The All Progressives Congress (APC) has faulted governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over claims that the country was drifting into dictatorship under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
The PDP Governors’ Forum, in a statement signed by its Director-General, Dr. Emmanuel Agbo, on Friday, had said the country was moving towards ‘full-blown dictatorship with its attendant abuse of power, while citizens live in abject penury in the face of plenty’.
But in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, the APC National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru, dismissed the allegation as baseless.
According to Basiru, the country operates a presidential system of government in which executive power is vested in the president, who exercises it in line with the law.
‘They should go and check the dictionary to know the meaning of dictatorship. We have a legislative arm that oversees democratic governance in Nigeria, and it is functioning effectively.
‘We have the Supreme Court, which is the arbiter in case there is an issue. If they feel the presidency has done anything against the law to abridge democratic rights, they have the right to go to court’.
There are other levels of court that anyone can approach in cases of infraction. This is a country ruled by law’, he added.
Basiru further argued that the PDP governors had failed to point out any instance where President Tinubu had acted outside the law.
‘It is clear that the few remaining governors of the PDP don’t know what they are talking about. In what way is the President dictating to them? Is he ruling by decree? Or is he interfering in the way they govern their states in any way? One expects them to face governance at the sub-national level’, he said.
The APC scribe maintained that rather than complain, the governors should commend the President for the ‘huge amount of resources now available to them’.
He described their remarks as nothing more than a lamentation of a failed political party.
