By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE

The tell-tale signs that Nigeria is fast turning to a one-party state are unmistakable. Many state governors and lawmakers, who formerly belonged to opposition political parties, had defected to the ruling political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). Belonging to the ruling political party, APC, is the in-thing or fad now. But our politicians' embrace of APC for reasons, which are not ideological, has its down sides.

Multi-party system, which is the obverse of one-party system, is a feature of representative government. Ideally, each political party in a multi-party state has its own ideology, which makes it distinct from other political parties in the political polity. While multi-party system offers the people of a country the opportunity to choose political parties, which serve their interests, politicians pitch their tents with political parties whose ideologies they align with.

In the first republic, when Nigeria had become a newly independent country, not a few political parties existed in the country, then. We had these political parties, namely Action Group (AG), National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), Northern People's Congress (NPC), and others. Each of them was anchored on a set of political beliefs and principles or ideologies.

After the collapse of the first republic caused by the 1966 coup and counter-coup, which snowballed into the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, these political parties came into being in the second republic, viz NPP, NPN, UPN, PRP, GNPP, and others. Unfortunately, the second republic was short-lived, too.

Sadly, the third republic was still-born because Rtd Gen. Ibrahim Babangida took Nigeria on a political transition programme rigmarole that landed the country into a political cul-de-sac. To make matters worse, he annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which was adjudged the freest and fairest presidential election in our political annals. In the midst of the crisis caused by the cancellation of that presidential election, the vampiric Sani Abacha shoved aside the interim government of Chief Ernest Shonekan, which was a lame duck, to start his reign of terror.

It took the death of Sani Abacha for democratic governance to berth in Nigeria in 1999, which marked the dawn of the fourth republic. For sixteen years, the PDP held sway in Nigeria until it was dethroned in 2015 by APC, which came into existence by merger. And during Mohammadu Buhari's lacklustre leadership of Nigeria on the platform of APC, he didn't use state institutions to destroy rival and opposition political parties. Until Bola Tinubu took over the reins of power, opposition political parties in Nigeria would field candidates for presidential elections and record relatively impressive results in them, although those elections were marred and marked by large scale election malpractice.

But there is the likelihood that the major opposition political parties in Nigeria may not field candidates for the presidential election in 2027. Can the divided PDP present a presidential candidate in 2027? Chief Nyesom Wike, who has sympathies for the ruling APC, is hell-bent on destroying PDP, which used to be the major opposition party in Nigeria. That he is being used to emasculate PDP is an incontrovertible fact. As a result, almost all the governors elected on the PDP platform had defected to the ruling APC. The once powerful PDP is a shadow of itself, now.

Now, state institutions, namely the judiciary and the country's electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), are being used to weaken the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to pave way for its demise. Premising the derecognition and deregistration of ADC on an ambiguous court's ruling is a smokescreen as well as a ploy, which the APC-led government is using to hoodwink us into believing that ADC committed infractions. A dispassionate analysis of the whole matter will prove otherwise, however.

In addition, APGA may adopt President Tinubu as its presidential candidate in the 2027 presidential election. Other political parties outside the troubled ADC and PDP cannot muster the power to dislodge APC from its perch on power. In fact, those small and insignificant political parties will likely work for the reelection of President Bola Tinubu as the president of Nigeria. What is happening in today's Nigeria is reminiscent of what happened in our country during the inglorious Sani Abacha era.

Using state institutions to destroy the opposition political parties so as to keep APC in power is a portent of doom for Nigeria. And it will sound the death knell on our fledgeling and struggling democracy. Our democracy is already imperilled as the neutrality of the judiciary and the national electoral umpire cannot be guaranteed.

So it behooves the APC-led government to retrace its steps in order that multi-party democratic system of government will take root in our country and blossom. It is the sure path that will guarantee us political stability in Nigeria. Without political stability, no country can dream of becoming a united, economically, and technologically advanced nation-state, not to talk of achieving those aspirations.

•Okoye is a poet and commentator on contemporary issues.

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