Atiku Abubakar warns Tinubu over ‘creeping dictatorship’, says Nigeria sliding into police state ahead of 2027

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration of turning Nigeria into a “police state,” warning that the growing repression of free speech could plunge the country into full-blown authoritarianism before the 2027 general elections.

In a strongly worded statement titled “A Nation Gripped in the Throes of Fear,” Atiku said the current government has “weaponised state institutions” to silence critics, journalists, and opposition voices through arrests, intimidation, and abuse of legal processes.

“The administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu continues to muzzle free speech and, in so doing, erode the integrity of the democratic ethos that defines our nation,” the former presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said. “If this creeping culture of repression continues unchecked, it will ultimately turn the Federal Government into a bully and make subjects of free citizens.”

Atiku accused the Tinubu government of using the Cyberstalking Act as “a modern tool of tyranny reminiscent of colonial sedition laws,” adding that “no government, no matter how powerful, is greater than the people.”

He also criticised the “deafening silence” of Nigeria’s democratic institutions, alleging that “parliament and oversight agencies now appear more eager to praise than to question power.”

“From journalists jailed for speaking truth to power to citizens arrested during the #EndBadGovernance protests, Nigerians continue to suffer persecution simply for daring to think, to speak, or to protest,” he said. “If truth be told, this regime may have surpassed all its predecessors in the reckless use of state power to crush public opinion.”

Atiku referenced reports from Amnesty International and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), which have consistently faulted the Tinubu administration’s human rights record, describing their findings as proof of “jackboot oppression of journalists and citizens.”

The former Vice President warned that the 2027 general election would be a defining moment, describing it as “a contest not merely between political parties, but between the Tinubu hegemony and the will of the Nigerian people.”

“And history bears eternal witness to one truth,” he added, “no despot, no matter how powerful, has ever triumphed over the collective voice of a determined people.”

Atiku’s statement comes days after the arrest of activist Omoyele Sowore and lawyer Aloy Ejimakor over the #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest in Abuja. Though an Abuja court has granted them bail, they remain in detention.