ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- Former Senate President and Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Adolphus Wabara has said that the recent wave of defections of PDP governors to the All Progressives Congress (APC) confirms his earlier warning that the ruling party is pursuing an agenda to turn Nigeria into a one-party state.
Wabara stated this while reacting to the defection of Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State to the APC, and reports suggesting that Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State may also be preparing to join the ruling party.
He accused the APC of masterminding the current defection trend among opposition figures, insisting that the party was “stifling democracy” in Nigeria.
Reiterating his long-held position, Wabara said, “A one-party state is a prelude to autocracy and retrogression.”
According to him, the democratic gains achieved under the PDP-led administrations are being steadily eroded under the present government.
“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,” he lamented.
The former Senate President further accused the ruling APC of intimidating the opposition into silence, saying,
“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.”
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Wabara attributed the defections not to the APC’s appeal but to what he called a “deliberate ambush of democracy.”
“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,” he added.
He argued that the APC has failed to demonstrate the capacity to rescue Nigeria from its deepening economic and governance challenges.
“Nigerians know very well that there is nothing attractive in the APC. It was never prepared for governance, and that is why it has continued to supervise the erosion of our democratic values,” he said.
Wabara recalled that since taking power in 2015, the APC has overseen Nigeria’s “retrogression,” adding that poverty and economic hardship would stand out as its greatest legacies.
He maintained that PDP governors leaving the party had performed better than their APC counterparts but were defecting mainly to secure their political futures.
“That a few individuals decided to leave does not mean the masses have left us. The PDP remains popular among Nigerians because they know how the PDP incubated and preserved our democracy,” he asserted.
Wabara insisted that the PDP would survive the current storm and remain strong ahead of the 2027 general elections.
“Nigerians can take this to the bank: PDP will not die. We have come a long way and will surmount the current storm,” he said.
The PDP BoT Chairman also urged party members, particularly in the South East, to remain steadfast, expressing optimism that a brighter future awaited the PDP.
He warned the ruling APC not to celebrate prematurely, predicting internal turmoil within its ranks before the next elections.
“In 2027, impoverished and suffering Nigerians not governors will decide the fate of the APC,” Wabara declared.