Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that President Bola Tinubu has stuck with the ‘snatch and grab’ agenda with no plans to strengthen Nigeria’s democracy.
Atiku in a statement issued Sunday by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe decried the lame attempt to impugn the credibility of political leaders who seek a better direction for Nigeria.
Atiku, while reacting to the Special Adviser to the President on Public Communication, Mr. Sunday Dare what is to be expected in how the Tinubu administration plans to take the next election in the country as “a combat and a fight” or better still the deepening of their notorious “snatch and grab” agenda.
He said: “It therefore becomes pertinent to tell the Tinubu administration that last week’s gathering of political leaders across the country is aimed at fostering the ethos of democracy in Nigeria; making sure that elections in Nigeria are credible and that democracy is the vehicle for progress and social justice in the country.”
Atiku noted that he found it curious that the Tinubu government would react to these noble ideals as “Machiavellian inclinations.”
He added: “If the Tinubu administration could describe opposition in a democracy in the language of the era of Dark Ages, we find such behaviour as unbecoming and a stark attack on the collective impression of our hard-won democracy and the fundamental human rights that it guarantees.
“We condemn the careless remarks by the Spokesperson of President Tinubu on an issue that potentially affects Nigeria’s relations with the U.S. and other countries, including partner institutions in international trade.
“That aside, it is a contradiction in terms that the Tinubu administration, which came into power on the philosophy of self-right to rule, will mock Nigerians on matters of patriotism.”
Atiku, therefore, urged the Tinubu administration to practice what it preaches by embracing the Nigeria First ideals in replacement to the self-entitled and other primordial sentiments it panders to.
He stressed that Nigeria has gone through all kinds of class, ethnic and religious divisions since the advent of the Tinubu administration.