The Executive Secretary/CEO of the National Institute For Cultural Orientation and member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Otunba Biodun Ajiboye, has dismissed fears that Nigeria is drifting into a one-party state, blaming the country’s weakened opposition for failing to provide a credible alternative to the ruling party.

In an interview with ARISE News on Sunday, Ajiboye responded to criticisms over the growing number of defections into the APC, including high-profile politicians from opposition parties. He argued that this political shift is not evidence of democratic collapse, but a reflection of confidence in the APC’s governance under President Bola Tinubu.

Ajiboye said, “I do not believe that Nigeria is moving towards a one-party state. These are expressions of fear, these are expressions of panic by people who can match up with the pace that APC is going. If Nigeria ever drifts into a one-party state, then blame them for not being able to provide credible opposition.

“Because I can’t understand that we are doing things so well and people are saying, look, this is where we should be. If they have put their house in order, especially Labour Party, a party that is in its embryonic status and is even self-destroying itself before it becomes a living entity. Pita Obi can cry from the south of Nigeria to the north of Nigeria. He can wear a Hausa cap or a Fulani cap or go into the mosque. It does not change the fact that he doesn’t have what it takes to lead the Nigerian people on one hand. On the other hand, the PDP has definitely destroyed itself. They can’t provide credible opposition.

“So the ball should go back in their court to learn how opposition works. APC was in opposition for many years during the PDP time. We never gave up. We continued to give Nigerian people the right alternative, different from the policies the PDP was putting on the table at the time. That is the credible opposition they are expected to provide. Not the pettiness they get themselves involved in.”

He then described the APC as a house built on strong ideological foundations, attracting more people not through coercion, but through the appeal of stability and reform.

He said, “When a man builds a house that is so beautiful that every landlord in the neighbourhood says, no, where I currently live is not conducive again, let me come and perch in your house. You don’t close your door. Or like a big church, that people are saying, oh, I’ve seen glory in your church, let me come and be a member of your church. You don’t shut your door to them.

“The truth of the matter is that we have a captain who is steering the ship of fortune of Nigeria today like never before. We have a leader in Nigeria, President of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who says, no, we can’t handle governance and public administration like business as usual. Let us go back to the fundamentals and see where we’ve gotten it all wrong, try to correct it. In the bid to correct it, it will come with a lot of pain, but please bear this pain for a while, the result will show.

“The result is already showing, and everybody is beginning to see that this is an administrator par excellence who knows exactly where the shoe is hurting the Nigerian people and is making great effort to ensure that reforms are being put in place to solve the problem of the Nigerian people, on one hand. On the other hand, those who never wished Nigeria well are crying and shouting, oh, you are turning Nigeria into a one-party state. You are doing this, you are doing that. No way. Nigeria, for the first time, is just getting it right.” (AriseNews TV)