A combined photo of President Bola Tinubu and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar
By Victory Oghene
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has criticised President Bola Tinubu over systemic assault on democracy.
Atiku stated that Nigerians are commemorating another Democracy Day on June 12 under the darkening shadow of a systematic assault on the democratic space by the Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.
In a statement issued by the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) on Thursday, he stated that 27 years after the military returned to the barracks, Nigeria finds itself confronted by a different but equally dangerous threat: the emergence of an increasingly authoritarian civilian order.
The statement reads, “What ought to be a celebration of freedom, popular sovereignty, and constitutional governance has instead become an occasion for sober reflection on the steady dismantling of the very ideals that inspired our struggle against military dictatorship.
“Over the past three years, Nigerians have witnessed a deliberate and coordinated effort to weaken, fragment, and neutralise opposition political parties ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Through manufactured leadership crises, orchestrated defections, political intimidation, and the abuse of state institutions, every credible opposition platform has come under sustained attack.
“Institutions that ought to serve the Nigerian people impartially have increasingly been transformed into instruments of partisan warfare.
Financial crimes agencies, the police, the National Assembly, and even segments of the judiciary have been deployed to harass, intimidate, and coerce opposition voices into submission or defection.
The Electoral Act 2026 has further entrenched provisions that disproportionately favour the ruling party, while freedom of speech, freedom of association, and media independence have come under relentless assault. “These actions strike at the very heart of democracy and stand in direct contradiction to the spirit, sacrifice, and legacy of June 12.”
Atiku added that he is not speaking as a distant observer but as one who paid a personal price in the struggle to enthrone democratic governance in our country. “I resisted every attempt to be co-opted into military rule.
Alongside other patriots, I stood firmly against dictatorship and paid dearly for that conviction. My businesses were confiscated. An assassination attempt was launched against me and my family in Kaduna. Several police officers lost their lives in that attack, and I was forced into exile.
“In the historic June 12, 1993 presidential election—the foundation upon which this Democracy Day rests—I stepped aside for the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola to emerge as the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party and the eventual winner of that epochal election.
“The democracy we enjoy today wasn’t gifted to us by benevolent rulers. It was won through sacrifice, courage, resistance, and blood. Politicians, pro-democracy activists, patriotic military officers, labour leaders, civil society organisations, students, journalists, and ordinary Nigerians united to confront military tyranny.
Many paid the ultimate price. Chief MKO Abiola and Kudirat Abiola laid down their lives. So did Pa Alfred Rewane, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, scores of journalists, students, activists, and countless unnamed heroes whose sacrifices paved the way for the democratic order we now risk taking for granted.”
