‘Democracy is being suffocated’ — Atiku decries low voter turnout in FCT council elections

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar says the low voter turnout in Saturday’s area council elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) reflects a political environment “poisoned by intolerance, intimidation, and the systematic weakening of opposition voices”.

In a statement issued on Sunday by his media office in Abuja, the former vice-president accused the President Bola Tinubu-led administration of shrinking the democratic space.

“When citizens lose faith that their votes matter, democracy begins to die,” the statement reads.

“What we are witnessing is not mere voter apathy. It is a direct consequence of an administration that governs with a chokehold on pluralism. Democracy in Nigeria is being suffocated slowly, steadily, and dangerously.”

Abubakar warned that the steady erosion of participatory governance, if left unchecked, could inflict irreversible damage on the democratic fabric painstakingly built over decades.

“A democracy without vibrant opposition, without free political competition, and without public confidence is democracy in name only,” he said.

“If this chokehold is not released, history will record this era as the period when our hard-won freedoms were traded for fear and conformity.”

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) chieftain urged opposition parties to unite and close ranks as part of efforts to “build” Nigeria.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) secured a dominant victory in the council elections, winning five out of six chairmanship positions, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) emerged victorious in the Gwagwalada area council.

But the ADC, the coalition party of opposition leaders, did not win a single chairmanship seat in the election.