Idris Zekeris, social commentator, activist, and electoral reform advocate has accused President Bola Tinubu of attempting to weaken opposition politics in Nigeria, warning that the country risks sliding into a one-party system.
Speaking during an interview on News Central on Thursday, Zekeris alleged that actions by institutions such as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the judiciary are being influenced to undermine democratic plurality.
“The monkey hand of the APC is in all of the actions you see, both in the judiciary and in INEC,” he said. “It is shocking that an INEC that has a professor of law, a senior advocate of Nigeria as head, cannot interpret what status quo ante bellum means.”
He criticised INEC’s handling of the leadership dispute within the African Democratic Congress (ADC), arguing that the commission’s position creates unnecessary confusion.
“By not recognising any of them, was there ever a time in the ADC where you did not have a leadership? The answer is simply no. So you see, these guys are deliberately mischievous,” he said.
Zekeris, who noted that he is not a member of the ADC, said the issue goes beyond party politics and concerns the survival of democracy in Nigeria.
“All Nigerians of good conscience… must ensure that we make sure that there is multi-party democracy. The people are able to have choices,” he said. “Even if you think those in the opposition are not the best, the people must still be allowed to make a choice.”
He warned that the current trajectory resembles an attempt to create a controlled opposition.
“You can call it the attempt to have a controlled opposition… or what you can call the North Korea model, where elections are conducted, only one party wins, but there is election,” he said.
Zekeris urged Nigerians to resist any move that could erode democratic competition, stressing that “in every democracy, there must be multiplicity of ideas and people must be allowed to make a choice.”
