Special Assistant on Public Communication to Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, alleged weekend that President Bola Tinubu has resorted to appointing his critics into government as part of a sinister plot to silence the opposition.
He faulted the President's recent appointment of a tax expert and vocal government critic, Taiwo Oyedele, as head of his tax reform committee.
Shaibu described the appointment as part of a sinister plot by the Tinubu-led administration to seek legitimacy by silencing its most vocal critics.
Shuaibu pointed out that Tinubu's constant meetings with key opposition figures "were being done for the purpose of seeking legitimacy and surreptitiously silencing credible, critical voices."
He 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."
According to him, former President Muhammadu Buhari acted in a similar fashion when he was appointing his economic advisory team.
Shaibu further said: "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 yesterday on Friday but no other members were announced. Probably, they want him to work alone.
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"With this new appointment, Oyedele will no longer be able to speak about the government's failures. Oyedele would do well not to allow himself 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, President 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."
Shaibu said President Tinubu was buying over opposition figures in order to give his government some form of legitimacy after a questionable electoral victory.
He argued 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. They must be circumspect about working in his government as their credibility could be damaged beyond repair."
