Former vice president and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has accused President Bola Tinubu of buying over opposition figures in order to give his government some form of legitimacy after a questionable electoral victory.

Atiku, in a statement by his special assistant on public communications, Phrank Shaibu, said the Bola Tinubu administration had begun appointing critics into government for sinister motives.

The statement added that Tinubu’s constant meetings with some key opposition figures were being done for the purpose of seeking legitimacy and surreptitiously silencing credible critical voices.

Shaibu said the recent appointment of Taiwo Oyedele, a tax expert at PwC, was only a ploy to get him to stop speaking about the government’s failures as he had been doing almost on a daily basis on television, radio and social media.

He added that former president Muhammadu Buhari similarly did this when he was appointing his economic advisory team.

Shaibu added, “It is common knowledge that Mr. Oyedele is the loudest voice as regards tax reforms. Last Saturday, he pointed out some of the wrong tax policies of the APC government. In a bid to silence him, he was appointed chairman of a tax reform committee on Friday, but no other members were announced. Probably, they want him to work alone.

“With this new appointment, Mr Oyedele will no longer be able to speak about the government’s failures. Mr. Oyedele would do well not to allow himself to be rubbished by Tinubu, a man whose only secret to economic boom is using firms linked to him to generate tax for a commission just as he did in Lagos.

“Mr. Oyedele must not allow himself to be deceived by this appointment. In 2019, Buhari similarly appointed Doyin Salami, Chukwuma Soludo, and Bismark Rewane into his economic advisory team, but he never took their advice for one day. “In the end, Nigeria was plunged into one of its worst economic crises ever with an unprecedented debt profile, multi dimensional poverty, and never before seen unemployment figures.”

He added that the so-called government of national unity Tinubu was propagating was only a ruse to decimate the opposition.

“These are the tactics of the late General Sani Abacha who gave appointments to several pro-June 12 voices all in a bid to silence them. In the end, many of such people who sold the mandate for a pot of porridge became traitors of the democratic struggle and never recovered politically.

“Those being courted by Tinubu must note that it is all a ploy to buy him legitimacy. When dealing with the devil, it is always good to do so with a long spoon. They must be circumspect about working in his government as their credibility could be damaged beyond repair.”