Nigeria Can’t Be One-party State – Gambari

Former chief of staff to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, has stated that Nigeria cannot become a one-party state.

Gambari said he was not worried about Nigeria becoming a one-party state because the country’s political history shows that such a thing cannot happen.

Owing to high-level defections to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), opposition politicians have expressed fears of a one-party state.

But addressing journalists in Abuja yesterday, Gambari, who now chairs the Board of the Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development (SCDDD), said if history is anything to go by, the quest for a one-party state will not be actualised.

The former Chief of Staff to late President Muhammadu Buhari argued that there should be a measure to check the frequent case of defections in the country, adding that in other climes, ‘if you defect, you vacate the position because it belongs to the political party under which you emerged’.

He said, “On the political parties and the fear of a one-party state, I’m not worried about this country becoming a one-party state. You know what? You can quote me. It will not happen if history is any guide. You know, we don’t even know our own history.

“This administration is not the first to try to have a dominant party in Nigeria. Right from the beginning, the NPC was a dominant party in the First Republic. They weren’t the ones who caused the crisis in the main opposition, but they didn’t discourage it either. In fact, they took sides. Where has that led us? It didn’t lead us to peace or development; it led to chaos.

“The NPN was the successor. They became so confident that they felt that they would be there forever. What happened to that? In the end, it didn’t work. The third one, PDP, not long ago, was boasting that it would rule for 60 years. Where are they today? So any effort to make this country a one-party state will not work. And sometimes, it will not work for the wrong reasons, because the political elites are too ambitious for the ambition to be contained within one political party.”

Gambari, however, cautioned, “But let’s not wait for disaster to happen. Let’s build political parties. That’s what has been missing. We have not paid enough attention as a people to political parties. We are, in a sense, super elite. We gather in this room. How many of us actually belong to any political party? How many of us here have a party membership card? How many attend political party meetings?”

According to him, strong parties will make a one-party State impossible, but because we have no organised political parties, our political parties have become mere vehicles for gaining political power. “That’s all. Because our constitution doesn’t allow for independent candidates, you have to belong, so it’s a party of convenience. Political parties are flags of convenience.”