Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has alleged that the administration of President Bola Tinubu was inducing opposition parties with N50 million in a bid to weaken them ahead of the 2027 election.
Mr Abubakar, who was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 election, made the allegation while speaking as a panellist at a national conference on strengthening democracy in Nigeria in Abuja on Monday.
The conference was organised by the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development [Centre LS] 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 VP warned that the country was on the verge of losing its hard-earned democracy if it continues on the current trajectory.
“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.”
While responding to a question on “winning at all costs” mentality among ruling parties, Mr Abubakar 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.”
Mr Abubakar also stressed the importance of party funding, saying: “This is crucial to strengthening political parties”.
While lamenting the current state of democracy in the country, Mr Abubakar noted that, “We really are at a crossroads in this democratic experiment. We either decide we want to be democratic or we decide to abandon it.”
He said some of the challenges political parties were facing had moved to 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.
