The Presidency has fired back at opposition politicians accusing President Bola Tinubu of threatening multi-party democracy through mass defections to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and alleged weaponization of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), dismissing them as a “failed opposition engaging in subterfuge and the empty search for scapegoats.”
In a sharply worded statement issued Sunday by Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the administration portrayed the critics as “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.”
Onanuga described their actions as “amusing,” accusing them of “blowing hot air, seeking scapegoats for their failure and moving to confuse the polity in a desperate search for cheap political gains.”
The statement comes amid a surge of high-profile defections to the APC, which the opposition has decried as evidence of democratic erosion. Onanuga rejected these claims outright, emphasizing constitutional freedoms. “They alleged a threat to multi-party democracy because many top politicians are joining the governing All Progressives Congress of their own free will,” he wrote.
“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.”
He drew a historical parallel to blunt the opposition’s arguments: “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?”
Tensions have also escalated over ongoing EFCC investigations into financial misconduct by several politicians, many of whom now claim political persecution. The Presidency defended the anti-graft agency fiercely.
“Investigations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have begun exposing those with some explanation to give regarding their stewardship in office and management of public funds entrusted to them,” Onanuga stated.
“These politicians now accuse President Tinubu of weaponising the EFCC for political purposes.”
While clarifying that “the Presidency does not speak for the EFCC and believes the agency can speak for itself,” Onanuga underscored its independence: “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.”
He challenged the accusers directly: “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.”
Onanuga dismissed “weaponisation” claims as “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,” adding that “no one is above the law” and that political affiliation “should not be a shield against EFCC statutory work, which recently led to Nigeria’s removal from the FATF grey list.”
The statement took direct aim at the critics’ credentials, noting that “we have taken cognisance of the signatories to the statement. It is instructive that some of them were previously investigated and prosecuted by the EFCC even before President Tinubu took office in 2023. Some of these politicians 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?”
Onanuga urged restraint: “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.”