By Luminous Jannamike
ABUJA — Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Thursday accused President Bola Tinubu of using the controversy surrounding the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, presidential election as a rehearsal for rigging the 2027 general elections, alleging that the Federal Government was already deploying the same tactics it intended to use against opposition parties.
The African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate said the dispute over the NBA poll was not merely about who emerges as the next leader of the lawyers’ association.
Rather, he argued, it offered an insight into what he believes is the Tinubu administration’s broader approach to politics and elections ahead of 2027.
The allegation was contained in a statement issued by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, in Abuja, where Atiku accused the administration of attempting to influence the NBA election while warning that the independence of the electoral process within the association must not be compromised.
“This desperation shows how the Tinubu-led APC government plans to use government agencies to rig the 2027 general elections.
“We are concerned that President Bola Tinubu has brought his state-sponsored toxic politics of coronation to bear on the election of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA),” Atiku said.
He claimed that the same approach was being deployed to weaken opposition parties by fuelling internal crises, undermining democratic institutions and paving the way for electoral manipulation in the next general elections.
The former vice president also cited media reports alleging that government officials and their agents had turned to the courts in an attempt to pressure members of the legal profession into accepting a preferred candidate in the NBA election.
“There have been media reports of how this government and its agents have resorted to the use of the courts to railroad members of the Bar into settling for its preferred candidate. This, to say the least, is a dangerous precedent that is capable of widening our fault lines,” the former Vice President added.
Maintaining that the NBA should be allowed to manage its own affairs, Atiku said responsibility for conducting the election rests solely with the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association, ECNBA, constituted by the association’s National Executive Council in line with the NBA Constitution, 2015 (as amended).
“By seeking to enthrone its preferred candidate by arm twisting the NBA to disqualify two of the prospective candidates, the Tinubu presidency was simply adopting its play book to have the candidates of the opposition parties disqualified through the instrumentality of the courts and the electoral umpire,” the statement said.
He called on government officials to allow the NBA conduct what he described as a free and democratic election capable of ensuring a smooth transition of leadership.
Atiku further alleged that after unsuccessful attempts to postpone the election, government officials had escalated their actions by deploying security agencies against service providers involved in the process.
“It is disgraceful and a negation of democracy that in spite of the failed efforts to shift the polls, even with the open support of the Attorney General of the Federation, officials of government are now deploying security agents to arrest service providers and frustrate the election,” he said.
