The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has accused the Tinubu administration of deliberately allowing Nigerians to suffer hunger and economic hardship for political gain.
In a strongly worded statement issued by its interim national publicity secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party reacted to a recent comment by presidential aide Bayo Onanuga, who suggested that all obstacles to food security would now be removed to enable food sovereignty and export.
According to Abdullahi, Onanuga’s statement amounted to a confession that the government had intentionally failed to act while millions of Nigerians went hungry.
He argued that the administration’s sudden policy shift was not driven by concern for citizens, but by fear of a growing opposition and the looming 2027 elections.
The ADC claimed its emergence and the rising momentum of a united opposition had forced the government into panic-driven reforms. It warned Nigerians not to be deceived by last-minute policy moves, calling them part of a broader political strategy aimed at winning votes rather than addressing the country’s real problems.
“This is not governance,” Abdullahi stated. “This is desperation disguised as reform.”
Read the full statement below:
On Saturday, when Bayo Onanuga tweeted before the world that, moving forward, all bottlenecks hindering “the realisation of the Tinubu administration’s potential” would be removed to enable food sovereignty and export, he didn’t just issue a statement; he issued a confession. A confession that this government had, by design, been sitting on its hands while Nigerians starved.
Now, under mounting political pressure, they want applause for doing the bare minimum? This is not reform. This is not leadership. This is a scramble for survival by an administration that has been cornered by its own failures.
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 clear-cut election between the APC and the Nigerian people.
Make no mistake, the APC has been deliberately weaponising poverty. After Bayo Onanuga’s statement that they would no longer delay in removing bottlenecks that had hindered food security, the only conclusion possible from that statement is that the government had deliberately sat on its hands and watched Nigerians starve in the last two years.
We must all begin to ask this government the obvious questions: If the bottlenecks that Onanuga alluded to in his press statement could have been removed earlier, why did they keep them in place while millions went hungry and businesses collapsed? Was it so they could stage a last-minute, propaganda-driven performance closer to the 2027 elections?
This is a pattern. This is a strategy. This is not a government reacting to an urgent national crisis; it is a political machine managing optics. Every move they have made has been about political calculation ahead of 2027. Nigerians, shine your eyes.
The president is not governing. He is campaigning two years early because he knows he’s in trouble. He knows Nigerians have had enough. And the worst part? He is risking the country’s future, all in the name of his re-election bid. Onanuga’s declaration is not about food security or economic diplomacy; this is about politics and 2027.
The ADC calls on all Nigerians, do not be swayed by choreographed press releases and sudden awakenings. This is not governance. This is desperation.
Signed:
Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi
Interim National Publicity Secretary, ADC/National Coalition Spokesperson
