The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged Nigerians to utilize June 12 Democracy Day to re-energize and deepen their opposition to the All Progressives Congress’s (APC) anti-democratic intentions, particularly the conspiracy to impose a totalitarian one-party system in Nigeria.
In a statement commemorating 2025 Democracy Day, the PDP urged Nigerians, Institutions of Democracy, Organized Civil Society, Development Partners, and all supporters of democracy to band together to speak out against the suffocation of democratic tenets such as justice, the Rule of Law, free, fair, and credible electoral processes, and citizens’ right to freely participate in politics and governance in Nigeria.
The party said it is alarmed by the “anti-democratic actions of the APC government, which continues to use compromised state apparatus of powers and control to brazenly violate the constitution, emasculate opposition, defy and abridge the liberty of citizens to freely elect their leaders, corrupt and manipulate institutions of democracy, asphyxiate the media, and weaponize poverty, all in the attempt to impose a defeatist mentality on the people and turn the nation
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According to the opposition party, the APC-led Presidency has remained unaccountable while conspiring with the corrupt, rubber-stamp APC leadership in the National Assembly and certain compromised judicial officers in high positions to undermine the sovereignty of the people, ostensibly to pave the way for a totalitarian system in our country.
“The brazen use of State Capture, as exemplified by the subversion of the Will of the People in the 2024 Edo State Governorship election, the widely condemned overthrow of a democratically elected government, and the imposition of a Sole Administrator in Rivers State in flagrant violation of the clear provisions of the 1999 Constitution, among other Constitutional infractions, point to a clear and present danger to our democracy.
“June 12 Democracy Day therefore embodies the struggle by Nigerians against an oppressive, despotic and lawless system driven by impunity, high level deception and reckless anti-people tendencies as being witnessed under the APC administration.” It also represents Nigerians’ desire for a system that is accountable to the people, operates under the Rule of Law, and upholds democratic principles such as freedom, justice, fairness, equity, credible elections, national cohesion, transparency, and accountability in government, all of which Chief MKO Abiola personified and died for.
“These are the democratic qualities that Nigerians valued under the Peoples Democratic Party. Painfully, all have eluded the nation since the establishment of the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) masquerading as a political party, the APC,” the statement added.
As a result, the opposition party called the APC administration to respect Chief Abiola’s memory, the rule of law, and the sovereignty of the Nigerian people by upholding the principle of separation of powers.
It also asked the administration to stop interfering with the activities of the National Assembly and other Democracy Institutions, particularly the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the Judiciary, to allow for a free press, to commit to credible elections, to be truthful and transparent, and to review all of its poverty-inducing policies.
The PDP urged the National Assembly, Judiciary, and INEC to exercise their constitutional independence and act solely on the basis of the Rule of Law and the people’s collective interest in promoting democratic values.
