The All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed claims that Nigeria’s democracy is facing an existential threat, describing recent comments by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as alarmist, ironic, and politically self-serving.
Reacting to Atiku’s remarks, the ruling party insisted that democratic institutions in Nigeria remain stable and fully functional under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
In a statement issued on Thursday in Lagos, the APC spokesman in the state, Mr. Seye Oladejo, accused Atiku and leaders of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) of manufacturing fear in a bid to remain politically relevant.
Atiku, through a statement released Tuesday by his spokesman, Mr. Paul Ibe, had accused the Tinubu administration of deliberately weakening opposition parties and shrinking Nigeria’s democratic space, warning that the trend could lead to a de facto one-party state.
He also claimed that Nigerians had suffered nearly three years of severe economic hardship under the current government, alongside political actions he said undermined democratic values.
Responding, Oladejo said such claims were unfounded and reflective of an opposition “afraid of its own shadow.”
“Nigeria’s democracy is not under threat; what is under threat is the opposition’s fading relevance,” he said.
According to him, democratic institutions have continued to operate as intended since President Tinubu assumed office on May 29, 2023.
“Elections have been conducted, courts have adjudicated disputes, the legislature has exercised oversight, and citizens continue to enjoy constitutionally guaranteed freedoms,” Oladejo stated. “The opposition has spoken freely, protested freely, and litigated freely—hardly the hallmarks of a nation under democratic siege.”
He urged opposition figures to stop predicting the collapse of a democracy that, he said, has continued to mature despite “constant doomsday prophecies.”
Oladejo further argued that internal contradictions within the ADC were more likely to threaten its survival than any actions by the ruling party.
“Beneath the loud rhetoric, borrowed moral outrage, and manufactured alarmism lies a fragile coalition united only by personal ambition for the Presidency,” he said. “Each protagonist nurses a sense of entitlement and threatens fire and brimstone should that ambition be denied.”
He added that no political organisation built on unchecked ambition without ideology could endure.
“It is disingenuous to blame the ruling party for the visible desperation of ADC leaders who already see the coming elections as their final bow on the national stage,” he said.
The APC spokesman reminded critics that winning and losing are inseparable parts of the democratic process, stressing that democracy does not collapse simply because individual ambitions are frustrated.
“This coalition appears to have its expiry date already engraved upon it,” Oladejo said. “What we are witnessing is not the defence of democracy, but the last convulsion of a political arrangement held together by fear, impatience, and the fading relevance of its leading lights.”
He reaffirmed that Nigeria’s democracy remains resilient and firmly anchored under President Tinubu’s leadership, noting that ongoing reforms—though challenging—are grounded in constitutional order, the rule of law, and democratic accountability.
“These principles cannot be wished away by those who have lost the confidence of the Nigerian people,” Oladejo added.
He concluded by urging Atiku Abubakar and his political allies to confront reality.
“Nigeria is not afraid. Democracy is not collapsing,” he said. “It is only the opposition that is frightened by its own shadow—and by the unmistakable reality that Nigerians have moved on.”
