The Edo State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Dr. Samson Osagie, on Tuesday said that Atiku Abubakar, Nasir El-Rufai, Rotimi Amaechi and others who are in the new political coalition have further vindicated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s position that he has never contemplated a one-party system for Nigeria.
Tinubu recently, while delivering a State of the nation address to the joint session of the National Assembly on June 12, debunked the opposition alarm that he was seeking to impose a one-party on Nigeria.
He recounted his experience during the 2003 general elections, when the then ruling party launched a sweeping campaign to eliminate political opposition through what he described as “plot and manipulation.”
“In 2003, I was the last progressive governor standing in my region. The governing party boasted of ruling, not just governing Nigeria, for the next sixty years or more. Where are they now?” he had quipped.
Despite intense political pressure and a systematic effort to co-opt or defeat opposition leaders, he said he remained resolute.
“My allies had been induced into defeat. My adversaries held every advantage a mortal man could possess. But they could not determine my destiny, or that of the nation, because fate is written by a higher power.”
On the sidelines of the Special Induction Ceremony of Fellows and Associates of the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators in Abuja on Monday, Dr Osagie, whilst reacting to the movement of some political leaders across party lines in Nigeria into the African Democratic Congress, said: “I will just make this comment and say no more.
“I think the emergence of the coalition group on the platform of ADC has only come to validate the point made by President Tinubu that at no point did he ever contemplate a one-party state.
“So, the fact that those in the coalition can come together and form a platform to challenge the President is a development that validates Mr. President’s position that he is a democrat and he has never contemplated the idea nor encouraged a one-party system for the Nigeria,” he said.