Former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar said the low voter turnout in last Saturday’s Area Council elections in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), was a damning verdict on the health of Nigeria’s democracy under the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government.
Atiku, in a statement by his media office on Sunday, noted that such abysmal civic participation in the nation’s capital, which is the symbolic heartbeat of the federation, is not accidental.
“It is the predictable outcome of a political environment poisoned by intolerance, intimidation, and the systematic weakening of opposition voices,” he said.
The former vice president noted that the Bola Tinubu-led APC government has pursued a deliberate policy of shrinking democratic space, harassing dissenters, coercing defectors, and fostering a climate where alternative political viewpoints are treated as threats rather than contributions to national development.
“When citizens lose faith that their votes matter, democracy begins to die,” Atiku said, adding that what Nigerians are witnessing is not mere voter apathy but a direct consequence of an administration that governs with a chokehold on pluralism.
“Democracy in Nigeria is being suffocated slowly, steadily, and dangerously,” Atiku stated.
He warned that the steady erosion of participatory governance, if left unchecked, could inflict irreversible damage on the democratic fabric painstakingly built over decades.
“A democracy without vibrant opposition, without free political competition, and without public confidence is democracy in name only.
“If this chokehold is not released, history will record this era as the period when our hard-won freedoms were traded for fear and conformity,” he warned.
The former Vice President called on opposition parties and democratic forces across the country to urgently close ranks and forge a united front.
“This is no longer about party lines; it is about preserving the republic. The time to stand together to rescue and rebuild Nigeria is now,” he advised.
