Photo caption: Omoyele Sowore
Human rights activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has alleged that all opposition parties in Nigeria, except his African Action Congress, are under the influence and control of the ruling All Progressives Congress.
Speaking on Rubbin’ Minds, a Channels Television talk show aired on Sunday, Sowore claimed that most of Nigeria’s opposition parties were deliberately created or co-opted by the APC as “special-purpose vehicles” for political convenience.
According to him, the AAC, which he founded in 2018 remains the only genuine opposition among the 18 registered political parties in the country.
Sowore said, ”What we found out in our little research is that most of the parties that are left, apart from AAC, are parties that were created by the major parties.
“They call them feeder parties or special-purpose vehicles.”
He alleged that these smaller parties are often funded during election seasons by the APC to serve strategic interests, such as filing legal challenges that can be manipulated later in the ruling party’s favour.
Sowore explained, “Sometimes, some of the candidates or the parties are meant to help them with legal challenge.
“So they all go and challenge the election, and whoever has won would approach either the opposition party or the smaller parties and settle them.
“Everybody gets paid and walks away.”
He also criticised the behaviour of opposition parties during meetings with the Independent National Electoral Commission, saying many of them fail to act like opposition and appear ideologically aligned with the APC.
“The people that oppose us the most when we go to meetings are these other smaller parties that you think are in the opposition,” Sowore said.
When asked whether his criticism also applies to more prominent opposition parties like the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party, Sowore replied, “Labour Party is the worst.”
He claimed that many LP members have defected to the APC because they were never truly opposed to the ruling party.
Sowore said,”That’s why I refer to the Labour Party as a short rental.
“Most of them that went to Labour Party saw an opportunity.
“They were coming from either PDP or APC.
“They walked in there, grabbed power, and then the moment they had the booty bag, they went back to where they’re coming from.”
=== PUNCH ===
