Some of Nigeria’s most respected Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) have rejected any attempt to turn Nigeria into a one-party state, warning that such political engineering is not only impractical but a distraction from urgent national challenges like deepening poverty and widespread insecurity.
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Speaking in exclusive interviews with LEADERSHIP Sunday, the legal luminaries said that while a one-party state is not illegal under the constitution, it remains unlikely and unwise in Nigeria’s political climate.
Dr. Ahmed Raji, SAN, emphasized that although the Nigerian Constitution guarantees the freedom of association, the structure and nature of Nigeria’s political class make a one-party system difficult to attain.
“The freedom of association is a key fundamental right recognised under the 1999 Constitution. If it is the desire of all Nigerians to be in one party, so be it. But is it feasible in our circumstances? It may be a bit difficult to achieve in a country like ours, having regard to her peculiarities and nature of our political class,” Raji noted.
He added that the constitution already anticipates the possibility of only one candidate contesting an election and prescribes a threshold for legitimacy in such cases.
Echoing similar sentiments, another SAN, Abdul Balogun, dismissed the one-party state debate as misplaced, urging political actors to instead address Nigeria’s worsening poverty and economic hardship.
“We can’t be talking about the country becoming a one-party state because there is no strong and credible opposition in place. Nigerians are crying and dying of hunger; the politicians are not bothered because all they care about is turning the country into a one-party state,” Balogun stated.
In the same vein, Barrister Oghenovo Otemu clarified that defections do not equate to a one-party system. He, however, accused presiding officers of the National Assembly and state legislatures of aiding political cross-carpeting by failing to declare seats of defected lawmakers vacant.
“If I’m defecting to your side in the National Assembly, for example, I don’t expect you to declare my seat vacant. Most of the defections are to the political party of the presiding officers, and they’re not taking the necessary action because it won’t be politically convenient,” Otemu argued.
The lawyers collectively agreed that the idea of a one-party Nigeria may be constitutionally acceptable but remains unrealistic and counterproductive in a diverse, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious society like Nigeria.
Their warning comes amid increasing defections from opposition parties to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), raising concerns about the gradual weakening of Nigeria’s multi-party democracy.
The SANs concluded that rather than manipulating political alignments, Nigeria’s leaders must prioritize governance, tackle insecurity, and alleviate mass poverty for the country to move forward.
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