Adeyeye: Those Accusing Tinubu of Driving Nigeria to One-party State are Crying Wolf

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The Board Chairman of the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), Senator Adedayo Adeyeye, yesterday disclosed that those who accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of driving Nigeria towards a one-party system are only crying wolf where there is none.

Speaking at a distinguished leadership lecture titled: ‘Mentorship: a Tool for Fostering Progressive Democracy’, at the Faculty of Administration, Obafemi  Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, he contended that crossing from one party to another has always been with us in Nigeria, and one needs to establish a distinction between a one-party system and one-party domination.

Adeyeye, who was also the recipient of the lifetime leadership achievement award of the faculty, further reaffirmed that the former was a constitutionally instituted one-party rule, while the latter is the dominance of one party in a multi-party environment for a period of time.

He said in a one-party system, only one party-the ruling party-can legally exist, whereas a dominant party continues to compete with other parties.

According to him, “There is nothing bad in having a dominant party as long as periodic, free, fair, and transparent elections are guaranteed.

“ Our democracy is not perfect; none is!  Hilary Clinton, a former USA first lady, Secretary of State, and former presidential candidate, also noted that even American democracy after 200 years is still a work in progress.”

He opined that no doubt, the nation is facing many challenges, including the challenges of insecurity, unemployment, underemployment, inflation, youth restiveness, poverty, tumultuous election processes, and a terrible erosion of confidence in the judiciary.

Senator Adeyeye stressed that in spite of all these, “Nigeria has recorded modest achievements for which we can be very proud of since the advent of this democratic dispensation.”

The senator opined that after 26 years of practice of democracy, “the nation has managed to substantially improve our electoral process,” saying: “When it started in 1999, our elections were crude, brutish and totally out of tune with the ethos of democracy and practices in many advanced democracies.”

He therefore, noted that in the present democratic dispensation, President Bola Tinubu stands out clearly as a great example of a mentor, noting that anyone in the politics of Lagos State came from his political stable.

Adeyeye recalled that: “In Nigeria, the Action Group ( AG) formed by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the first political party to form a youth wing, which has provided the mentorship platform for many who were later referred to as Awoists.”

He reminded political parties that despite the indifference of the political parties, the issue of mentorship has become very urgent for the democratic system in Nigeria.