All Progressive Congress (APC) yesterday took a swipe on opposition politicians Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi over their comments on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration at the two-day National Conference on Strengthening Democracy that ended in Abuja yesterday.
The party also took a swipe on former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai for making scathing criticisms about the ruling party.
Reacting through its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Felix Morka, the APC faulted the positions of the three leaders during the two-day talk shop.
Morka criticised Atiku for blaming the festering rot in his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the spectacular dysfunction of opposition parties on the governing party.
In his remarks at the national dialogue on Monday, the former vice president warned that democracy was imperiled by judicial involvement in electoral matters.
Atiku also alleged that President Tinubu was paying certain opposition leaders N50 million each to discombobulate opposition parties.
The APC spokesman accused the PDP candidate in the 2023 presidential poll of making unfounded allegations against the president.
He relived how the PDP muzzled all opposition voices when it was in the saddle from 1999 to 2015.
Morka said: “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 Southwest 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?”
He noted that 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.
Morka reminded Atiku that he cannot wish away or seek to abolish the enshrined power of the courts to intervene in civil and electoral disputes, in cases where the authority of the court is validly invoked by a litigant.
He said: “It is an 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 N50 million 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 APC also frowned at the suggestion by opposition figures like Atiku, Peter Obi and El-Rufai that APC may be complicit in the internal corrosion of opposition parties.
Morka dismissed such suggestions as “pitiful, and only an incompetent alibi for their crass failure to manage their own affairs.
He said: “They cannot govern their parties but tout their ability to govern Africa’s most populous country.”
