Endangered democracy: PDP’s catastrophic collapse caused by your desperation, APC knocks Atiku

…As PDP bemoans Ondo 2025 budget, says it’s looting spree

CHIGOZIE AMADI

Former Vice President and Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 Presidential Election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has received a thorough tongue-lashing from the ruling All Progressives Congress APC for the festering leadership crisis in his party, the PDP.

The APC also launched attacks on Atiku for what the party called “the spectacular dysfunction of opposition parties generally.”

In a statement issued on Tuesday and signed by Barrister Felix Morka, National Publicity Secretary, the All Progressives Congress berated Atiku for continuing “like a badly broken record, to point accusing fingers at the All Progressives Congress (APC).”

The party recalled that at the national conference on Strengthening Democracy in Nigeria held in Abuja on Monday, January 27, 2025, Atiku, warned that the nation’s democracy was somewhat imperiled by judicial involvement in electoral matters.

“Also, without a shred of evidence, Atiku alleged that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was paying certain opposition leaders a whooping N50 Million Naira each to discombobulate opposition parties in the country.
“It was in the Atiku era as Vice President, particularly in 2003 and 2007, that the PDP conducted the worst elections in our political history. We cannot possibly forget how Atiku’s PDP heavy-handedly captured most South-West states and vowed to remain in power for 60 years.

“It was in those same years that Atiku’s former boss and then President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, infamously described the election as a “do or die affair” in a desperate attempt to annex Lagos. If democracy was neither derailed nor endangered in those perilous days, is it now that elections are by far freer, fairer and more credible that Nigeria risks losing democracy?
“The judicial branch of government is a constitutional creation like the executive and legislative branches with its constitutionally defined powers to adjudicate disputes among citizens and between citizens and the state.

“Atiku cannot wish away or seek to abolish enshrined power of the courts to intervene in civil disputes, including electoral disputes, in cases where the authority of the court is validly invoked by a litigant.
“It is a thing of irony that Atiku, who is Nigeria’s most prolific electoral litigator, would make such a ludicrous claim that judicial involvement in electoral matters is a threat to democracy. His criticism of the courts and the electoral process rings hollow given his long history of using the courts to further his political agenda. It’s time for him to take a step back and let the democratic process unfold without his interference.
“Nigeria’s democracy is far stronger than Atiku’s political ambitions. We deserve better than petty politicking and alarmist rhetoric from an elder statesman. As a veteran politician, one would expect Atiku to understand that while democracy may be about winning an election, it is, more importantly, about respecting the will of the electorate and working towards the greater good of all.

“Atiku should focus on rebuilding his party and offering constructive solutions to Nigeria’s challenges.
Atiku’s allegation that the APC-led administration was paying out 50 Million Naira to some opposition figures is simply bogus and laughable. Atiku knows that his political desperation is responsible for the PDP’s catastrophic disintegration.

“Peddling rumors and unsubstantiated allegations should be beneath anyone in the standing of an elder statesman, a former Vice President and a serial contestant for the exalted office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The bizarre suggestion by opposition figures like Atiku, Peter Obi, and recently, aggrieved leaders like Mallam Nasir El-Rufai that our great Party may be complicit in the internal corrosion of opposition parties is pitiful, and only an incompetent alibi for their crass failure to manage their own affairs. They cannot govern their parties but tout their ability to govern Africa’s most populous country.

“As discerning citizens, Nigerians know better than to be distracted by the false alarm and hollow allegations of desperate politicians whose only goal is to shore up their political relevance in the build-up to 2027 general elections,” the statement concluded.

…As PDP bemoans Ondo 2025 budget, says it’s looting spree

In another development, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State has criticized the recently signed 2025 Appropriation Act by Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa.

It described it as a “Budget of Looting.”

A sum of N698 billion was allocated for the state’s expenditures in 2025.

However, the opposition PDP said it is riddled with suspicious and exorbitant allocations.

In a statement by the PDP’s State Publicity Secretary, Kennedy Ikantu Peretei, the party expressed disgust over the N11.5 billion tagged “Security Vote” under the Ministry of Finance, a figure they described as inexplicable.

According to him,“There is nowhere in the world where the people’s monies are so stolen with official stamp in this reckless manner,”

The PDP further highlighted allocations of N200 million for House of Assembly members and N280 million for the Speaker as phone expenses, describing them as “outrageous” and unrelated to the development needs of the state.

The party also criticized the allocations for critical sectors such as Education and Health Care, which received N77.024 billion and N46.016 billion, respectively.

The PDP attributed the government’s poor performance since its inception to what it described as a prioritization of looting over development.

Calling for immediate action, the PDP urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the alleged mismanagement of funds in the 2025 budget.

“No state can make progress if those entrusted with the people’s funds are not accountable but use under-hand tactics to steal,” Peretei stated.

Governor Aiyedatiwa had earlier tagged the budget as the “Budget of Recovery,” emphasizing efforts to reposition the state.

However, the PDP maintained that the allocations are betrayal of the people’s trust and a blatant misuse of resources.