Nigeria's One Party System by Yemi Olakitan

                                              Pic: Nigeria's Past Heads of State

Verily, verily, i say unto you except Nigeria is united it shall by no means enter into his true prosperity and greatness which God has prepared for his people.  It is a shame that till now, Nigerians have not realized that we are practicing a one party system although we have several political parties. We claim that this is a multi party democracy. Look at the scenario that we find ourselves, since the military relinquished power to former president Olusegun Obasanjo who ruled the nation for eight years; two terms in office, the PDP has occupied the nation's number one office consistently. President Olusegun Obasano handed over to the late former President Umaru Musa Yar Ardua who died in office and left power for his Vice President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. All these presidents were PDP candidates, the ruling party. You see, the ruling party does not have a strong opposition. We have a number of political parties who have refused to merge and cannot put together a strong opposition. 
  Without a strong opposition party, the government in power will not be on its toes. The government in power cannot be challenged and when it is not adequately challenged it cannot be held accountable. It affects the nature of our politics. We are not playing a politics of ideas and issues but of ethnicity and parochial interests which gives birth to Boko Haram and make the nation unable to tackle corruption in high places.
        We need to rise up to the challenge. Our political parties must come together to form a strong opposition to the ruling party, not because the ruling party is bad but because it need to be put on its toes, so that it can serve the people of Nigeria to its fullest capacity, and so that it can realize its full potentials. Otherwise, let it get out of the way so that another party can take its place. if it has better agenda, better ideology and a better way of serving the Nigerian people. When are we going to have a more vibrant democracy in Nigeria? How long are we going to continue with the one party system. We can not even enjoy steady electricity supply. unemployment is on top of the roof. Our political parties should stand up. It is better to have two strong and able political parties than several that are not strong enough in terms of resources and ideas that can hold our only party, PDP accountable. A WORD IS A ENOUGH FOR THE WISE