President Bola Tinubu has rejected allegations that his administration is weakening opposition parties or plotting to impose a one-party system in Nigeria.
Speaking on Wednesday at an interfaith breakfast with senators at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the president said criticism is an unavoidable part of leadership, noting that he has often been accused of “killing the opposition.”
“Critics will always talk and give you names,” Tinubu said. “When they accused me of killing the opposition, I didn’t have a gun. I could have even issued myself a licence, since I have the authority.”
He said Nigeria’s pressing security challenges — including terrorism and banditry — require national unity rather than political division, urging Nigerians to embrace the democratic ideals of the country’s founding fathers.
“I can’t blame anyone for jumping out of a sinking ship,” the president said.
“What this country has faced in this difficult period — terrorism and banditry — has caused enormous damage. We must pull together and unite as our forefathers envisioned to sustain constitutional democracy. They did not say we should fight.”
Tinubu also defended his administration’s economic reforms, describing them as bold, collective efforts aimed at dismantling entrenched corruption, particularly in the subsidy and foreign-exchange systems.
“I have received a lot of credit for bold reforms, but without your collaboration and support, they would not have been possible. We are reformers together,” he said. “What we stopped was monumental corruption in the subsidy regime. We do not want to be part of corruption or foreign-exchange arbitrage.”
According to him, the reforms have helped stabilise the economy and set Nigeria on a path toward recovery and growth.
“You don’t need to chase me for dollars; you can see where Nigeria is today,” Tinubu said. “We are enjoying a more stable economy, and prosperity is ahead of us. This requires hard work and collective commitment.”
The president has frequently taken jabs at the opposition in recent months. In his 2025 Democracy Day address to a joint sitting of the National Assembly, he said he was content watching the opposition “self-immolate.”
Major opposition parties — the Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party, and the New Nigeria People’s Party — have been grappling with internal crises, triggering defections to the ruling All Progressives Congress.
The opposition has accused the APC of engineering internal divisions to weaken rival parties and entrench a one-party system — claims the president has dismissed.
Tinubu has instead insisted that opposition parties should resolve their internal challenges rather than blame the ruling party.
At a recent APC National Executive Committee meeting in late July, the president again rejected the one-party state narrative, while urging governors elected on other platforms to join the ruling party, saying political plurality remains essential to Nigeria’s democracy.
