The ruling All Progressives Congress has said it has no plan to foist a one-party state on Nigerians.

The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka, was reacting to a remark attributed to the former Vice President and People’s Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who, at a session with the National Executive Council of the Inter-Party Advisory Council of Nigeria (IPAC) on Tuesday, accused the APC of “increasingly turning Nigeria into a dictatorship of one party.”

Morka, in his statement, declared that the former Vice President “appears to be under the influence of a distorted vision inflicted by the debilitating serial trouncing of his party at the polls.”

While he argued that the erstwhile main opposition party failed to meet the expectations of Nigerians, which informed its rejection at the polls in 2015, 2019, and the last general elections, Morka urged Atiku to leave the APC out of his party predicament.

The statement reads in part: Exasperated by the drooping fortunes of his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President and presidential candidate, has opined that Nigeria is sliding into a one-party state. He accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of “increasingly turning Nigeria into a dictatorship of one party” while hosting the National Executive Council of the Inter-Party Advisory Council of Nigeria (IPAC) yesterday, November 14, 2023.

“It is pitiful that a statesman of Atiku’s standing would so easily conflate the wide acceptance of our great party among Nigerians with his irrational fear of one-party dictatorship. Perhaps Turakin Adamawa needs to be reminded that Nigerians are highly perceptive and can differentiate between the political deviance of the PDP and the demonstrable commitment of the APC to deepening democracy and fostering our common good.

“Before its epic defeat in 2015, the PDP proclaimed and flaunted its plan to rule Nigeria for a minimum of 60 years. At that time, Atiku was willfully blind to the fear of a PDP one-party dictatorship but now appears to be under the influence of a distorted vision inflicted by the debilitating serial trouncing of his party at the polls.

“The PDP’s brigandage, impunity, and profligacy for 16 years remain unforgettable. In its brief period at the helm, APC has implemented a far-reaching reform of the Electoral Act and introduced technological innovations, including the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV), all aimed at improving electoral transparency and deepening our democracy.

“Remarkably, Atiku and his PDP have not only consistently failed at the polls, they have proved incapable of offering a credible alternative political vision as expected of an opposition party. Instead, the PDP has sustained its free fall into the abyss of quicksand through its intractable internal contradictions and impoverished leadership.

“The PDP’s flagrant disregard for due process, another of its banes, is the reason the party fielded its National Secretary, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, as governorship candidate in Imo State in the just-concluded off-season gubernatorial election.

“As a candidate, Sen. Anyanwu failed to resign his position as National Secretary as required by law. Is it any wonder that the Imo electorate rejected Anyanwu, who clearly did not have confidence in his own candidature to quit his position as a party officer? Anyanwu’s greedy disposition has reportedly sparked a fresh round of leadership imbroglio at the “Wadata House of Commotion,” it said.

“We urge Atiku to concentrate on repairing his damaged political psyche, attempt to revive his comatose PDP and leave APC out of their combined predicament. However, we welcome the former Vice President’s charge to opposition political parties to rally together to engage in opposition politics.

“On our part, President Bola Tinubu will continue, undisturbed, to justify his electoral promises in the Renewed Hope Agenda as he builds a safer, stronger, and economically vibrant country for the benefit of all. That’s what Nigerians care about; that’s what they deserve.” (Nigerian Tribune)