The Obidient Movement, loyal to Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate Peter Obi, has strongly condemned President Bola Tinubu’s recent remarks celebrating the opposition’s internal conflicts. The group described Tinubu’s statement that the opposition is “in disarray” as undemocratic and a threat to Nigeria’s political future, suggesting it reveals a deeper agenda to destabilize democracy.
During the Democracy Day joint National Assembly address in Abuja, Tinubu openly expressed pleasure at the opposition’s disunity, stating, “For me, I would say try your best to put your house in order. I will not help you do so. It is, indeed, a pleasure to witness you in such disarray.”
Dr. Yunusa Tanko, National Coordinator of the Obidient Movement, told journalists he was shocked by what he called a public endorsement of political sabotage from the nation’s highest office. He said, “This is not only shameful but deeply troubling. It confirms what Peter Obi has consistently warned about, that the current administration is not just indifferent to the rule of law and democratic ideals, but is actively working against them.”
Tanko warned that Tinubu’s remarks represent a veiled threat to Nigeria’s fragile democracy and urged the international community to monitor this dangerous political shift closely. He criticized the president’s symbolic Democracy Day gestures, such as the posthumous pardon of the Ogoni Nine and national honours for June 12 heroes, calling them politically motivated distractions from pressing issues like food insecurity, unemployment, and economic hardship.
“Leadership must focus on substance, not spectacle,” Tanko said, lamenting that Nigerians’ suffering cannot be masked by empty political theatrics. He emphasized that democracy is dying under the current administration and warned that its collapse in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous black nation, would have continent-wide repercussions.
