By Abubakar Yunusa
The Executive Director of the Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education, Ibrahim M. Zikirullahi, has warned that Nigeria risks sliding into a one-party state if the current wave of political defections continues unchecked.
Zikirullahi said history showed that prolonged one-party dominance only led to chaos, disasters and human suffering, urging Nigerians to resist what he described as the arrogance of power.
In a statement titled ‘The Peril of One-Party Drift: Lessons for Nigeria’, signed on Monday and made available to PEOPLES DAILY, he cautioned that democracy was being gradually eroded through defections, weakened institutions and the silencing of opposition voices.
“Nigeria stands at a crossroads,” he said. “The gale of defections to the ruling All Progressives Congress is a dangerous sign of creeping dictatorship.”
He noted that at least four governors had defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the APC while in office, describing the trend as a threat to democratic balance and accountability.
Drawing lessons from other countries, Zikirullahi said experiences from Zimbabwe, Russia, Cameroon and Kenya showed that democracy collapsed when opposition parties were suppressed.
According to him, civil society organisations, the media and the judiciary must remain firm in defending democratic principles and resisting undue political pressure.
“The people must resist the arrogance of power and demand accountability,” he said. “Opposition parties must not be cowed into submission. They must rebuild, re-strategise and offer Nigerians a credible alternative.”
Zikirullahi stressed that democracy was not designed for the convenience of politicians but for the expression of the people’s will.
He warned that the continued weakening of opposition could carry grave human and social costs for the country.
“If defections continue unchecked, Nigeria faces worsening poverty as policies serve elites rather than citizens, escalating insecurity as silenced voices turn to unrest, mass migration driven by hopelessness, and a collapse of trust in democracy,” he said.
Describing defections as more than routine political manoeuvres, he said they represented the erosion of accountability and a betrayal of the people’s mandate.
Zikirullahi cautioned that Nigeria’s democracy would not collapse overnight but could wither silently if the trend persisted.
“Each defection is a brick removed from the foundation of accountability,” he said. “When opposition is silenced, the legislature becomes a rubber stamp and the judiciary seals corruption, dictatorship does not arrive with guns—it arrives with applause.”
He warned that if the drift towards one-party dominance was not resisted, Nigeria risked losing not only its democracy but its soul.
Never miss a moment! Get the stories shaping Nigeria, delivered straight to your phone. Follow Peoplesdaily Newspaper on WhatsApp for breaking news, exclusive reports, and the headlines everyone will be talking about, before anyone else.
