{"id":93663,"date":"2025-04-26T07:01:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T07:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=93663"},"modified":"2025-04-26T07:01:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T07:01:16","slug":"atiku-my-reaction-to-okowas-defection-and-why-i-visited-buhari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=93663","title":{"rendered":"Atiku: My reaction to Okowa&#8217;s defection and why I visited Buhari"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">By <strong>Atiku Abubakar <\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">I have been overwhelmed with inquiries from concerned Nigerians, all eager to understand my position on the latest political shifts, particularly the defection of some PDP members to the ruling party.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Let me be unequivocal: freedom of association and expression are not optional in a democracy \u2014 they are fundamental rights. Alongside these stand the pillars of a just and functional democratic society: the people, the rule of law, credible elections, and accountability. Undermine any of these, and democracy itself begins to crumble.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">As someone who holds fast to these values, I bear no grudges against anyone for exercising their right to political alignment. Defections, alliances, and realignments are part and parcel of democratic politics. We\u2019ve seen them before, and we\u2019ll see them again.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Some have resorted to insults because I visited former President Muhammadu Buhari. Let\u2019s not rewrite history: Buhari is not only a former leader but a significant statesman in the Nigerian political landscape. During the 2013 opposition merger, the leaders of the time consulted widely \u2014 including visits to Obasanjo and Babangida. So why is it now sacrilegious for me and other leaders to visit Buhari in Kaduna? If you truly believe in freedom of association, then you must respect the rights of all political actors to engage, regardless of party lines.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">When PDP leaders are busy sipping tea and brokering power deals with President Tinubu, it\u2019s called strategic alliance. But the moment I greet Peter Obi, el-Rufai, or visit Buhari, it becomes a national emergency. Hypocrisy and the politics of selective outrage have never been this fashionable!<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Let us be clear: the coming political battle is not APC versus PDP, or LP versus APC. It is Nigerians versus an administration that has plunged the nation into untold suffering. The economy is in freefall. Inflation is choking the masses. Jobs are vanishing. Youth restiveness is surging to terrifying levels. Nigerians are not just tired \u2014 they are angry, and rightfully so.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">This moment is about collective survival. The real enemy is not one another \u2014 it is the Tinubu administration\u2019s abysmal failure. We must reject every attempt to distract us with ethnic, regional, or religious sentiments. These are tools of manipulation, designed to divide and conquer, used by those with nothing else to offer.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The Tinubu administration has no achievements to stand on, no credible record to defend. Its only strategy is chaos and division, because that\u2019s the last refuge of the incompetent. And make no mistake \u2014 an incompetent captain does not only wreck his ship; he endangers the lives of everyone on board.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><b>\u25cf Abubakar,\u00a0<\/b><b>Vice President of Nigeria, 1999-2007\u00a0<\/b><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><b>Abuja, sent this via email.<\/b><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Atiku Abubakar I have been overwhelmed with inquiries from concerned Nigerians, all eager to understand my position on the latest political shifts, particularly the defection of some PDP members to the ruling party. Let me be unequivocal: freedom of association and expression are not optional in a democracy \u2014 they are fundamental rights. Alongside [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":91839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5782],"tags":[31,1079,1758],"class_list":["post-93663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-opinion","tag-buhari","tag-democracy","tag-okowa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/91839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}