The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Wednesday, harped on the importance of a strong opposition to keep the ruling party on its toes so as to benefit the populace.
Oyegun stated this when a former President of Niger Republic, Alhaji Mamman Usman, led a delegation to pay the APC chairman a congratulatory visit at the party’s national headquarters in Abuja.
He commended the former Nigerien leader for the visit, adding that democracy was “not just about periodic conduct of elections but a commitment to a cause of giving a choice to the people in a free and fair manner.”
According to him, the former ruling party in the country had frustrated several efforts by the Nigerian opposition to form coalitions and alliances, adding that the political parties that merged to form the APC were not given any chance to survive, let alone win elections.
Oyegun disclosed that the APC survived different attempts to derail its formation and operations until the elections and that the situation got so bad that the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, resorted to smear campaigns and intimidation in a bid to frustrate the opposition’s presidential candidate and the leaders.
Speaking earlier, Usman said his visit to the party’s secretariat was to among other things, congratulate the APC leaders for their victory in the 2015 elections, adding that he was part of election observer missions to Nigeria in 1999 and 2011, but that he was not privileged to be part of those who participated in the 2015 elections.
He, however, said he monitored the elections until the results were announced.
According to him, Nigeria’s neighbours always follow the country’s elections with a lot of apprehension because the situation in Nigeria always had ripple effects for the West African sub-region and the entire African continent. .
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