In a Democracy Day statement titled “June 12: On The March, Again,” issued on Thursday in Abuja, Atiku said Nigerians should mark this year’s June 12 celebration with deep reflection rather than jubilation.
“As Nigerians prepare to commemorate another Democracy Day on June 12, we do so under the darkening shadow of a systematic assault on the democratic space by the Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led APC administration,” he said.
According to him, “What ought to be a celebration of freedom, popular sovereignty, and constitutional governance has instead become an occasion for sober reflection on the steady dismantling of the very ideals that inspired our struggle against military dictatorship.”
The former vice president alleged that opposition political parties have faced deliberate efforts aimed at weakening them ahead of the 2027 general elections.
“Over the past three years, Nigerians have witnessed a deliberate and coordinated effort to weaken, fragment, and neutralise opposition political parties ahead of the 2027 general elections,” he stated.
He further alleged that the ruling party has employed “manufactured leadership crises, orchestrated defections, political intimidation, and the abuse of state institutions” against opposition groups.
Atiku also accused several government institutions of abandoning neutrality and becoming instruments of partisan politics.
“Institutions that ought to serve the Nigerian people impartially have increasingly been transformed into instruments of partisan warfare,” he said.
“Financial crimes agencies, the police, the National Assembly, and even segments of the judiciary have been deployed to harass, intimidate, and coerce opposition voices into submission or defection.”
He argued that the Electoral Act 2026 and other developments have weakened democratic freedoms.
“The Electoral Act 2026 has further entrenched provisions that disproportionately favour the ruling party, while freedom of speech, freedom of association, and media independence have come under relentless assault.
“These actions strike at the very heart of democracy and stand in direct contradiction to the spirit, sacrifice, and legacy of June 12,” he said.
Reflecting on his role in Nigeria’s democratic struggle, Atiku recounted personal sacrifices made during the military era.
“I speak not as a distant observer but as one who paid a personal price in the struggle to enthrone democratic governance in our country. I resisted every attempt to be co-opted into military rule. Alongside other patriots, I stood firmly against dictatorship and paid dearly for that conviction,” he said.
“My businesses were confiscated. An assassination attempt was launched against me and my family in Kaduna. Several police officers lost their lives in that attack, and I was forced into exile.”
He also recalled stepping aside during the 1993 presidential primaries in favour of the late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola.
“In the historic June 12, 1993 presidential election—the foundation upon which this Democracy Day rests—I stepped aside for the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola to emerge as the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party and the eventual winner of that epochal election,” he said.
Atiku stressed that Nigeria’s democracy was earned through sacrifice and not handed over by military rulers.
“The democracy we enjoy today was not gifted to us by benevolent rulers. It was won through sacrifice, courage, resistance, and blood,” he said.
He paid tribute to several pro-democracy figures, including MKO Abiola, Kudirat Abiola, Pa Alfred Rewane and Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, as well as journalists, students and activists who lost their lives during the struggle.
The former vice president warned that although military rule ended decades ago, Nigeria now faces a different threat.
“Today, twenty-seven years after the military returned to the barracks, Nigeria finds itself confronted by a different but equally dangerous threat: the emergence of an increasingly authoritarian civilian order,” he said.
“Unlike military dictatorship, which ruled by decrees and brute force, this new authoritarianism seeks legitimacy through institutions it has steadily captured and weakened. Its methods may be more sophisticated, but its objective is the same: the concentration of power, the silencing of dissent, and the subversion of the will of the people.”