An advocacy group for good governance and accountability, Transparency Watch, has urged opposition political parties and other critics of the Bola Tinubu administration to direct their grievances to the appropriate quarters instead of targeting Senator Abdul’aziz Yari, Director General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council.
The group described as misplaced what it called the growing attempts to make Yari a scapegoat for issues concerning the Tinubu administration, urging opposition parties to focus on substantive policy issues ahead of the forthcoming elections.
In a statement made available to The News Chronicle by its Director of Public Affairs, Cliff Richards, the group expressed concern over what it described as the increasing use of name-calling, personal attacks and unnecessary denigration in political campaigns.
“We at Transparency Watch have noted with concern attempts by opposition political parties, groups and individuals to make Senator Abdul’aziz Yari the subject of their campaigns.
“This is unhealthy because Yari is not the issue. Campaigns are about issues, not individuals, and he should therefore not be made a scapegoat.
“As Director General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Yari has a responsibility to campaign for his party. Those who disagree with his positions should challenge them based on facts and substantive issues rather than resorting to name-calling and personal attacks.
“The demand by an opposition party that Yari should explain what the Tinubu administration did with the N15.8 trillion it claimed to have saved from subsidy removal and the new foreign exchange regime is also misplaced”. The statement noted.
It warned that such an approach could lower the quality of political discourse, heat up the polity and divert attention from issues of greater concern to Nigerians.
Transparency Watch said Yari, as Director General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, was only performing his political responsibility by canvassing support for his party and expressing confidence in its electoral prospects.
It added that those who disagreed with Yari’s positions should challenge them through substantive arguments rather than personal attacks, insisting that campaigns should be centred on policies, performance and issues affecting Nigerians.
The group also dismissed as misplaced a demand by an opposition political party that Yari should explain what the Tinubu administration did with the N15.8 trillion it claimed to have saved from subsidy removal and the new foreign exchange regime.
According to Transparency Watch, Yari is neither the Minister of Finance nor a member of the President’s economic team and, therefore, should not be held responsible for explaining the administration’s financial or economic decisions.
It urged opposition parties to direct such questions to the relevant government officials and agencies, rather than allowing the electioneering process to degenerate into personal attacks.
The group further acknowledged that the forthcoming elections would be hotly contested, describing robust political competition as a necessary feature of democracy.
It commended the APC for choosing Yari to lead its presidential campaign council, describing him as an experienced political tactician and administrator, while challenging opposition parties to assemble campaign teams capable of matching the ruling party’s political machinery.
Transparency Watch said attempts to make Yari the focus of opposition campaigns, rather than engaging the substantive issues before Nigerians, amounted to a distraction from the real contest.
