The Tanimu Turaki-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has hailed the Human Rights Foundation for its latest global assessment describing Nigeria as a “fully authoritarian regime” under President Bola Tinubu.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Comrade Ini Ememobong, stated this in a statement on Saturday, saying the assessment was a global confirmation of what Nigerians had allegedly been experiencing under the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government.
According to him, the report, published on the foundation’s Tyranny Tracker platform, reflected the erosion of democratic safeguards and institutional checks and balances in the country.
He said Nigeria performed abysmally low on the critical pillars used by the foundation in its assessment, indicating what he described as the country’s descent into authoritarianism.
Ememobong said the parameters adopted by the Human Rights Foundation were consistent with established theoretical frameworks for identifying authoritarian regimes, including rule by a dictator or a small group, absence of institutional checks and balances, restrictions on freedom of speech, targeting of opposition and weak electoral processes.
He argued that the indicators of authoritarianism were increasingly evident in Nigeria under the Tinubu administration.
The PDP spokesman cited what he described as recent media attacks by officials of the administration against Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, the Catholic Church and Christianity generally.
He said the development was one of several instances which, in his view, demonstrated the alleged shrinking space for freedom of expression under the administration.
“What did the cleric say that is not the lived experience of…
Source link
Read Full Article by Ademu Idakwo at leadership.ng
Source link
