Former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has described as scandalous, disgraceful and irresponsible the rendition of President Bola Tinubu’s partisan campaign music at the Nigeria Judges’ Conference last Monday.

Atiku, in a statement on Wednesday, however, said the incident was not an isolated one, and accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government of consistently pursuing a systematic capture of state institutions, crushing opposition voices, and steering Nigeria toward a de facto one-party state.

He regretted that while Tinubu was preaching morality at the conference, his administration allowed the playing of his own partisan campaign music before the entire Nigerian judiciary, describing it as “a shocking desecration of protocol, ethics, and national pride.”

Atiku said he had waited for the presidency or the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJ ) to react, but nothing of such happened, regretting that Nigeria’s National Anthem had been replaced with Tinubu’s partisan campaign music in a hall full of judges.

“It is the most blatant signal yet that this government is attempting to drag the judiciary into the partisan gutters of the APC, if not coerce a wholesale ‘defection’ of Nigerian judges into political alignment,” he said.

The former vice president wondered how Nigerians would build confidence in government when the executive arm openly inserts partisan propaganda into a solemn judicial gathering.

Or how judges could dispense justice fearlessly when “Tinubu’s operatives are busy eroding the boundaries between state, party, and personal ambition?”

He reminded the judges that they swore an oath to defend the Constitution, justice, and the rule of law, not to stand “‘on the mandate’ of Bola Ahmed Tinubu or any other individual.

“This affront must be condemned by all who still believe in constitutional democracy.”