Felix Morka, national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says it is not the responsibility of the ruling party to strengthen the opposition.

The APC spokesperson was reacting to concerns that recent defections to the ruling party could push Nigeria towards a one-party state.

Speaking on TVC on Friday, Morka said the APC remains strong despite pressures from within and outside the party.

“The APC today, clearly, in comparison to all of the other parties in the opposition, is holding its own,” he said.

“Our party is standing very strong and resilient, even in the face of enormous pressures, both internal and external and that’s what a party should be.”

He said every political organisation is bound to have its challenges.

“A political party shouldn’t be that entity that is without its own internal challenges,” he added.

“But I think what matters is how it deals with it — how the party manages those contradictions or internal contradictions or conflicts of interest, which is natural to every institution, especially a political party that’s an agglomeration of people who may have diverse interests and from diverse backgrounds.”

Morka dismissed suggestions that the APC is weakening democracy by receiving defectors from other parties.

“There is no democratic idea or norms or system anywhere in the world where a party, a ruling party, is under obligation to build the opposition,” he said.

“Parties are in business to compete for power. That’s what they are supposed to do. That’s the idea behind any democratic system.

“So this idea, this suggestion that people come into APC, therefore APC is undermining democracy, that is ridiculous.”

‘BLAME ATIKU’

The APC spokesman blamed Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president, for the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He said Abubakar flouted the party’s constitution by running for president in 2023 despite a zoning arrangement that favoured the south.

“The problem in the PDP was Atiku’s obdurate refusal to abide by the convention of his own party and its constitution,” he said.

“He had no business running for that election when under their constitution, a southern candidate was mandated as, you know, under the rotational agreement to run.

“He was the one who created the problem. So it wasn’t his nomination. He himself was, you know, at the root of the problem that the PDP is facing today.”