Wabara: We Warned Nigerians About APC’s One-Party State, Nigerians’ll Decide

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

Former Senate President and Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Adolphus Wabara, has said the recent defections of PDP governors to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have confirmed his earlier warning that the APC was pursuing an agenda to turn Nigeria into a one-party state.

He, however, said in 2027, impoverished Nigerians would decide and not the governors

Wabara was reacting to the defection of Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State and the reported plans by Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State to join the APC, accused the ruling party of orchestrating the wave of defections affecting opposition parties.

Reiterating his earlier position that “a one-party state is a prelude to autocracy and retrogression,” he accused the APC of “stifling democracy” in Nigeria.

He lamented that the democratic gains made under the PDP were being eroded under the current administration.

“I saw this coming. I raised the alarm, but was ignored. This is not the democracy that we jealously nurtured and guarded. This is a corrupted version of democracy.

“The ruling APC believes in intimidating the opposition into submission. No democracy survives without opposition. The APC is killing Nigeria’s democracy by muzzling dissent.”

Wabara attributed the defections not to the APC’s superiority but to what he described as “a deliberate ambush of democracy.”

His words: “APC’s refusal to carry out electoral reforms that could guarantee free and credible polls is what is making some of the opposition members defect. This is more of coerced defection.”