Layi Olanrewaju, Ilorin
Nigeria is heading towards a one-party state, an opposition, the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) raised the alarm, on Sunday.
The party warned that the country was at the verge of being turned to a one-party state should the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led immediate-past government be returned to power in the 2019 general election.
Addressing a media briefing, in Ilorin, on Sunday, interim chairman of PRP in Kwara State, Prof. Mahmood Muhibeedeen Aliyu, said both APC and PDP have similar ideology and style of governance in which politicians are given freehand for cross carpeting.
The don alleged that it has become a common practice in the nation’s polity for politicians to switch to any ruling party if their former party suffered defeat in an election.
Aliyu, who addressed reporters alongside other members of the PRP in the state, said impunity was gaining traction in the APC with disobedience to court orders that the detained former National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd) and the leader of an Islamic movement, Sheik Ibrahim El-Zaky Zakky be released.
He said the government also conferred legitimacy on some corrupt elements within it going by selective anti-corruption crusade.
“The possibility of Nigeria becoming a one party state is imminent. Nigeria is at the verge of becoming a one party state as the final nail on the coffin will take place if any of the two leading political parties i.e. All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should win election at the centre in the 2019 general election.
“They share the same ideology, they have the same style of ruling (governance) and they even share members. Members move from one party to the other at will and they just want to be rotating the governance of the country between/among themselves. It has been reported severally some expressions made, of recent, by some party (APC) leaders in government to buttress the above point.
“If one of them (PDP or APC) wins election, the arrow heads in the party will quickly decamp to the winning party and business will go on as usual. God Almighty will not allow that to be sustained. If you look at the performance of this government, you will notice that the accusing finger that is pointed at PDP before the 2015 election is exactly what is in vogue now… immigration, customs, armed forces, the police etc, are still as corrupt as ever under this government; contractors are still being hawked like sachet water in Abuja and impunity is festering by the day as it did with earlier governments. Disobey of court orders by the government e.g, the case of Dasuki and El-Zak Zakky.
“APC is a party of deceit and a government of vengeance and compesantion in place. Since the coming into power of this government, there has been increase in impunity, corruption legalised for a group of people, selective anti-corruption war, economic recession, increase in arm banditry, kidnapping becoming a thriving business, our health care system in the worst stage.
“APC is more deadly than PDP. Look at what happened in Edo governorship election; look at the scenario that played itself out at the Ondo governorship election. Look at the way local government elections are being conducted by the various state governments”, Aliyu said.
The don, who insisted that Nigeria has not fared better in the hands of the APC and the PDP, said only PRP has what it takes to rescue the country out of the calamitous situation.
He urged Nigerians with patriotic zeal to come together and take the PRP out of the opposition circle and put it in government at the centre, saying it remains the option to navigate the country to the promised land.
Aliyu appealed to the citizens to liberate the country from the crutches of internal colonialism and local imperialism.
“Of all the associations that now parade themselves, the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) is the only party that can take this country out of the calamitous situation we are now in. This is the party that has social welfare (with well spelt out ideology), inclination, the oldest party in existence with honest, well-formed and selfless individuals championing its cause”, he added.