The All Progressives Congress (APC) national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has declared that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, was unfit to be president in view of his warp democratic credentials.
The co-chairman of the APC presidential campaign council, who was reacting to Abubakar’s state of the nation address on the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Walter Onnoghen by President Muhammadu Buhari, said the suspension was fair and proper.
The former governor of Lagos state in a statement he personally signed said Atiku has indicted himself over his stance on the suspension of Onnoghen.
“The PDP’s presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku, recently made comments regarding suspension of CJN Onnoghen. Atiku’s release is entitled “State of the nation address”. I encourage everyone to read it.
“In its disregard for the truth and patent misrepresentations, it will go down in political history as a classic of self-incrimination. Atiku thinks the piece exalts him. Instead it evinces his penchant for wilful misstatement that make him unfit for the office he now seeks and has always coveted.
“In the statement, he claims to have dedicated all his life to the defense of democracy. Those of you who know him, and even those who don’t, know this is not true. If all of his life has been dedicated to support for democracy, then he is far too young to run for president; however, I must congratulate him for having somehow managed to find or begin a second life. This rebirth as a defender of democracy must have taken place only a few short hours ago.
Further, Tinubu dismissed Atiku’s democratic credentials stating: “His previous life of over seventy years was one of skirting democracy and of blatant impunity in attempting to enshrine reactionary government and installing an unjust political economy on the backs of the people.”
Also, he said the PDP candidate may be suffering from loss of memory accusing the former vice president of conniving with ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo to disregard court orders and rig elections.
“When you lorded over Nigeria in tandem with President Obasanjo, there were myriad court orders mandating that your government render to Lagos state the funds due it to improve the lives of its millions of inhabitants.
“Instead, you gladly and without dispute joined Obasanjo in utter disregard for these unambiguous legal verdicts. In so doing, you demeaned the rule of law. You also readily sacrificed the economic development and welfare of millions of innocent people in Lagos just to gain some illicit political advantage that proved to be fleeting and of no avail to you in the end.
“You now speak of democracy and the need for executive restraint. But such verbal finery never crossed your lips or traversed your pen when you and Obasanjo improperly removed Senate Presidents more easily than a trendy cad exchanges a pair of shoes or changes the subject of his false affections.
“Your love for democracy is such that you were recently observed apologising to the PDP for not rigging the Lagos 2003 gubernatorial polls as you did the polls in the other Southwestern states.
“Instead of repenting for rigging at least five states too many, your expressed regret was that you had not rigged enough; that you rigged one state less than the complete mauling of democracy your party and your principal had mandated. Regarding such a destructive love as this, I am sure democracy and fair elections would rather do without.”
Tinubu also Atiku’s latest statements on possibly enriching his friends with the national asset if he emerges president is “intent to mould Nigeria into an oligarchy”, adding that there could only be one conclusion for the kind of democracy the PDP candidate was practicing.
“The democracy you now claim to support remains a rather strange breed of democracy, such as to be nigh indistinguishable from the regressive, rentier political economy you designed and foisted on Nigeria as the crafty lieutenant of the bullish Obasanjo.”
