Opposition leaders yesterday raised fresh alarm over what they described as a coordinated assault on Nigeria’s multiparty democracy, accusing the President Bola Tinubu administration of using anti-graft and security institutions to intimidate political rivals and forcing opposition governors into the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
In a joint statement signed by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Senate President David Mark, former presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) Peter Obi and other senior figures, the opposition alleged that agencies such as the EFCC were being weaponised to weaken opposition parties ahead of the 2027 general election.
Aside from being the longest serving Senate President in Nigeria, Mark, a retired military general and former military governor of Niger State is the current Chairman of the African Democratic Party (ADC), the party eyeing the takeover of government in 2027.
The opposition warned that Nigeria was drifting towards a de facto one-party state through coercion rather than electoral competition.
Beyond immediate incidents, the opposition leaders demanded sweeping reforms, including the depoliticisation of the EFCC, the embedding of anti-graft operatives in government payment processes at all levels, and the creation of an independent review body to examine public accounts from 2015 to 2025, warning that continued selective enforcement of the law posed a grave threat to Nigeria’s democratic stability.
Besides, Atiku, Mark and Obi, other signatories to the statement by the opposition included: A former Governor of Edo State and ex-national Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun; a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Bode George; and former Federal Minister, Lawal Batagarawa.
“We are compelled by duty to nation and conscience to issue this statement to alert our compatriots and the international community to the unfortunate and gradual slide of our country into a state where key national institutions – particularly the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); the Nigeria Police; the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) are increasingly perceived as tools of political intimidation, selective justice and systematic persecution of opposition leaders.
“Across our nation, there are mounting concerns that state power is being deployed not for prevention of economic crimes, but for persecution of perceived political adversaries, with the ultimate aim of weakening opposition voices and dismantling Nigeria’s multiparty democracy,” the opposition leaders stated.
More than ever before in Nigeria’s democratic experience, the opposition coalition stated that Nigerians have witnessed what many now describe as a covert, undemocratic agenda to ensure that all state governments fall under the control of the president’s party.
The plan, it said, was not being carried through transparent electoral contests, but by secretly intimidating opposition governors via the anti-corruption apparatus until they succumb and defect.
According to the opposition, recent defections of opposition governors into the ruling party have reinforced public suspicion that political pressure, not ideological or personal persuasion, is driving this realignment. This pattern, according to the key opposition parties, forms part of a broader project that targets not only elected leaders but also key opposition figures perceived as architects of emerging coalitions ahead of the 2027 general election.
“We must warn that this project, if allowed to continue unchecked, poses a grave danger to Nigeria’s democratic future,” the group maintained.
Warning against the weaponisation of the EFCC, the opposition stated that there is a discernible pattern of persecution of the opposition by the anti-graft agency with the sole objective of weakening the same for the benefit of the ruling APC.
The coalition said: “This disturbing pattern mirrors a long-standing sentiment openly expressed years ago by a former National Chairman of the ruling APC, Adams Oshiomhole, who declared when receiving defectors from the PDP: ‘Once you have joined APC, all your sins are forgiven.’
“Whether intended as political rhetoric or not, this statement has come to symbolise a troubling reality: allegations against members of the ruling party are routinely perceived to be overlooked, while even unsubstantiated accusations against opposition figures are vigorously pursued and subjected to media trial.
“A few recent examples reinforce this perception. Months ago, a minister was implicated in a financial scandal so blatant that only sustained public outrage forced her resignation. Yet, long after stepping down, she has neither been charged nor arraigned by the EFCC and is now actively involved in the President’s re-election campaign.
“Similarly, another minister remained in office despite the university he claimed to have attended publicly denying his academic certificate. He, too, resigned only after intense public pressure. Months later, no charges have been filed.
“Such selective enforcement undermines the legitimacy of anticorruption efforts and erodes public trust. Furthermore, Nigerians are not blind to the sudden empowerment of certain political actors, including individuals appointed to federal executive positions after crossing from the opposition but still claim to be members of opposition party – whose unstated mandate, in the public’s eyes, appears to include the systematic destabilisation of opposition parties through the creation of factions, inducement and the exploitation of judicial processes, allegedly funded by state resources.”
Describing the EFCC as a critical national institution, created to safeguard Nigeria’s economic integrity, the opposition stated that yet today, many Nigerians fear that its independence is steadily being eroded.
An agency designed for prevention and accountability, it maintained, risks becoming an instrument of political persecution, undermining both justice and democracy, insisting that the President must recognise that evident social and political injustice could snowball into mayhem as the nation approaches another election cycle.
The group maintained that this trend must be halted immediately if the nation must be spared a major catastrophe, calling for the depolitisation of the EFCC, defence of a multi-party system, among others.
“The operations of the EFCC must be urgently shielded from political interference and must not serve the whims and caprices of any President, party or political faction. The Commission must refocus on genuine detection and prevention of economic crimes across board, not selective prosecution, media trials or intimidation of opposition figures. For the avoidance of doubt, the functions and powers of the commission are expressly provided for under Sections 6 & 7 respectively.
“Nigerians must remain eternally vigilant to ensure that the President does not transform the country into a de facto one-party state – as witnessed in Lagos over the last 25 years, where opposition leaders were silenced, coerced or induced into irrelevance.
“Relying on the Supreme Court ruling on the powers of the EFCC over all public accounts, for true prevention of financial crimes, anti-graft operatives should be embedded in all the payment processes of governments at all levels to ensure compliance with rules of transparency, accountability and probity in public financial transactions.
“Put differently, the EFCC must recognise and exercise their function as covering both pre and post expenditure. operatives must also be held accountable for any unreported but later detected economic and financial infractions in their respective areas of oversight. To further strengthen the EFCC, we propose that the EFCC Act should be amended for this purpose,” the opposition coalition stated.
Besides, the parties called on the Attorney General, in consultation with the National Assembly, to set up an independent review body which should be granted full access to the public accounts of the federal, all states and all local governments covering 2015 to 2025, with a mandate to conduct a transparent, comprehensive review of financial transactions and publish its findings.
Such a review, it said, will expose the EFCC’s pattern of selective prosecution of opposition figures and reveal that many current officials of the federal government and those of ruling-party-controlled states should have long been prosecuted for economic and financial crimes, but were shielded due to their political affiliation.
Based on its findings, the independent body, it averred, should also propose amendments to EFCC’s enabling law to strengthen the agency for more effective and efficient prevention of financial crimes.
This proposed body, according to the opposition, should be chaired by an eminent judge, and composed of the following: Representatives from civil society organisations; representatives of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA); representatives of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and representatives of Institute of Chartered Bankers.
Besides, it proposed that the membership should include: The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU); representatives of anti-graft agencies; representatives of the Police; representatives of the Department of State Services (DSS); representatives of the Armed Forces as well as representatives of all political parties with a seat at the National Assembly.
“We call on all patriotic Nigerians across party lines, professions, regions and faiths to stand firm. Our democracy is under threat through the deliberate and systematic weakening of opposition forces, with the EFCC as the central instrument in this troubling strategy.
“In the coming weeks, we will provide more details, and also engage foreign partners of Nigeria’s anti-graft agencies and diplomatic missions, including United States, UK, Canada, EU, World Bank Office, United Nations, to express our deep concern about the EFCC increasingly becoming a willing tool in a broader scheme to weaken opposition in Nigeria, and also demand a reform of the anti graft agency.
“Nigeria’s democracy demands our vigilance, courage and unity, as Edmund Burke, an Anglo-Irish statesman and philosopher, warned: ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’.
“We are equally guided by the enduring words of Martin Luther King Jnr: ‘Silence in the face of evil is itself evil ……In the end we shall remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Now is the time for all of us to rise in defence of our cherished multiparty democracy, and indeed, in defence of the very soul of our nation,” the coalition stated.
Presidency reacts
But in a response, the presidency described Nigeria’s ‘so-called opposition politicians, ‘comprising some of those left in a dying political party and a sprinkling of some failed political office aspirants’ regrouping in a platform struggling to find its bearings, as amusing lots.
It stated that they blow hot air, seek scapegoats for their failure and move to confuse the polity in a desperate search for cheap political gains.
“On Sunday, a group of opposition figures gathered to sing their familiar tune, hoping their cheerleaders would see their action as a blistering attack from a seemingly virile opposition group.
“They alleged a threat to multi-party democracy because many top politicians are joining the governing All Progressives Congress of their own free will. Our constitution guarantees freedom of association and affords our people the right to change their political leanings at any time of their choosing.
“None of the people who joined the governing APC was pressured to do so. They all did so of their own free will. They are being motivated by the noticeable gains of President Bola Tinubu’s reform programme.
“We may ask: when politicians were moving in droves to the now-dying Peoples Democratic Party between 2000 and 2015, was Nigeria’s democracy imperilled?”, the statement said.
Also, it stated that investigations by the EFCC have begun exposing those with some explanation to give regarding their stewardship in office and management of public funds entrusted to them, stressing that these politicians now accuse Tinubu of weaponising the EFCC for political purposes.
While the Presidency does not speak for the EFCC and believes the agency can speak for itself, Onanuga stated that it must be reiterated that the EFCC is an independent institution established by law and empowered to carry out its statutory responsibilities without interference or favour.
“The agency’s mandate is to investigate and prosecute financial crimes, irrespective of the personalities involved, their political affiliations, or their positions in society. We find it curious that the same people who claimed they want to rescue Nigeria are now the ones waging a war of attrition against accountability and probity. Those who have cases to answer before EFCC should be bold and brave enough to defend themselves if they are clean.
“President Tinubu does not issue directives to any anti-corruption agency on whom to investigate, arrest, or prosecute. President Tinubu has significant state issues to address rather than engage in political targeting.
“The prosecution is conducted by the court, not by any sleight of hand, and those found not guilty will receive a clean bill of health. Allegations of ‘weaponisation’ are distractions from these politicians, who are running short of campaign issues to challenge President Tinubu and the APC’s success in less than three years in office.
“No one is above the law. Everyone must be accountable for their actions, both in and out of the office. Political affiliation should not be a shield against EFCC statutory work, which recently led to Nigeria’s removal from the FATF grey list,” the presidency added.
In the same vein, it stated that it had taken cognisance of the signatories to the statement, explaining that it was instructive that some of them were previously investigated and prosecuted by the EFCC even before Tinubu took office in 2023.
Some of these politicians, it pointed out, have also been indicted in international financial probes for money laundering, with some of their accomplices jailed in foreign lands.
“Are they now signing statements because their chickens are coming home to roost? We advise those politicians not to undermine the integrity of our nation’s institutions and the collective resolve to fight corruption by weaponising politics to escape accountability and encourage impunity.
“The fight against corruption is a collective responsibility and should not be trivialised by baseless allegations, jaundiced or politicised narratives,” the statement by the presidency stated. ThisDay
