Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has raised the alarm that Nigeria was at a crossroad and warned that Nigeria would lose its hard-fought democracy if it continues on the current trajectory.
Atiku made the disclosure on Monday in Abuja, while speaking 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).
The former Vice President who was a panelist at the conference, said “We either decide we want to be democratic or we decide to abandon it,” adding that the court now decides candidates or winners, not the people.
He said political parties were facing the challenges of governance.
“Now, governance dictates to the political parties, whereas political parties should have been directing governance on what should be done because that is their role. They interact with ordinary people, go on campaigns, and so on,” he said.
Atiku said the National Assembly should, through various laws and legislations, change the narrative of parties deciding governance instead of the other way round.
He said he had called for the amendment of the Electoral Act, but added that he knew they would not be considered, even though they were made in good faith.
“With the current National Assembly, I don’t see them adopting most of the recommendations I made. As someone said here, we have a National Assembly that is a rubber stamp for the government. But I refuse to agree. It all depends on us,” he added.
Referring to how the Turkish electoral body declined to declare President Recep Erdogan winner after he fell short by 0.5 per cent of the votes, having scoring 49.5 per cent with the country’s constitution demanding a minimum of 50 per cent for anyone to be declared the winner, Atiku wondered whether Nigeria’s electoral umpire possesses such credibility.
Atiku also accused the present government of inducing opposition party leaders, saying “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.”
On the issue of “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.”
He said party funding “is crucial to strengthening political parties,” he said.
