Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has launched a blistering attack on the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government, describing it as the worst administration he has witnessed in nearly four decades of political life.
Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday at the public presentation of The Loyalist, a book by Bolaji Abdullahi, national publicity secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku said Nigeria’s recent political decline had surpassed even the damage done by past military regimes.
According to him, the ADC now represents a rare convergence of political forces determined to rescue the country and reset its democratic trajectory.
“We have a unique opportunity within the ADC as a political party. It is a convergence of various political leanings across the country, united in an effort to reunite Nigeria and renew our democratic journey,” Atiku said.
He argued that the current administration had inflicted deep harm on Nigeria’s national life and collective consciousness, insisting that not even the military dictatorships before 1999 had left such lasting scars.
“If there is anything positive in our recent political development, it is this coming together to rescue the country from what I consider the worst administration I have witnessed in nearly four decades of political life,” he added.
Atiku also reflected on the irony that many of those now critical of the APC were instrumental in its formation, having once believed it would deliver national renewal.
“Many of us here were part of the formation of the APC; unfortunately, what we believed would rescue the country has not happened,” he said.
Calling for renewed civic responsibility, the former vice-president urged Nigerians to once again build a credible political alternative capable of delivering good governance.
“Just as we once took responsibility to come together and form a political alternative, we must again come together to ensure the emergence of a new political organisation capable of salvaging this country for the benefit of its people,” Atiku said.
