The Presidency has sharply rebuked former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for likening the current administration to a military dictatorship, calling the comparison “misleading, exaggerated, and injurious” to Nigeria’s democracy.
In a statement issued Wednesday by Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, the government criticized comments attributed to Atiku at a public event in Abuja on Tuesday. The former Vice President was reported to have described the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government as “worse than military rule” and the poorest form of governance in his decades of political involvement.
Dare, responding via his verified social media account, stated that equating a constitutional democracy with military authoritarianism “trivialises the painful experiences” of past regimes marked by curtailed civil liberties and repression.
“It is troubling for a former Vice President, who served under a democratic government, to conflate the two,” Dare stated. He emphasized that the freedom of opposition figures to openly criticize the government, assemble, and participate in politics underscores the fundamental distinction between democracy and dictatorship.
The Presidency accused Atiku of deploying “exaggerated rhetoric” to undermine confidence in democratic institutions following electoral losses, arguing that policy differences should not be framed as evidence of authoritarian rule.
Defending President Bola Tinubu’s administration, Dare asserted that ongoing reforms, though difficult, are the product of a democratically elected government accountable to the people. He described Atiku’s remarks as a “distortion of history” and an attempt to delegitimize democratic outcomes.
