By Tony Adibe
The latest statement by former Vice President and a presidential aspirant, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, ‘I am not stepping aside,’ has apparently marked him as one of the anti-democratic politicians who are encouraging a one-party state in Nigeria.
A founding member of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), and former Director General, Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr Osita Okechukwu, who expressed the view, reiterated that Atiku’s hell-bent on contesting, and his absence from the ceremony organized in Kano by ADC’s leadership, to receive Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and his supporters, gave Atiku out as having anti-democratic tendencies, thereby triggering one party system.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Okwuchukwu said that the current political behaviour displayed by Atiku has “conclusively vindicated some of us that he is one of the anti-democrats fuelling One Party State.”
The APC Chieftain, in the statement asked, rhetorically: “is there any better way to fuel One Party State than His Excellency Atiku Abubakar’s embarrassing absence from the Kano grand ceremony by ADC’s leadership, who welcomed Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and by extension the Kwankwasiyya movement into their fold; at a time when my great party, the APC is populating its fold?”
Okwuchukwu further asked: “In addition, how can Atiku again bandy the serial propaganda statement that President Tinubu is fueling a One-Party State, when he not only covertly opposed the defection of a Big Fish like Kwankwaso to ADC, but issued the sinister statement that he is not stepping aside, when nobody asked him?”
The former DG of VON recalled that Atiku “displayed the same anti-democratic tendency during the PDP’s presidential primary election in 2023,” which “inadvertently destabilised the Peoples Democratic Party irretrievably.”
Okechukwu argued that Nigerians “can now clearly agree with us that the loud, repeated allegations of APC constructing so-called one “one-party state” are nothing but a smokescreen to cover the opposition’s deep-seated anti-democratic tendency, disunity, and lack of strategic direction.
“Let it be stated without ambiguity — we are vindicated,” Okechukwu asserted. “
He said further: “Atiku’s declaration has laid bare the real problem of a foremost opposition held hostage by personal ambition, where no one is willing to either yield ground for the collective good nor obey the zoning convention, a unity ornament which guarantees that presidential power rotates from north to south and vice versa, hence inclusion, equity and fairness.”
He emphasised that the “pain is that Atiku’s statement came at a time when Nigerians expect a credible and united opposition, where ADC’s key opposition figures are not locked in a battle of egos, thereby making a meaningful coalition impossible.”
Okwuchukwu said: “Methinks that as an octogenarian and elder statesman, His Excellency Atiku Abubakar should help build the consensus of Peter Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s presidential ticket to make the 2027 presidential election robust, credible, challenging, and a shining example to the global community, instead of placing our democracy in unnecessary north-south debacle.
“For the avoidance of doubt, he maintained that the strength of the APC lies not merely in incumbency, but in the inability of opposition parties to put their acts together and prioritize national interest over individual ambition.” Okechukwu concluded that the “real danger to Nigeria’s democracy is not dominance by one party, but the reckless dysfunction of those who should provide balance.”
