Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has warned against any attempt to steer Nigeria toward a one-party system, calling it a threat to democracy and the nation’s political heritage.
While addressing the National Assembly on Thursday, June 12, in celebration of Nigeria’s Democracy Day anniversary, President Tinubu recounted his experience during the 2003 general elections, when the then-ruling party launched a sweeping campaign to eliminate political opposition through what he described as “plot and manipulation.”
He assured Nigerians that at no time—past, present, or future—would he consider a one-party system healthy for the nation. “I have never attempted to alter any party registration with INEC,” he stated firmly.#APC #INEC #NationalUnity #EconomicReforms
— Voice of Nigeria (@voiceofnigeria) June 12, 2025
“In 2003, I was the last progressive governor standing in my region,” he stated. “The governing party boasted of ruling, not just governing Nigeria, for the next fifty years or more. Where are they now?”
Despite intense political pressure and a systematic effort to co-opt or defeat opposition leaders, he said he remained resolute. “My allies had been induced into defeat. My adversaries held every advantage a mortal man could possess. But they could not determine my destiny, or that of the nation, because fate is written by a higher power.”
He emphasised that Nigeria was divinely spared from becoming a one-party state then, and warned that any such attempt now would equally fail. “Nigeria will never be a one-party state. A one-party state is not a government, and it shall never be,” he declared.
Reflecting on the aftermath of that political period, he credited the failed one-party experiment as the catalyst that led to the creation of the All Progressives Congress (APC), a coalition that brought progressive forces together in a new political movement.
“This trajectory has brought me before you today,” he said. “But let me be clear: I will never support any scheme that suppresses democratic competition or imposes political advancement undemocratically, even for someone like Iwebo.”
While affirming the APC’s commitment to democratic principles, he also stressed the importance of openness. “We would be guilty of political malpractice if we closed our doors to members of other parties who now seek to join the APC in good faith,” he concluded.