A former governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, has accused President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of destabilising the opposition.
Tambuwal spoke on Friday when he was featured on Channels Television’s Politics Today, claiming the APC and Tinubu have intentionally plotted the fall of the opposition parties in the country.
“When you look at what is happening in various political parties in Nigeria today — you don’t need to be told, no matter the amount of denial by whoever, including President Bola Tinubu, that they are not involved in destabilization efforts of opposition parties. It is incorrect,” Tambuwal said on the current affairs show.
“I am not accusing them. I am saying they are involved in efforts aimed at destabilisation of opposition parties,” he stated, doubling down on his claims.
When asked about facts to back up his allegation, Tambuwal insisted, “I am saying, I am not suspecting. They are involved in all of this,” the former Speaker of the House of Representatives told the host Seun Okinbaloye.
Tinubu was elected as president in 2023, defeating ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) among others.
While these parties produced governors, members of the National and state assemblies, most of the opposition political leaders have decamped to the APC, raising concerns about the country’s democracy.
Governors under the PDP, LP lawmakers and others have in recent months left their parties for the APC. Some of the parties are also having internal squabbles, a development Tambuwal alleged that the ruling party is responsible for.
As part of efforts to curtail the APC, some aggrieved members of the ruling party, PDP, LP and others floated a coalition under the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Some members of the ADC include Atiku, Obi; ex-Osun governor, Rauf Aregbesola; ex-Senate President David Mark; former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, among others.
However, the APC has dismissed their efforts with President Tinubu describing the opposition as “sinking ship”.
“It’s not a bad idea to abandon the sinking ship and be absent from a coalition of confusion,” Tinubu told a gathering in July during the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the APC in Abuja where a former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Nentawe Yilwatda, was elected as the national chairman of the party.