Former Director-General of the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Akin Osuntokun, has sharply criticised Nigeria’s lack of a credible political party system, arguing that most political platforms are nothing more than opportunistic alliances with no ideological foundation.
Osuntokun described Nigeria’s political structure as fundamentally flawed and lacking ideological depth. “Even at the larger level, Nigeria doesn’t have a viable political party system. This is actually the problem,” he said. According to him, what exists are temporary alliances formed solely for the purpose of winning elections. “We operate a system in which, literally, at cycles, we have people coming together, calling themselves APC or whatever it is, to grab power,” he added.
Speaking during an interview on ARISE NEWS on Friday, Osuntokun, who led Peter Obi’s campaign under the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, said the party is now “heading towards extinction” and was originally “just one of those parties that exist on paper.”
“Everybody who must have been following the crisis will know that the party as such is heading towards extinction. But it is not peculiar or unexpected. There are many of these parties that just exist on paper. The Labour Party was more or less of that mood before we breathed air into it,” he said.
He warned that beyond Labour, the entire Nigerian political structure is dysfunctional.
“Even at the larger level, Nigeria doesn’t have a viable political party system. This is actually the problem. We operate a system in which, literally, at cycles, we have people coming together, calling themselves APC or whatever it is, to grab power,” Osuntokun stated.
He added that some parties, including Labour, are now being used by those in power as tools to destabilise opponents. “Any party like, say, the party in power, if you want to destabilize some people, things like that, they are there to be used. I think they have been doing that,” he said.
Reflecting on Peter Obi’s candidacy, Osuntokun lamented the absence of independent candidacy in Nigeria, noting that Obi’s popularity was powered not by the Labour Party, but by the movement known as the Obidients.
“If that was there, you know, somebody like Obi wouldn’t have fallen into… You must remember that what powered his coming to Nigeria big time was what they call the Obidients, not the Labour Party,” he said.
Osuntokun also reiterated his commitment to power rotation between North and South, saying it remains essential for national unity.
“We need to follow through, you know, on the principle of rotation between North and South. That is the only way you can build a nation,” he stated.
Asked about the 2023 election outcome, Osuntokun insisted Peter Obi was the real winner.
“There are six organizations that did public opinion polls, including CNN and Bloomberg. All of them predicted that Obi was going to win the election… If anybody was going to be cheated because of lack of capacity in that election, it was Obi,” he claimed.
Despite the setback, Osuntokun dismissed any psychological toll, saying he views politics as one of two parallel paths, the other being his professional career.
He emphasised that Nigeria’s real problem is not who becomes president, but the structure that produces them.
“This election coming forward is not the problem, it is this constitution… You can’t run away from a constitutional overhaul. Like, for instance, the presidency is the most destabilising factor of Nigeria’s politics,” he said.
He concluded with a stark warning: “You can either have a positive resolution or a negative. The negative is that, let this thing blow out.”
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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