The Allied People’s Movement (APM) has thrown its weight behind a damning report by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), declaring Nigeria a “full authoritarian state” and calling on citizens to vote the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) out of power in 2027.
The party said the warning had gone far beyond the usual back-and-forth of political disagreement, alleging that democratic institutions, security agencies, anti-corruption bodies and the courts were all being weaponised against opposition parties and dissenting voices, eroding whatever confidence Nigerians still had in the country’s democratic system.
In a statement on Sunday, APM National Publicity Secretary, Abubakar Yusuf, said the HRF’s Tyranny Tracker report only confirmed what the party had been saying all along.
“The report confirms APM’s position that under President Tinubu, Nigeria’s constitutional democracy and democratic institutions have been captured by executive authoritarianism,” he said.
Not content with just raising the alarm at home, APM went a step further, calling on the United Nations, European Union, African Union, Commonwealth, United States, United Kingdom, France and other international partners to step in diplomatically – through visa bans, asset freezes and other targeted measures against Nigerian officials it accused of undermining democracy.
The party painted a grim picture of state repression, alleging that security agencies had been used to crush protests and silence criticism, with citizens allegedly killed, beaten, arrested, detained or slapped with treason charges.
It claimed that more than 628,000 Nigerians had been killed and 2.2 million abducted during the period under review, even as terrorists continue to overrun communities.
Journalists haven’t been spared either, according to the party, which alleged that about 100 reporters had been brutalised or detained for covering pro-democracy protests or filing critical reports.
“Today in Nigeria, freedom of expression and the media have been suppressed with about 100 journalists brutalized and detained by authorities for covering pro-democracy protests or critical reporting,” the statement read.
APM also accused the government of squeezing opposition parties out of political space, alleging that security agencies had been deployed to intimidate, harass, detain and prosecute opposition leaders while blocking their access to venues for rallies and mobilisation.
In some APC-controlled states, the party claimed, opposition figures were also being locked out of media platforms and stopped from putting up campaign billboards.
Its concerns didn’t stop at party politics – APM took direct aim at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), questioning its credibility ahead of the 2027 polls.
The party accused INEC, under chairman Prof. Josiah Amupitan, of meddling in the internal affairs of opposition parties and ignoring court orders that favoured them.
“Currently, majority of Nigerians have lost hope in the integrity of INEC as presently constituted, to conduct credible general elections that will reflect the Will of the people in 2027,” the party said.
Even the National Assembly didn’t escape criticism, with APM branding the APC-dominated legislature a “rubber stamp” that has failed to check the excesses of the executive.
On the economic front, the party said Nigerians and businesses were being squeezed by a barrage of taxes, levies and revenue-collection tactics it likened to outright harassment, warning that the mix of insecurity, economic hardship and a shrinking democratic space could snowball into a far bigger crisis – one with implications not just for Nigeria, but for its neighbours too.
“The APM is worried that the current situation in Nigeria, if not addressed, might lead to a crisis of monumental proposition capable of derailing our nation’s democracy and triggering a large-scale humanitarian disaster,” Yusuf warned.
The party called on Nigerians, civil society groups, opposition parties, the media and other organised bodies to close ranks against what it termed creeping authoritarianism – but was quick to insist that any pushback must stay strictly within the law.
Its message to voters was blunt: treat 2027 as a turning point. “Nigerians must use the 2027 general elections as a decisive opportunity to vote in a truly democratic and people-oriented government on the platform of the APM,” the party said.
(The Whistler)