by the EFCC. Betty Edu was the President’s Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation until allegations of financial impropriety surfaced, leading to her removal as Minister and ongoing EFCC investigation. Chris Ngige, a former Governor and Minister under the APC, to whom he is still very loyal, and even attended its recent caucus meeting a week ago, was recently arrested by the anti-graft body.

The case of Mr Ngige is a very strong defence because this is a tried and tested ally of the President!

If you are being investigated or prosecuted for corruption, your only defence should be that you are innocent, not that you are being picked on because you are an opposition politician.

The fact is that those now heating our polity with cries of a one-party state are just sore losers who lost elections in their party and refused to stay in that fold to build it up.

They should learn from Bola Tinubu, who, along with others, founded the Alliance for Democracy, stayed true to that party and the coalitions it entered into, and gradually grew his party from one that controlled only a single state in 2003 (Lagos) to the behemoth it has become in 2025.

The truth of the matter is that Nigeria is not a one-party state. However, we are a country with a dominant party that has dominated the political space by offering the type of good governance that has seen it fulfil its four cardinal campaign promises, including removing fuel subsidies, floating the Naira, devolution of power from the Federal to the States and Local Governments, and the provision of student loans.

–Omokri, Gospeller. Deep Thinker. #TableShaker. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Hodophile. Hollywood Magazine Humanitarian of the Year, 2019. Business Insider Influencer of the Year 2022. 21st Most Talked About Person in Africa, 2024.