President Goodluck Jonathan backs two-party system for Nigeria

President Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday gave a tacit backing to the emergence of a two-party system in Nigeria, saying it would engender political stability.

He, however, berated critics of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, saying despite the criticisms, the ruling party has helped to stabilize the polity since the return of democracy in 1999.

He said PDP has become a force to reckon with, insisting this has pushed the opposition parties to think of coming together to fight the ruling party.

Mr. Jonathan, who spoke at the 61st meeting of the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the party in Abuja, expressed his desire to see two big parties, which in his estimation could instigate loyalty in PDP and further reduce tension in the polity.

“One good thing that Nigerians should commend PDP now is that if you look at the evolution of political parties, it is now stable.” Mr. Jonathan said.

“Before, when elections are coming, by now you will hearing about new parties being formed and at a time, the ballot paper was becoming too long, INEC was finding a way of deregistering parties.

“Because PDP has come on very strong, no matter the criticism they are criticizing us, they know that we are very strong and they realize that what they need to do is not forming new parties but parties coming together. So, we are helping to stabilize the polity,” he added.

The president defended a two-party system saying “we will encourage them to come together more. We want a situation where it is PDP versus one.

“In that case, the polity will be more stable. Even our members will be more loyal to the party because you will have nowhere to go.”

The last time Nigeria had a two-party system was in 1993 when all elections were between the Social Democratic Party and the National Republican Convention.