The African Democratic Congress has alleged a coordinated attempt to weaken opposition parties ahead of the forthcoming general election, warning that Nigeria risks sliding into a one-party state if what it described as the “growing assault on democracy” is not checked.
The party’s position followed the decision of the Federal High Court sitting in Lokoja to set aside its earlier judgment recognising the National Democratic Coalition (NDC), a development the ADC said fits into a broader pattern of actions aimed at shrinking the country’s democratic space.
In a statement issued on Saturday by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the party expressed concern over what it called a succession of legal and administrative actions targeting opposition parties, insisting that the trend poses a grave threat to constitutional democracy.
“The cumulative effect of these attacks is unmistakable: they weaken the opposition, narrow the democratic space, and strengthen the hands of those already in power. This is not how a healthy democracy functions,” the statement read in part.
According to the ADC, the controversy surrounding the NDC goes beyond the fortunes of a single political party and strikes at the heart of Nigeria’s democratic system.
“When opposition parties are persistently distracted by manufactured controversies and prolonged legal uncertainty, the real casualty is the Nigerian people’s right to freely choose among credible political alternatives,” the party stated.
The ADC also accused the President Bola Tinubu-led government of creating conditions that undermine fair political competition, arguing that democratic governance thrives on institutional neutrality and equal treatment of all political actors under the law.
