Following President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s recent promise to remove barriers to food security and increase exports, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has charged that the government is doing more out of fear than real care for Nigerians.
The ADC called the reform announcements a “scramble for survival” spurred by the ADC’s and other opposition groups’ increasing popularity, according to a statement posted on X and issued on Sunday by Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party’s interim national publicity secretary.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, recently declared that the federal government would take action to remove obstacles preventing food security and exports. The ADC was responding to this announcement.
The announcement’s timing was questioned by the ADC, which implied that it was made for political reasons.
When Bayo Onanuga announced on Saturday that all obstacles to “the realization of the Tinubu administration’s potential” will be eliminated going forward in order to facilitate food sovereignty and export, he wasn’t merely making a statement; he was also making a confession.
According to the statement, the Tinubu administration consciously decided to do nothing while there was widespread hunger in Nigeria.
It made the case that the government shouldn’t be commended for its meager action because it is now acting late due to political pressure.
The ADC claims that this is a last-ditch effort to survive after being overtaken by its own failures rather than true reform or leadership.
“Let us make one thing clear, it took the emergence of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the growing momentum of a united opposition to push this government into action. It wasn’t the hunger of hundreds of millions of Nigerians that moved them, it was fear. Fear of the 2027 elections. Fear that Nigerians have woken up. Fear that, with a united opposition, 2027 will be a clearcut election between the APC and the Nigerian people,” the statement read in part.
The ADC accused the ruling APC of intentionally using poverty as a political tool.
It argued that based on Bayo Onanuga’s recent remarks about removing obstacles to food security, it is clear the government had deliberately chosen not to act for the past two years, allowing widespread hunger to persist.
The ADC urged Nigerians to start asking the government important questions.
“If the problems blocking food supply could have been fixed earlier, why did the government leave them for so long while people went hungry and businesses failed? Was it part of a plan to fix things suddenly before the 2027 elections just to gain support?
“There is a trend here. This is a tactic. This is a political machine controlling optics, not a government responding to a pressing national emergency. All of their actions have been motivated by political calculations in anticipation of 2027. Brighten your eyes, Nigerians.
The president is running for office two years ahead of schedule, the statement claims, “because he knows he’s in trouble.” He is aware that Nigerians are fed up.
Ahead of the 2027 elections, the ADC urged the public to seek practical answers rather than political spectacle.
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