Democracy Day: Opposition parties tackle Tinubu on ‘I’m pleased opposition in crisis’ comment

Major opposition parties in the country took on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for publicly expressing his happiness over the ongoing crisis in their folds ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The president had while addressing a joint session of the National Assembly on the occasion of Democracy Day celebration Thursday in Abuja, said he is pleased that opposition parties in the country were in disarray.

Tinubu said he cannot put their houses in order for them, but advised that they should examine their internal processes as part of a scheme to resolving their internal wranglings.

Daily Trust reports that major opposition parties in the country are neck-deep in crises. They are the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Social Democratic Party (SDP) and others.

The parties have consistently accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of being behind the crises in their folds. But the ruling party has always dismissed the allegation as false.

However, President Tinubu said, “Political parties fearful of members leaving may be better served by examining their internal processes and affairs rather than fearfully conjuring up demons that do not exist.

“For me, I would say try your best to put your house in order. I will not help you do so. It is, indeed, a pleasure to witness you in such disarray.”

Tinubu also said the APC cannot stop receiving defectors from opposition parties into its fold, adding that the party would be guilty of political malpractice if it shuts its doors.

“We would be guilty of political malpractice if we closed the door on those from other parties who now seek to join the APC and I sincerely welcome our party’s newest members from Delta and Akwa Ibom States led by Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and Pastor Umo Eno and other members of this National Assembly,” he said.

Reacting to the development, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) accused the Tinubu led government of spending huge sums of money to destabilise opposition parties.

The ADC National Chairman, Dr Ralph Okey Nwosu, told Daily Trust in a telephone interview that it was unfortunate the statement came from President Tinubu.

He said, “It’s most unfortunate that one of the persons who fought the military, so badly and then one of the chieftains of NADECO, happened to be in the driver’s seat today and they are spending state resources to muzzle the opposition and then trying to form a one-party fascism that is even more draconian than the military. It’s unfortunate.

“We are mindful of all their plots and we are navigating it as patriots. 2027 will show them what the opposition are made of and also the will of the Nigerian people.”

Speaking on the preparedness of the opposition for 2027, Nwosu said a coalition is already very strong.

“The coalition is so strong. I have had meetings with all the critical stakeholders in this coalition, and their preoccupation for now is to build a party that Nigerian people will own as their own party and to begin the journey to a truly new Nigeria, as the patriots who worked hard to see the military off.

“We, the leaders of ADC are handing over the party, but let us build a party that has a clear ethical standard. So, whatever they are causing, spending government resources just to cause problems within the opposition, it will not work for them. We have gone beyond that.

“PDP leaders, a lot of APC leaders, Labour Party leaders and many other patriots, we have gone beyond that and time will tell,” he added.

Also reacting, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) said Tinubu would be shocked when Nigerians vote him out of power in 2027.

The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Ibrahim Abdullahi, said in a telephone chat that the party is not perturbed about Tinubu’s comment, stressing that the avalanche of challenges bedeviling the country alone would push Nigerians to vote Tinubu out of power in 2027.

Abdullahi said, “After this convention that is coming, the PDP will stabilise. A year before the election, APC will realise what they have done to themselves.”

He said the APC should wait and spend 16 years in the saddle before it can say anything about the PDP.

“If Nigerians are the ones that truly vote in a democracy, then let’s wait and see,” he said.

“When APC is able to have 16 years in power, then it would be in a position to speak. Because between you and I, we know what Nigerians are facing and we know what Nigerians are planning to do in 2027. So there is nothing for us to worry about,” he added.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar accused the present administration of dismantling the gains of June 12, saying that “those who laid down their lives did not do so for Nigerians to groan under the yoke of authoritarianism and economic suffocation.”

Atiku, in a post on his social media platforms, also said the ongoing process by opposition figures to form a coalition will defend the legacies of the June 12 struggle.

According to the presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, in the last election, “what we are witnessing is not governance, it is conquest.”

The opposition leader said, “The gains of June 12 were hard-won. But sadly, the democratic promise that blossomed in 1999 is being steadily dismantled before our very eyes.

“Today, Nigeria teeters on the edge of a dangerous precipice—a creeping one-party dictatorship is replacing the democratic order we bled for.

“Those who laid down their lives did not do so for Nigerians to groan under the yoke of authoritarianism and economic suffocation.

“The ruling party and its federal government now govern with the unmistakable intent to dominate, subdue and silence. Their tactics are not subtle.

“Opposition voices are being systematically erased. National institutions, once symbols of unity, are being brazenly renamed in honour of a sitting president, as though the country were a private estate.”

The former Vice President also lamented that the present government “represents the lowest ebb in our democratic journey. “Institutions have been weaponised. Policies are crafted not to empower the people but to entrench fear, obedience and control. The common Nigerian has been abandoned at the altar of elite comfort. And make no mistake: this is the antithesis of everything June 12 stands for.

“We are again at a historic threshold. Nigeria must choose: the path of democratic renewal or the dark alley of despotism.”

Similarly, the National Publicity Secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Araba Segun Aiyenigba, said the party is not distracted by the president’s comment, describing it as “executive rascality, and ego tripping of the day.”

“We are focused on strengthening and strongly positioning our capacity to meet the quest of Nigerians in becoming the credible alternative and the much-looked up to veritable vehicle for national redemption and to make life more meaningful for Nigerians,” he said.

In the same vein, the National Secretary of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Chief Peter Ameh, said President Tinubu’s action is a threat to democracy.

“President Tinubu’s brazen exultation in the crippling crises tearing apart Nigeria’s opposition parties, while feigning opposition to a one-party state is a grotesque display of hypocrisy that savages the very soul of democracy.

“His insidious remarks not only betray his intimate knowledge of these orchestrated turmoils but also expose his administration’s sinister complicity in engineering them.

“No patriot, let alone a democrat, would revel in the ruthless dismantling of political rivals essential to a vibrant democratic system. Tinubu’s venomous double-speak is a calculated assault on Nigeria’s pluralistic ideals, laying bare a despotic ambition that imperils the nation’s future,” Ameh said.

He said the deliberate sabotage of opposition parties, which President Tinubu “shamelessly celebrates, is a heinous act of political warfare.”

Ameh who is former Chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), said, “By strangling the opposition’s stability, Tinubu is orchestrating a chilling purge of dissent, paving the way for a tyrannical monopoly that suffocates political participation and obliterates accountability.”

Also, the Chief Spokesman for the Obi/Datti Presidential Campaign Council for the 2023 presidential election, Dr Yunusa Tanko, who spoke on behalf of his principal said Tinubu’s comment was a confirmation of Obi’s earlier submission that the APC led government was behind the crisis in opposition parties.

“It’s a confirmation that President Tinubu is responsible for crisis in opposition parties. It is also important for the international community to take serious note of what is happening so that it would not be too late for them to call Mr President and his party to order as their deliberate undermining of the opposition is a threat to democracy and peace in the country,” he said.