Former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should be blamed for Nigeria’s slide into a one-party state, and not the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, Okechukwu spoke in Enugu, yesterday, while reacting to insinuations that APC and, by extension, President Bola Tinubu, were responsible for the country’s slide into a one-party state, describing the the insinuations as misplaced.

Okechukwu, a founding member of the APC, claimed that the PDP members had been inflicted by the same ‘humongous culture of impunity’ it planted in the country’s political culture in their 16 years of being in power.

According to him, Nigeria will naturally slide into a one-party state, as PDP, the country’s major opposition party with more than 10 governors, has been afflicted by the stomach infrastructure syndrome.

“One, without being immodest, can recall how Alhaji Buba Galadima, the then National Secretary of CPC, was arrested and hounded on the eve of the 2007 General Elections and offered all manner of carrots to abandon CPC and, by extension former President, Muhammadu Buhari,” he said.

The former director-general reminisced that since the APC merger in 2013, PDP members had converted APC to a rehabilitation centre instead of adopting the prerequisite ingredients of opposition – resilience, grit and patience.

He stated that it was the culture of impunity that made the PDP to off-handedly jettison the rotation convention of President from the north to the south and even Section 7 of its Constitution, which made rotation mandatory.

“Imagine the breach of rotation convention by the PDP leadership, not minding the unintended consequences, with the erroneous thought that His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar, will unlock the northern electorate from their dormitory to vote PDP in the 2023 presidential election.

“This is a misjudgment, pure and simple, with its collateral damage, one of which is a one-party state.

On what APC was doing to address the current economic hardship in the country, the former director-general assured Nigerians of light at the end of the tunnel.

“I am in league with IPMAN, TUC and a host of others for reduction of fuel pump price. Luckily, it is already happening, as NNPC has started the reduction process.

“Secondly, I held a meeting with our APC National Chairman, Dr Umar Ganduje, where he assured me that the Livestock Ministry would find a ranch solution to the herders/farmers’ crisis, which would allow farmers to access their farms.”