The African Democratic Congress Presidential Campaign Council (ADC-PCC) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of undermining Nigeria’s multiparty democracy by coercing opposition governors to join its presidential campaign council. The ADC-PCC in a statement by Director, Media and Publicity, Kola Ologbondiyan said what Nigerians are witnessing is not politics but political abduction.
“You cannot claim to be a democrat while using state power to force opposition governors into your party and then drafting them into your campaign council. This is political banditry,” the council said. It further accused the APC of pursuing a political agenda that could concentrate power in the hands of one individual, and alleged that key national institutions, security agencies and the judiciary were being deployed to weaken opposition forces.
The ADC-PCC however called on Nigerians to resist what it described as the emergence of an immoral political order driven by the desire to retain power at the expense of citizens’ welfare. The council said the ruling party has shown little concern for the worsening economic hardship, hunger and insecurity confronting ordinary Nigerians. “These particular sets of leaders don’t care about the current conditions of the people but how best to remain in power at a time when average Nigerians find it difficult to eat and be secure,” it said.
The ADC-PCC appealed to Nigerians to stand up against this birth of what it called immoral politics by those who care less about the suffering of the people. The council also accused the APC of suppressing dissenting voices, harassment of opposition figures and weakening of democratic institutions for partisan interests. “Never in our democratic journey have we witnessed this level of intolerance and desperation.
“The APC government has weaponised poverty, hunger and insecurity to subjugate Nigerians and cripple the opposition. This is not the democracy for which Chief M.K.O. Abiola and other martyrs paid the supreme price,” the ADC-PCC stated. It maintained that the presidential ticket of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi possessed the experience and democratic credentials required to restore democratic governance and reunite the country, describing Atiku as a committed democrat with the national reach and political experience to address the country’s challenges and rebuild public confidence in democratic institutions.
“Atiku Abubakar is a democrat to the core. He has the national spread, the capacity and the will to reunite Nigeria and restore our battered democracy, which the APC has destroyed. “The fate of Nigeria’s democracy rests on him to save it from total collapse,” the campaign council stated. The ADC-PCC called on Nigerians, media organisations, civil society groups and the international community to oppose what it characterised as the APC’s anti-democratic agenda and support efforts to protect Nigeria’s multiparty democracy.
