The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has said that Nigeria under a Bola Tinubu’s Presidency will be reminiscent of Germany under Adolph Hitler’s where Jews were targeted and rights to vote and speak were suppressed.
Atiku’s Special Assistant on Public Communication, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, said these in a statement on Monday.
According to him, the governorship election in Lagos where thugs allegedly asked those who were not planning to vote for the All Progressives Congress to return home was just a tip of what to expect under a Tinubu administration.
He added that it was even more disheartening that the thugs working for the APC were profiling voters and beating up those who were of Igbo extraction and asking them to return home.
Shaibu said Tinubu’s ultimate plan was to turn Nigeria into a one party dictatorship based on the autocratic and totalitarian ideology of Nazism like Adolf Hitler did in Nazi Germany in the 1930s
The statement read, “What the world witnessed in Lagos at the March 18 governorship election was nothing short of Nazism. It was the tactic employed by Adolph Hitler in the 1930s. At that time, they engaged in profiling and used the Jews as their punching bag. Today, Tinubu has launched an assault on the Igbo and all non-Yoruba speakers in Lagos.
“Tinubu has adopted fascism with disdain for liberal democracy. With what happened in Lagos, Tinubu has elevated dictatorship, scientific racism, and Yoruba tribal supremacy and wants to take it to the federal level.
“When they see that they cannot win an election, they resort to profiling and whip up tribal sentiments and violence. They did it against Jimi Agbaje in 2015 as well.
“Tinubu has ruled Lagos for 23 years. Under his watch, the APC wins all local government elections. When it is time for governorship and State Assembly elections, he unleashes his thugs who also target non-Yoruba ethnic groups as you saw in Lagos on Saturday.
“Those that resisted the thugs were beaten. This is how he has maintained a grip on the state and has turned it into a one-party state. It is what Tinubu plans to bring to the centre: a Nazi style of leadership that will make Nigerians view the past military dictatorship of Sani Abacha with nostalgia. May God save us.”
Atiku’s aide also lambasted the spokesmen for Tinubu’s Campaign Council Bayo Onanuga and Femi Fani-Kayode for encouraging the intimidation of Igbo people in Lagos.
He said their statements were a reflection of their principal who two days after the elections, had failed to condemn the violence.
Shaibu stated that the Nigerian constitution permits anyone in every part of the country to vote and be voted for regardless of religion, gender and tribe.
He said what Tinubu had done was to return and reverse some of the democratic gains that Nigeria had made.
Shaibu added, “Bayo Onanuga, a hitherto respected journalist who claimed to have contributed to the fight against dictatorship, is now supporting injustice and attacks on the Igbo for daring to vote in Lagos. This is what happens when you associate yourself with Bola Tinubu. Your mind and soul get corrupted.
“For Fani-Kayode, a man who was Nnamdi Kanu’s handbag, he has suddenly become an ethnic supremacist, encouraging the suppression of the Igbo people in Lagos all in a bid to impress his paymaster We never expected much from this Jekyll and Hyde.
“What the tribal bigots like Bayo Onanuga and Fani-Kayode will not tell you is that Ireti Kingibe, a Yoruba woman, has just been elected into the Senate to represent the FCT.”
Atiku’s aide also lambasted Tinubu’s campaign for calling on the National Broadcasting Commission to fine TV and radio stations that continue to invite Peter Obi of the Labour Party for interviews challenging Tinubu’s legitimacy.
Shaibu commended rights group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), for asking a Federal High Court to bar the NBC from suspending the licence of broadcast stations.
He added, “Tinubu’s campaign team has already given us a glimpse of what his administration will look like. It will be about the suppression of voters’ rights, unimaginable corruption, repression of freedom of speech, and a total compromise of government agencies.
“For a man who rose to power over the claim that he led the struggle for the actualization of the June 12 mandate, this is another Nigerian tragedy.”
