The All Progressives Congress has launched a scathing attack on factional Peoples Democratic Party Chairman Tanimu Turaki for appealing to United States President Donald Trump and the international community to intervene in Nigeria’s internal political affairs.
APC National Publicity Secretary Felix Morka issued a strongly worded statement on Tuesday condemning Turaki’s remarks as reckless, shameless, and constituting a dangerous threat to Nigeria’s national security and sovereignty.
The controversy erupted after Turaki, speaking to journalists before his faction attempted to hold a National Executive Committee meeting at PDP’s Wadata Plaza headquarters, accused Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike of deploying “armed thugs” with police backing to sabotage party processes.
In his address, Turaki made the unusual move of directly calling on President Trump and the broader international community to pay attention to what he characterized as threats to Nigerian democracy, a plea that has now drawn sharp rebuke from the ruling party.
Morka characterized Turaki’s appeal as an act of desperation from a man lacking the capacity to manage his party’s crisis through conventional means. “For a man declared National Chairman barely 72 hours ago by a faction of his deeply fractured party, Turaki looked and sounded desperate, at his wit’s end, confused, incoherent, and grossly lacking in stamina and capacity to manage his party’s crisis,” the APC spokesman stated.
The ruling party official expressed disappointment that rather than launching an urgent peace-building initiative to bring PDP’s warring factions together for dialogue and possible reconciliation, Turaki’s first major act as factional chairman was to seek foreign intervention in what the APC described as a self-inflicted internal party crisis.
“Nigerians expected that Turaki would set himself on an urgent peace-building mission to bring his party’s warring factions together in dialogue towards finding possible pathways to peace and reconciliation. Instead, Turaki’s first official act as factional chairman was his call for foreign invasion of Nigeria as a solution to the self-inflicted internal crisis of his PDP. That is as shameless as it is a dangerous threat to national security and sovereignty,” Morka declared.
The APC spokesman drew historical contrasts to underscore what he portrayed as the hypocrisy of the PDP’s current position, noting that during the opposition party’s 16 years in power, when it allegedly engaged in “ruthless subversion of opposition parties,” there were never calls for foreign intervention to resolve crises within opposition ranks.
“Under the PDP’s 16 years in power, with its ruthless subversion of opposition parties, there was never a call for foreign invasion of Nigeria as a solution to crisis within opposition parties of that era. Turaki’s call is not only an admission of the party’s incapacity to manage its internal contradictions, it must be taken as a final certification of the PDP’s demise,” Morka stated, suggesting that the appeal for external help signals the opposition party’s complete collapse.
The ruling party called on the international community to recognize and dismiss what it characterized as the PDP’s “disgraceful and unpatriotic call,” framing it as a pitiful attempt to distract from the failure of internal democracy within the opposition party and its embarrassing disintegration.
Morka suggested that the appeal reveals the extent of desperation among PDP and other opposition leaders, arguing that Turaki’s statement demonstrates how far they are willing to go—including actively seeking what he termed “destructive intervention of foreign powers on Nigerian soil”—to advance their political agenda.
“The heightened desperation of the PDP and other opposition leaders is now clear for all to see. Turaki’s call shows how far they are willing to go, even to the extent of actively seeking destructive intervention of foreign powers on Nigerian soil in order to serve their sinister political agenda,” the APC spokesman asserted.
The statement concluded with an appeal to Nigerians to stand firmly behind the ruling party and President Bola Tinubu’s leadership as the administration continues what Morka described as “the arduous task of building progress and prosperity in all areas of our national life.”
The APC’s fierce response to Turaki’s comments comes at a particularly sensitive moment in Nigeria’s relationship with the United States, following President Trump’s controversial designation of Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” and his threats of military intervention over alleged Christian persecution—claims the Nigerian government has vigorously rejected.
By invoking Trump’s name in the context of internal party disputes, Turaki has inadvertently provided the ruling party with ammunition to portray the PDP as willing to compromise national sovereignty for partisan political advantage, a charge that could resonate negatively with patriotic sentiments among the Nigerian public.
The exchange highlights how Nigeria’s escalating diplomatic tensions with Washington are now intersecting with domestic political rivalries, creating a complex environment where opposition criticism of the government risks being framed as collaboration with external forces seeking to undermine Nigerian sovereignty.
Whether Turaki’s appeal was a calculated strategy to attract international attention to what he views as democratic backsliding, or an impulsive statement born of frustration with the PDP’s internal chaos, the APC has seized on it as evidence of opposition weakness and lack of patriotic commitment.
As the 2027 elections approach, the ruling party appears determined to paint any opposition engagement with international actors or concerns as treasonous collaboration with foreign powers rather than legitimate political advocacy—a framing that could significantly constrain how opposition parties navigate the increasingly fraught relationship between Nigeria and Western democracies.
