Human rights activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, has claimed that Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) controls all registered opposition parties in the country—except the African Action Congress (AAC), which he founded in 2018.
Speaking on Rubbin’ Minds, a Channels Television programme aired on Sunday, Sowore alleged that most of the 18 registered political parties, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), were either created or co-opted by the APC as “special-purpose vehicles” to serve its political interests.
“What we found out in our little research is that most of the parties that are left, apart from AAC, are parties that were created by the major parties. They call them feeder parties or special-purpose vehicles,” Sowore said.
According to him, the APC funds candidates in these parties during elections, particularly to aid with legal technicalities. He alleged that some of these parties contest elections solely to challenge results in court, after which they are “settled” by the ruling party.
“When they want to go into elections, they will fund candidates in those other parties. Sometimes the parties are meant to help them with legal challenges,” he said. “Whomever has won would approach either the opposition party or the smaller parties and settle them… and they will hang around.”
Sowore also criticized the conduct of opposition parties during meetings with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), claiming they rarely act in opposition to the ruling party.
“The people that oppose us the most when we go to meetings are these other smaller parties that you think are in the opposition,” he added.
When asked if his observations included the PDP and LP, Sowore responded emphatically, “Labour Party is the worst.”
He accused the LP of lacking ideological independence, describing it as a political platform temporarily hijacked by opportunists from the APC and PDP.
“That’s why I refer to the Labour Party as a short rental. Most of them that went to Labour Party saw an opportunity—they were coming from either PDP or APC. They walked in there, grabbed what they could, and once they had the booty bag, they went back to where they’re coming from.”
Sowore reiterated his warning that Nigeria is on the verge of becoming a one-party state, with the APC allegedly institutionalising control through fake opposition platforms.
He maintained that the AAC remains the only ideologically consistent and independent opposition party in Nigeria today.
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