Abuja, 19 November 2025 – Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has launched a scathing attack on the administration of President Bola Tinubu following the controversial playing of the President’s personal campaign anthem, “On Your Mandate We Shall Stand”, at the opening ceremony of the 2025 All Nigeria Judges’ Conference in Abuja.
In a strongly worded statement released on Wednesday, Mr Abubakar described the incident – captured in a video clip from Channels Television’s coverage – as “nothing short of an assault on our national dignity”. He claimed the song, a partisan tune associated with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), was “brazenly played in place of the National Anthem” at the conclusion of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun’s speech.
Mr Abubakar said his initial reaction was to dismiss the footage as a deepfake, but after confirming its authenticity, he awaited an official explanation from the Presidency or the CJN’s office. No such clarification has been forthcoming from either quarter, he noted, describing the silence as “total and deafening”.
The former Vice President accused the Tinubu-led government of orchestrating or permitting the incident on the very day the President addressed the conference, lecturing judges on the need to safeguard judicial integrity and uphold the rule of law. President Tinubu had emphasised that “confidence is the lifeblood of justice” and urged the judiciary to protect public perception to sustain democracy.
“Yet, while preaching morality, his administration allowed (or engineered) the playing of his own partisan campaign music before the entire Nigerian judiciary – a shocking desecration of protocol, ethics, and national pride,” Mr Abubakar said.
He labelled the act “reckless, scandalous, disgraceful, and deeply irresponsible”, warning that it represented “the most blatant signal yet” of attempts to “drag the judiciary into the partisan gutters of the APC” or coerce judges into political alignment with the ruling party.
Mr Abubakar further alleged that the episode was symptomatic of a broader pattern under the current administration, including the “systematic capture of state institutions”, suppression of opposition voices, and a drift towards a “de facto one-party state”.
“Nigerian judges swore an oath to defend the Constitution, justice, and the rule of law – not to stand ‘on the mandate’ of Bola Ahmed Tinubu or any other individual,” he declared, calling on all defenders of constitutional democracy to condemn the incident unequivocally.
The National Judicial Institute (NJI), organiser of the conference, has rejected claims that judges sang or chanted the song, insisting in a statement that the National Anthem was rendered collectively at both the start and close of the ceremony. The NJI clarified that the brief tune in question was played briefly and solely by the Guards Brigade Band as ceremonial protocol to usher President Tinubu to the podium, and that the judiciary had no control over the military band’s selections. Judges, it added, merely stood in deference to the office of the President.
