The National Chairman of the Action Democratic Party (ADP), Yabagi Sani, has accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of orchestrating the internal crises plaguing opposition political parties across the country.
Speaking during a press conference held in Abuja on Thursday, Sani alleged that Tinubu is deliberately shrinking Nigeria’s political space in favour of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), warning that such a move is a threat to the nation’s democracy.
Sani’s remarks come just days after President Tinubu, during an address to a joint session of the National Assembly on June 11, denied any involvement in the internal wranglings within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), and other opposition platforms.
However, the ADP chairman dismissed the President’s denial, accusing him of overseeing a calculated erosion of political pluralism in Nigeria.
“Bola Tinubu is dismembering the political space, and he is saying he’s not killing the political space. That is what I think is happening,” Sani declared.
He added that the actions of the Tinubu-led administration do not align with the President’s public statements.
“The rhetoric does not match what their actions are. So this is why I believe he has to wake up to the fact that Nigeria of today is different from what it used to be,” Sani said.
He cautioned that Nigerians have sacrificed too much to attain democracy and must not allow the gains of the past to be lost under the current administration.
“We do not want to lose this democracy. We’ve invested so much into it and that’s why we are saying what we are saying,” he stated.
Sani questioned Tinubu’s sincerity as a democrat and suggested the President is surrounded by loyalists who shield him from dissenting voices.
Sanni Yabagi
“Because he is a democrat, he knows what we are talking about. But perhaps because he has an echo chamber around him, in the sense that the only people he has good talks with are his cronies, he does not hear something different from another person,” he said.
He went further to criticise the President’s public wish that the opposition remain in disarray, describing it as unbecoming of a national leader.
“It is a lie because as a president, I was even disappointed when he said that he’s praying that the opposition will be in disarray. I mean, when you’re a president of the country, at that point in time, you are not representing your party. You represent the interests of everybody, including the opposition,” Sani added.
He called on Nigerians to resist what he described as “state capture,” particularly in Rivers State, warning that the growing impunity in the political space could derail the country’s democracy.
“Never again to the recycling of impunity. Never again to the return of dictatorship by other means,” Sani warned.
“Let the lesson of June 12 be clear: when responsibility fails, accountability must rise. If we forget that, we dishonour the heroes who gave everything for the democracy we now take for granted. Let every citizen rise — for freedom, for justice, for Nigeria. Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he concluded.