Buhari & Atiku Strikes out over US visa ban on Politicians
The United states had threatened to impose visa restrictions on any Nigerian politician who were allegedly involved in attempting to or actually undermined democracy in the just concluded Nigeria’s 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections,
has elicited fresh war of words between President Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar.
While Atiku see the move as a vindication of his earlier position that the presidential election, in particular, was massively rigged in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO), sees the US’ decision as echoing the president’s global popularity.
Atiku was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election.
In the build up to the 2019 elections, the US had threatened to impose visa restrictions on any Nigerian politician that operated with impunity and tried to undermine democratic principles and human rights in Nigeria.
By Tuesday, the US department revealed that some Nigerian politicians are already affected by the visa restrictions, saying “these individuals have operated with impunity at the expense of the Nigerian people and undermined democratic principles and human rights.”
Although it failed to list the individuals, Atiku, through his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, said “After the conduct of the February 23, 2019 Nigerian Presidential elections, we maintained that the polls were rigged, not credible and that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar won the elections and that his mandate was stolen.
“In the aftermath of the daylight robbery that occurred on the day of election, the administration of Muhammadu Buhari and its allies went into a propaganda overdrive to deny the obvious. However, it is a truism that no matter how far and fast falsehood, or in this case, rigging, has traveled, it must eventually be overtaken by truth.
“It seems that day has come. After many months of living in denial, the Buhari regime is now faced with the truth in the form of a US visa ban on politicians who undermined Nigeria’s democracy.
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