Former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Farouk Aliyu, has vowed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) will take every necessary step to prevent the opposition from gaining ground ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Aliyu stated that there are individuals working to ensure President Bola Tinubu does not secure re-election, but assured that the ruling party and its supporters will resist such efforts.
According to him, the APC is determined to render opposition parties, including those aligned with the African Democratic Congress (ADC), politically ineffective.
“That’s what we did together, all of us. So certain people are, you know, going out after some script to make sure APC does not see the light of day, or Tinubu does not win his election. Sadly, we will not allow that to happen because that’s politics.”
Speaking during an interview on Arise News, the former lawmaker emphasized that while the ruling party respects the role of the opposition in a democracy, it will do all it can to limit their political visibility.
“You see, I was the leader of the minority in the House of Reps. I was in the opposition. And when we were in the opposition, back from 2003 when I won election, that time, we opposed the government of the day, and we opposed constructively.
“We made sure we put them on their toes. So if, in the course of that, anybody… look, there is no democracy without opposition, we have no problem with anybody trying to oppose us, absolutely no.
“In fact, look, we don’t want to be left just to ourselves because the country does not belong to APC. This country belongs to all of us. And those in the opposition are respected Nigerians. We respect them, we respect their opinion, but politically speaking, we shall do everything possible to make sure they don’t wear their heads.
“And I mean it, because, look, that’s politics. If, in the course of this political thing, whatever happens politically speaking, we don’t want insults, abuses and so on, because the elites are one and the same.”
Aliyu highlighted the close relationships among political elites regardless of party affiliations, noting that the real division often exists only among the general population.
“We used to be one family, one party, one people. You remember when all those people in, I mean, out of the APC now, we all ganged up to bring down Goodluck Jonathan. That’s what happened.”
“You know, the Honorable Farouk Adamu Aliyu will never be fighting Honorable Emeka Nwajuba and so on.”
He also admitted that the elite are largely responsible for Nigeria’s political challenges, while the masses suffer the consequences.
“The elites are the people giving the country the major problems, adding that down below, the masses will kill themselves because of us. Absolutely.
“You see at the down level, the masses still have not understood that at the level of elites, there is no Muslim or Christian. At the level of elite, we are not enemies.”
