Likening Nigeria’s Democracy to Fascism Reckless, Irresponsible, APC Replies Utomi

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the decision by Prof. Pat Utomi to liken Nigeria’s democratic experience to “fascist conditions” in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany as reckless.

National Publicity Secretary of the party, Felix Morka, in a statement, described Utomi’s approximation as irresponsible and insensitive.

“Professor Pat Utomi must be an intellectual drama king of sorts. His declaration of a ‘Big Tent Coalition Shadow Government’ of May 5, 2025, stands in direct contradiction and rebuttal of the very justification he advanced for the latest of his several ‘big bang’ things that have never materialised.

“Utomi is, and has always been, a poster child of freedom of thought, speech, conscience, association, and even freedom of intellectual aggression.

“Utomi has enjoyed and continues to enjoy his fullest constitutional right to think, say and act as he chooses. He continues to enjoy democratic choice freely, unconstrained and unrestrained.

“He has gained global recognition as a serial promoter of ‘mega parties’, mega ‘coalitions’ and ‘mega tents’, hindered only by the unrealism of his contraptions.”

Morka stressed that the suggestion that President Bola Tinubu’s administration was  suppressing opposing views was  simply preposterous.

He explained that Utomi’s unilateral declaration of a “shadow government”, in a presidential democracy, was, in and of itself, an exercise of democratic freedom and free speech, in the extreme. 

“It is deeply disturbing and desperately dramatic for Utomi to liken Nigeria’s democratic experience to ‘fascist conditions’ in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.

“That approximation is reckless, irresponsible and insensitive  and should be beneath a man of Utomi’s standing but has clearly cast reason and rationality aside for sensational and virulent discourse.”