The All Progressives Congress (APC) has replied to former Vice President and Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, over his claims that President Bola Tinubu paid opposition leaders ₦50 million each to destabilize their parties.
The party gave the response in a statement signed by Felix Morka, National Publicity Secretary of the APC.
The APC described Atiku’s allegations as “bogus and laughable.” It also accused Atiku of peddling rumours and unsubstantiated allegations “beneath someone of his standing as a former Vice President and serial presidential contestant”.
The APC statement took a swipe at Atiku’s past, reminding Nigerians of the worst elections in the country’s history, which the party said were conducted during his era as Vice President in 2003 and 2007.
On Monday in Abuja, as a panellist at a national conference on strengthening democracy in Nigeria, Atiku had warned that the nation’s democracy was imperilled by judicial involvement in electoral matters.
He said, “The same judiciary that affirmed the primacy of parties in choosing their candidates and leaders now sanctions and indeed promotes the destruction of parties by a few, and in some cases, a single individual with a personal agenda.
“The judiciary also seems to have replaced the voters in choosing our leaders. The involvement of the judiciary in electoral disputes was intended to affirm the choice of voters.
“But the judiciary, even at the highest levels, twists and contorts to find technicalities to deny voters their choice rather than affirming the voters’ choices.
“I know enough of history to understand that when democracy dies, the judiciary and its leadership do not necessarily survive intact.
“The judiciary survived the implosion or death of our First Republic democracy mainly due to the presence of strong independent justices. It wasn’t for want of trying.
“However, as the corruption of every facet of our society deepened, the judiciary soon followed. And it is, perhaps, the most dangerous because there is nowhere else for the aggrieved to turn to,” he said.
However, the APC countered that the judicial branch of government is a constitutional creation with defined powers to adjudicate disputes, including electoral disputes. The party argued that Atiku cannot wish away or seek to abolish the enshrined power of the courts to intervene in civil disputes, including electoral disputes, in cases where the authority of the court is validly invoked by a litigant.
The APC statement also pointed out the irony of Atiku’s criticism of the courts and the electoral process, given his long history of using the courts to further his political agenda. The party advised Atiku to focus on rebuilding his party and offering constructive solutions to Nigeria’s challenges, rather than peddling rumors and unsubstantiated allegations.
Furthermore, the APC slammed opposition figures like Peter Obi and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai for their “pitiful” suggestions that the APC was complicit in the internal corrosion of opposition parties. The party described these allegations as a desperate attempt to shift attention from their own failures and inability to manage their own affairs.
The statement by the APC said:
ATIKU, YOUR POLITICAL DESPERATION IS RESPONSIBLE FOR PDP’S CATASTROPHIC DISINTEGRATION
The former Vice President and Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, like a badly broken record, has continued to point fingers at the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the festering rot in his party, and the spectacular dysfunction of opposition parties generally.
At the national conference on Strengthening Democracy in Nigeria held in Abuja on Monday, January 27, 2025, Atiku, warned that the nation’s democracy was somewhat imperiled by judicial involvement in electoral matters. Also, without a shred of evidence, Atiku alleged that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was paying certain opposition leaders a whooping 50 Million Naira each to discombobulate opposition parties in the country.
It was in the Atiku era as Vice President, particularly in 2003 and 2007, that the PDP conducted the worst elections in our political history. We cannot possibly forget how Atiku’s PDP heavy-handedly captured most South-West states and vowed to remain in power for 60 years. It was in those same years that Atiku’s former boss and then President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, infamously described election as a “do or die affair” in a desperate attempt to annex Lagos. If democracy was neither derailed nor endangered in those perilous days, is it now that elections are by far freer, fairer and more credible that Nigeria risks losing democracy?
The judicial branch of government is a constitutional creation like the executive and legislative branches with its constitutionally defined powers to adjudicate disputes among citizens and between citizens and the state. Atiku cannot wish away or seek to abolish enshrined power of the courts to intervene in civil disputes, including electoral disputes, in cases where the authority of the court is validly invoked by a litigant.
It is a thing of irony that Atiku, who is Nigeria’s most prolific electoral litigator, would make such a ludicrous claim that judicial involvement in electoral matters is a threat to democracy. His criticism of the courts and the electoral process rings hollow given his long history of using the courts to further his political agenda. It’s time for him to take a step back and let the democratic process unfold without his interference.
Nigeria’s democracy is far stronger than Atiku’s political ambitions. We deserve better than petty politicking and alarmist rhetoric from an elder statesman. As a veteran politician, one would expect Atiku to understand that while democracy may be about winning election, it is, more importantly, about respecting the will of the electorate and working towards the greater good of all. Atiku should focus on rebuilding his party and offering constructive solutions to Nigeria’s challenges.
Atiku’s allegation that the APC-led administration was paying out 50 Million Naira to some opposition figures is simply bogus and laughable. Atiku knows that his political desperation is responsible for the PDP’s catastrophic disintegration. Peddling rumors and unsubstantiated allegations should be beneath anyone in the standing of an elder statesman, a former Vice President and a serial contestant for the exalted office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The bizarre suggestion by opposition figures like Atiku, Peter Obi, and recently, aggrieved leaders like Mallam Nasir El-Rufai that our great Party may be complicit in the internal corrosion of opposition parties is pitiful, and only an incompetent alibi for their crass failure to manage their own affairs. They cannot govern their parties but tout their ability to govern Africa’s most populous country.
As discerning citizens, Nigerians know better than to be distracted by the false alarm and hollow allegations of desperate politicians whose only goal is shore up their political relevance in the build up to 2027 general elections.
