2027: Tinubu can’t campaign away Nigeria’s hardship, poverty – ADC

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has said President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election campaign cannot erase the hardship and poverty Nigerians have experienced under his administration.

The party said the 2027 general election would serve as a referendum on Tinubu’s performance during his first term in office.

The ADC National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, stated this in a statement issued on Saturday while reacting to the emerging composition of Tinubu’s 2027 campaign council.

The party also criticised the inclusion of some former government officials facing corruption-related allegations, describing the campaign council as a rehabilitation centre for people with unresolved questions over corruption and public accountability.

“Why were former Humanitarian Affairs Minister Betta Edu and former NSITF Chairman Ngozi Olejeme included in the campaign council? If the corruption cases against them have been resolved, the government should tell Nigerians how, when and by whom they were cleared,” the ADC said.

According to the opposition party, the presence of such individuals in the campaign team raised concerns about the administration’s commitment to fighting corruption.

The ADC alleged that investigations into financial misconduct under the Tinubu administration often disappear without clear explanations, only for the individuals involved to later return to political relevance.

The party said corruption allegations appeared to have an expiry date whenever individuals became politically useful.

On the 2027 election, Abdullahi said Nigerians would judge Tinubu based on the impact of his administration on their lives rather than the size or composition of his campaign council.

He said the President could assemble his political allies, but their campaign activities would not erase the economic difficulties Nigerians were facing.

“The President may assemble his old friends and political allies, including those carrying unresolved corruption questions, but all of their collective brooms cannot sweep away the grave pains they have brought on the Nigerian people,” the ADC said.

The party argued that the administration could not campaign its way out of the cost-of-living crisis and poverty affecting millions of Nigerians.

It said many Nigerians had been asked to endure economic hardship while people close to the government continued to enjoy what it described as excessive wealth.

“For three years, they have told Nigerians who can barely afford food to tighten their belts, while those connected to the government continue to live in obscene opulence, feeding fat on the common wealth. The time for reckoning has come,” the party said.

The ADC also restated its support for the proposal by its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to introduce a targeted subsidy on fuel production as a way of reducing petrol prices and the wider cost of living.

The party said the proposed intervention would be targeted, capped, included in the budget and independently audited to ensure that public funds were properly accounted for.

The ADC said it had observed government-backed criticism of the proposal, particularly arguments that Nigeria could not afford to subsidise fuel.

However, the party argued that the government should first account for its own spending before claiming that the country could not afford measures to support struggling Nigerians.

The opposition party said every naira spent under the proposed subsidy programme should be traceable and every barrel of fuel accounted for.

“Our proposal is straightforward: every naira must be traceable and every barrel accounted for. Before President Tinubu lectures Nigerians about the cost of helping them, he should account for the cost of his own government’s wrong-headed policy that has turned state governors into wastrels and federal agents into profligates,” the ADC added.