Omoyele Sowore, human rights activist and former presidential candidate, has claimed that all opposition parties in Nigeria, apart from his African Action Congress (AAC), are under the influence and control of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking on Rubbin’ Minds, a Channels Television talk show aired on Sunday, Sowore alleged that most of the 18 registered political parties in Nigeria are either created by or co-opted into serving APC’s political interests. He described them as “feeder parties” or “special-purpose vehicles”, allegedly deployed during elections to carry out specific tasks favourable to the ruling party.
“What we found out in our little research is that most of the parties left, apart from AAC, were created by the major parties,” Sowore said.
Sowore accused these opposition parties of working indirectly for the APC, especially during election disputes. According to him, they are often funded during election periods to file legal challenges that can later be manipulated or settled to legitimize questionable electoral outcomes.
“They all go and challenge the election, and whoever has won would then approach either the opposition party or the smaller parties and settle them,” he said.
“Everybody gets paid and walks away.”
When asked whether this critique applied to larger opposition parties like the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), Sowore did not hesitate to respond.
“Labour Party is the worst,” he said, adding that many LP members have since defected to the APC, indicating they were never genuinely opposed to the ruling party’s ideology.
He referred to the LP as a “short rental”, saying it was merely a temporary platform for ambitious politicians coming from either the PDP or APC. According to Sowore, once they gained prominence and power under the LP, they “went back to where they came from.”
Sowore further alleged that during meetings with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the supposed opposition parties frequently act more aligned with the APC than with true opposition ideals.
“The people that oppose us the most when we go to meetings are these other smaller parties that you think are in the opposition,” he stated.
He stressed that the AAC, which he founded in 2018, remains the only genuine opposition party actively resisting the control of the ruling elite.
Stay tuned to 9am News Nigeria for more Breaking News, Business News, Sports updates And Entertainment Gists.
