FORMER Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Tinubu of not fighting corruption but going after dissenting voices.
Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, disclosed this in a tweet on his X handle on Friday, January 31.
He made the claim following the arrest of a former executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Usman Yusuf.
Usman was arrested on Wednesday, January 29, when operatives of the EFCC stormed his Abuja home at about 4:30 p.m. and picked him up for alleged N4 billion fraud, among other infractions. He was billed to be arraigned the following day.
His arrest followed an ongoing investigation into an allegation that he inflated the NHIA’s ICT budget from N4.975 billion to N8.7 billion and approved payments beyond his approval limit.
According to media reports, the EFCC is investigating Yusuf for also awarding contracts to a company known as Lubekh Nigeria Limited, where his nephew Khalifa Hassan Yusufu is a director.
Yusuf, a professor of haematology/oncology and bone marrow transplant, is also being held for financial mismanagement and abuse of office. It’s alleged that he used his position for personal gains, approving contracts without following due process and awarding contracts to firms that lacked the competence to execute projects.
Reacting to Yusuf’s arrest on Friday, Abubakar said his arrest was politically motivated and not an attempt at combating corruption.
“Two days ago, the nation was jolted by the arrest of Professor Usman Yusuf, a fierce and unyielding social critic.
“Though the charges against him have been festering since the previous administration, it is impossible to ignore the strong likelihood that his detention is politically motivated,” Abubakar said.
He added that the Tinubu government, despite being riddled with individuals who themselves were embroiled in scandals and investigations by both local and international authorities, continued to use state machinery to silence its critics and weaponised pending investigations to suppress all opposition.
He said it was absurd that while the administration sheltered those under investigation, it continued to exploit state institutions to stifle dissent, all under the pretence of combating corruption.
“Even to the most inattentive, it has become glaringly clear that Tinubu is not waging a war on corruption – he is waging a war on the opposition, manipulating the system for his own political advantage.”
It was the third time within a week that Abubakar would criticise the president.
On Tuesday, Abubakar and former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai raised alarm over what they described as a growing threat to Nigeria’s democracy.
Speaking at a national conference on strengthening democracy in Abuja on Monday, January 27, the leaders warned that if urgent action was not taken, the country could lose its hard-fought democracy.
Abubakar highlighted the erosion of democratic values, arguing that Nigeria was at a crossroads.
He criticised the growing influence of the judiciary in determining electoral outcomes and argued that the courts, not the people, decided candidates and winners.
“We really are at a crossroads in this democratic experiment. We either decide we want to be democratic or we decide to abandon it,” he said.
Abubakar also expressed frustration with the National Assembly, calling for legislative reforms to empower political parties and ensure the people determine who governs them.
He further accused the Federal Government of undermining opposition parties through financial inducements, adding that some political party leaders were given N50 million each.
“I want to say it here publicly. I met with a political party leadership in the present opposition, and they told me flatly that this government gives them N50 million each.
“Where do we go from here? This means that if we are not careful, we are talking to some of you here, but you are recipients of the N50 million from the APC government,” the former PDP presidential candidate said.
Similarly, on Thursday, January 30, the former vice president attacked Tinubu’s government for arresting human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore. He also accused the government of picking the former NHIA executive secretary for probe.
He wrote on his X handle, “When I made the clarion call that Tinubu and the APC were devoting their energies to the systematic harassment, intimidation, and dismantling of the opposition, all in service of their grand design for a one-party autocracy, I became the target of vicious attacks. The arrest and baseless prosecution of @YeleSoworeis the latest chapter in this unrelenting campaign.
“Now, they have seen fit to add Professor Usman Yusuf — an outspoken critic of this administration — into their grim roster. At the pace they are going, it seems they may soon find themselves contending with the incarceration of every one of us.”
A reporter with the ICIR
A Journalist with a niche for quality and a promoter of good governance