Former Vice President and the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has alleged that the government of President Bola Tinubu is wooing opposition leaders with money.
Speaking as a panelist at at a national conference on strengthening democracy in Nigeria, organised by the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA), and the National Peace Committee (NPC), Atiku said the government is inducing opposition leaders with N50 million each.
He insisted that such act is inimical to the development of democracy in Nigeria
“I want to say it here publicly. I met with a political party leadership in the present opposition, and they told me flatly that this government gives them N50 million each.
“Where do we go from here? This means that if we are not careful, we are talking to some of you here, but you are recipients of the N50 million from the APC government.
“Do we really want to fight for democracy? If we don’t, we all go back to our homes. But if we do, I have been in this struggle for over 30 years, an attempt was made on my life, and I escaped. I went into exile, but I never gave up. My businesses were taken over, and I am still surviving. So, you need to make up your mind. I am not doing it for myself. For me, I have lived my life. I am doing it because of you.”
Responding to a question on what to do with the “winning at all costs” mentality among ruling parties, Atiku said, “I think the current system has been bastardised. As El-Rufai said, there is a need for the entire opposition political parties to think of a way out of the situation. Otherwise, we may end up with no democracy at all. God forbid. Again, maybe history is about to repeat itself because that was the same threat the other opposition political parties were facing when APC was formed. We have to learn from that historical fact.
“We really are at a crossroads in this democratic experiment. We either decide we want to be democratic or we decide to abandon it,” he said, while alluding to the statement that it is the court that now decides candidates or winners, not the people.”
He also noted the importance of party funding. “This is crucial to strengthening political parties,” he said.
