Former House of Representatives Minority Leader, Farouk Aliyu, has accused unnamed individuals of plotting to stop President Bola Tinubu from winning future elections, vowing that he and other members of the ruling class will not let that happen.
Speaking on Wednesday, August 6, in an interview on Arise News, the senior member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said the party is determined to suppress the opposition, including the coalition under the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
“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,” Aliyu said.
While acknowledging the importance of opposition in a democracy, he insisted the APC would do everything politically possible to keep its rivals in check.
“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,” he stated.
Aliyu also revealed how political elites in Nigeria, regardless of party lines, remain united while ordinary citizens are left to clash over partisan divisions.
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“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,” he said.
He recalled his time in opposition, saying, “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.”
He warned against political insults and abuses, arguing that the elite class does not engage in public fights, even across party or ethnic lines.
“You know, the Honorable Farouk Adamu Aliyu will never be fighting Honorable Emeka Nwajuba and so on,” he said.
Aliyu admitted that the elite are at the heart of Nigeria’s problems, while the masses, unaware of this unity, suffer the consequences.
“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,” he said.
According to him, it is the poor who bear the brunt of political manipulation, while the elite remain connected and unaffected.