ADC FIRES BACK AT PRESIDENCY OVER TINUBU’S TENURE REMARKS, DESCRIBES THEM AS PRESUMPTUOUS

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has fired back at the Presidency over its recent assertion that President Bola Tinubu has no plans to extend his tenure beyond 2031, describing the remarks as presumptuous and patently undemocratic. In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC asserted that the President’s mandate ends in 2027.

The party stated it is confident that Nigerians will not wish to extend President Tinubu’s tenure by a single day. The ADC’s statement read in full: “The presidency’s desperate response to the recent remarks by former governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, that President Bola Tinubu has plans to be a life President only serves to confirm what Nigerians have long suspected: this administration is not only out of touch with reality, it has also become dangerously self-satisfied.”

The party argued that the President speaking of remaining in office till 2031 betrays a mindset that dismisses re-election as a mere formality. “But re-election is not automatic, and President Tinubu has not earned a second term. If anything, in two short years, he has shown Nigeria what he is capable of doing. He has divided the country like no other President before him and sent majority of Nigerians deeper into poverty,” the statement said.

The ADC highlighted several areas of failure, stating that under Tinubu’s watch, national security has degenerated. “Terrorists, bandits, and criminals now operate with total impunity. Citizens are kidnapped in broad daylight. Rural communities have become warzones. Insecurity has metastasized into national trauma, and the government has neither the will nor the capacity to stop it,” the party claimed.

On the economy, the statement said it is in free fall. “The naira has collapsed. Inflation is out of control. Food prices have tripled in many parts of the country. Jobs are vanishing. The middle class is disappearing. Businesses that once thrived are collapsing under the weight of punitive taxes and policy inconsistencies. Nigerians are now poorer, hungrier, and angrier than they were before Tinubu took office.”

The party also criticized the state of the power sector, which it described as comatose, and social development, which it said is bleak. “Human rights have been trampled on. Court orders are ignored. Journalists are harassed. Peaceful protesters are brutalized,” the ADC alleged.

The statement concluded by warning against the idea of a “life president,” referencing Tinubu’s political influence in Lagos State. “What he perfected in Lagos, he now seeks to replicate on a national scale. But let it be said clearly and without ambiguity: Nigeria is not Lagos. Nigerians are watching. And come 2027, it won’t be APC versus ADC, it will be APC versus the Nigerian people.”

Given the widespread hardship, the ADC asserted that the President should be preparing to leave in 2027, adding that any plan to stay in office beyond that date would be a confirmation that the government is incapable of reading the room.