The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of obsession with its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, instead of addressing the country’s worsening poverty, insecurity and cost-of-living crisis.
In a statement signed by the ADC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party said the APC had “shamelessly latched on” to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s obviously biased comments on Atiku while attacking Catholic Bishops for speaking truthfully about the country’s terrible condition under President Bola Tinubu.
ADC argued that the Tinubu-led ruling party is desperate to shift attention from their “catastrophic” record on the economy, security and well being of Nigerians, which is why they appear more comfortable discussing Atiku Abubakar than addressing the multidimensional crisis into which they have plunged the country.
The full statement read:
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has observed the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s increasingly desperate obsession with our presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Unable to defend its catastrophic record after the Catholic Bishops laid bare the true state of the nation during their recent meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu the APC has shamelessly seized on comments by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in a desperate attempt to shift the national conversation and shift attention from their terrible performance in the last three years.
We note how, rather than answer the Bishops’ concerns about worsening poverty, insecurity and the cost of living, the ruling party has chosen instead to attack the messengers, whose only offence is that they spoke truthfully and bursted their bubble of propaganda and self-deception.
This has become a familiar pattern. Whenever respected Nigerians point to the deepening poverty, worsening insecurity, rising cost of living, or the collapse of public confidence under this administration, the APC never answers for its record. Instead, it looks for someone to attack. Yesterday, it was the Catholic Bishops. Today, it is Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Tomorrow, it will be someone else.
The result is a government that spends more time arguing with its critics than answering the concerns of ordinary Nigerians. What Nigerians have not heard is a convincing explanation for why life has become so much harder under Tinubu and his APC.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is entitled to his personal opinion of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Every Nigerian, including former presidents, enjoys that democratic right. But opinions do not erase records.
While President Obasanjo was in office, with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar serving as Vice President and Chairman of the National Economic Council, who also managed and coordinated economic planning between the States and the Federal Government, Nigeria experienced stronger economic growth, greater macroeconomic stability, stronger investor confidence, and a far more affordable cost of living than Nigerians endure today under Tinubu’s chaotic economic policies. Whatever political differences may now exist between the two men, that record remains a matter of public history and can not be erased.
If we are to compare opinion with performance, it would indeed be difficult for the APC to find any credible person, including former President Obasanjo, who would argue that this administration has achieved anything meaningful in improving the lives of citizens.
It is time that the APC and their government took a break from attacking Atiku and the Bishops to answer a few important questions:
Why has the prices of food and basic necessities continue to soar despite proclaimed economic growth? Why have more Nigerians fallen into poverty under your watch than at any other period in Nigeria’s history? Why have you failed to translate your so-called economic growth into jobs? Why have you borrowed more money than any other government in the nation’s history with nothing to show for it? Why is your government spending 69% of its revenue just to service debts (whereas the World Bank describes any debt service-to revenue above 22.5% as dangerously high). Can the APC explain why communities across the country continue to live under the constant threat of bandits, terrorists and kidnappers while hundreds are still held in kidnappers’ den?
These are the questions Nigerians expect the APC government to answer as we prepare for elections. But, the APC wants the 2027 election to be about personalities because it can not defend its performance. They want this election to be about Obasanjo’s personal opinion of Atiku based on a distant past because they can not defend Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s record based on current performance.
Ultimately, the election will not be decided by the opinion of any one individual. It will be decided by the lived experience of more than 200 million Nigerians who are poorer, more insecure, and more uncertain about their future than they were before the Tinubu administration took office.
Signed:
Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi
National Publicity Secretary
African Democratic Congress (ADC)
