President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is ready for any challenge from opposition leaders during the 2027 general election, the presidency said yesterday.
It faulted comments by the political opponents against the administration, describing them as “distracting” and “Machiavellian,” reports The Nation.
The presidency advised the leading opposition figures and other critics – Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and Mr. Rotimi Amaechi – to wait till the next poll before they flex muscles.
According to the presidency, the activities of the opposition leaders are premature.
“This is 2025, not 2027. Let those who want to test their popularity with Nigerians wait for the next election,” Sunday Dare, Special Adviser on Media and Public Communications, said.
Also peeping into the future, former House of Representatives Speaker and ex-governor of Katsina State, Bello Masari, said there was no alternative to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Former member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, Salihu Lukman, said some of the opposition figures lacked the quality of leadership, urging them to drop their presidential ambitions.
He said: “Based on their records, they exhibit intolerant dispositions and poor relationships on account of which they have mismanaged their transitions and are today hardly in control of political structures in their states.”
At a two-day democracy conference in Abuja, Atiku, 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Obi, and former Katsina State Governor El-Rufai fired salvos at the Federal Government, saying that it was not living to expectation.
Atiku alleged that the ruling party had doled out N50 million as a bribe to each of the opposition parties to disorganise and silence their leadership.
El-Rufai, a chieftain of APC, alleged a lack of internal democracy and active party structures within the ruling party.
“I no longer recognise the APC. No party organ has met in two years—no caucus, no NEC, nothing. You don’t even know if it is a one-man show; it’s a zero-man show,” he said.
Amaechi called for “brutal force” to take from President Tinubu in 2027, adding that if he had been president, he would have run the country differently.
Taking an exception to the comments, Dare, in a post on his verified X handle, urged Nigerians to scrutinise the antecedents of these politicians.
He described the attacks on the Tinubu Administration as predictable attempts to stir controversy while the President was away in Tanzania addressing Nigeria’s energy challenges.
“While the president was seeking solutions to Nigeria’s energy problems in Dar es Salaam, some ‘wannabes’ were heating up the polity,” Dare added.
The Special Adviser described the recent Abuja gathering as an effort to spread ill will, noting that some participants resorted to undemocratic rhetoric.
“Expectedly, it was a gathering convened to further spread ill will.
“Nothing new came out of the gathering different from the opposition script we are used to,” Dare stressed.
He urged Nigerians to scrutinise the antecedents of these “political gladiators” and choose between “political hecklers and real progressives.”
Dare emphasised that President Tinubu remains focused on his mandate to improve the lives of Nigerians and build a resilient economy, despite the distractions.
“The only conversation he wants to have now is how to improve the lives of Nigerian citizens and constructive discourse on building a resilient economy,” he said.
Dare assured Nigerians that President Tinubu, an “avowed democrat,” remains “undistracted and unperturbed” by the opposition’s tactics.
Masari: No credible alternative to APC
Masari said that there was no credible alternative to the APC administration.
He spoke in Kafur, Kafur Local Government Area, during the flag-off of the campaign for the Katsina State local government elections scheduled for February 15.
He said: “The news making rounds in the social media that some politicians are teaming up for merger is nothing but regrouping of those who lost political favours in the APC, in terms of appointments or patronage.
“Their attempt to form an alliance will not divert the attention of APC from conceiving and implementing programmes that could assuage the pains of the common man.”
Masari urged Nigerians to exercise more patience with the APC administration, adding that the harsh economic hardship is a global phenomenon.
He added: “I am in APC today, tomorrow and always because I am not in the party for any political position or appointment.”
The former governor urged APC loyalists to propagate the good works and ideals of the party, pleading with them to take any shortcoming as a human error.
The Senior Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Political Matters, Alhaji Ibrahim Kabir-Masari, urged APC members to close ranks and work assiduously to ensure the success of the party at all times.
He said the president had awarded a contract for the reconstruction and upgrading of the Zaria/Malumfashi/Funtua/Yashe Roads, in a bid to facilitate socio-economic activities.
The presidential aide also said the president had approved the establishment of a Federal College of Agricultural at Nabanje, Masari.
He added: “I can assure you that more developmental projects will be awarded to the people of the area in due course.”
‘Amaechi’s remarks inflammatory’
The Arewa Youths Consultative Forum (AYCF) chided Amaechi for making inflammatory remarks about the Tinubu administration.
It hailed the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Mohammed Matawalle, who warned the former Rivers governor against rhetorics.
AYCF President-General, Yerima Shettima, said Amaechi incited violence to destabilise the country.
Shettima said Matawalle had sent a clear message that such behaviour would not be tolerated and that those who engage in it would face consequences.
He said leaders at all levels should take a firm stand against any form of speech that could lead to violence or civil unrest.
Shettima said Amaechi’s comment constituted a threat to national security, adding that his action undermined the democratic process.
Lukman: Atiku, Obi should drop ambitions
Lukman advised Atiku, Obi, Senator Kwankwaso and El-Rufai to drop their presidential ambitions and provide leadership for the proposed opposition political party.
Lukman, former APC National Vice Chairman (Northcentral), said in a statement: “Based on laypersons legal knowledge, many of these politicians would be adjudged to being accessories, whether before or after, to our current political travesty.
“Some of them, on account of their influential roles in past administrations and the failures of those administrations should be humble enough to take a backseat to build a strong coalition to strengthen Nigerian politics.
“Instead, it is more like a case of unrepentant show of shame.”
Lukman lamented that the mindset of most opposition leaders is more inclined towards blocking political competition in the country.
He stressed: “The truth is that any political leader who is prioritising the debate about power shift over and above building a strong political party, which can set the rules and enforce it, may only be hiding behind such arguments to impose himself/herself and perhaps invariably continue the political practice of emperors and dictators.”
Atiku kicks
Yesterday’s reaction to opposition leaders’ criticisms of the Federal Government by the Presidency is an attack on democracy, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s Media Adviser Paul Ibe, has said.
The one-time vice president, former governors Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) and Nasir El-Rufai have been under attack for condemning the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.
In a statement, Ibe claimed that Dare’s statement showed “the Tinubu administration plans to take the next election in the country as ‘a combat and a fight”.
He said the Tinubu government should unite and heal the nation and desist from making careless remarks about other countries.
The statement reads: “It therefore, becomes pertinent to tell the Tinubu administration that last week’s gathering of political leaders across the country is aimed at fostering the ethos of democracy in Nigeria, making sure that elections in Nigeria are credible, and that democracy is the vehicle for progress and social justice in the country.
“We find it curious that the Tinubu government would react to these noble ideals as ‘Machiavellian inclinations’.
