Trump’s Venezuela Action Warning To Nigeria – African Democratic Congress

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has described the arrest and trial of President of Venezuela, Mr. Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, by the United States President, Donald Trump, as a timely warning and lesson to the Nigerian Government in many respects.

The party also said the Nigerian government’s failure to react to the development as other countries and world leaders have done is an embarrassment to the country.

The party also claimed that the silence by the Nigerian government can only be explained by President Tinubu’s personal fear that he may suffer the fate of the disgraced Venezuelan leader.

The ADC national publicity secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said while ADC supports the principles of sovereignty and non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations, it believes that a government that holds its national laws in contempt and tramples on the rights of its citizens opens itself up for external interference.

The spokesman of the opposition party, in a statement, added that Trump’s action in Venezuela sends a strong message to the Nigerian government and any other government that lacks legitimacy.

Abdullahi said, “ADC strongly supports the principles of sanctity of national sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs of another country as enshrined as enshrined in Articles 2(1) and 2(4) of the United Nations Charter, principles that underpin global peace and order.

“Nevertheless, we maintain that these international governance doctrines that were ordinarily designed to maintain global order should not be invoked to provide a safe haven for tyranny, electoral fraud, or the systematic denial  of a people’s right to freely choose their leaders,” the spokesman said.

He added that it is public knowledge that the 2024 Venezuela presidential elections were widely condemned as illegitimate and deeply flawed by nine governments across Latin America, the European Union, and international democratic institutions, all pointing to a process marked  by fraud, repression and  exclusion.

He further recalled that political opponents were barred from contesting, peaceful protests were met with violence, state institutions were weaponized against the very citizens they exist to serve.

He said the net consequence of this has been mass migration at a scale that undermines regional stability.

“While the United States intervention raises serious and legitimate questions under international law, one reality cannot be ignored. The visible wave of popular public support that followed within Venezuela speaks to a deeper crisis of legitimacy of the Maduro government.

“When citizens pour into the streets in celebration, it reveals more than approval of an intervention, it exposes the bankruptcy of the regime that has been upended,” he said.

Abdullahi added that his party  also considers as deeply embarrassing that more than 48 hours after the situation in Venezuela,  the Nigerian government is yet to react in any way.

“This silence by the APC-led Bola Tinubu administration is a further indication that Nigeria, under President Tinubu, has lost both voice and standing on the international stage.

“At a moment when the world is grappling with the difficult balance between sovereignty, democracy, and accountability,  Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and largest democracy, is conspicuously absent.

“Apart from the lamentable decline in Nigeria’s global and national standing under this administration, this silence reflects the government’s moral crisis which removes its legitimacy to take a principled stand on anything.

“Let’s be clear, that the Nigerian government has chosen silence in this moment has nothing to do with neutrality. It instead, reveals a government that lacks confidence simply because it lacks integrity,” the spokesman said.

He said his party stands for the principle that sovereignty must ultimately reflect the will of the people, not merely the survival of a regime.

He added hat in Nigeria, Venezuela, and across the world, democracy must mean more than ballots and electoralism, adding it must translate to  freedom, fairness, and a happier life for the citizens.

“In this context, the ADC believes that the situation in Venezuela is a cautionary tale to all dictators, including the supposedly elected ones, and election riggers everywhere. The world is watching, and contrived mandates will no longer find a place to hide,” the party spokesman added.