Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the National Publicity Secretary of the African Democratic Congress, has declared that the All Progressives Congress government has failed Nigerians and that the only way the ruling party can retain power in 2027 is by rigging the elections, while unveiling the ADC’s alternative policy framework anchored on what he described as means-tested subsidies, investment in people, and measuring progress by poverty reduction rather than GDP growth.
In a wide-ranging interview in Ilorin, Abdullahi attacked the Tinubu administration’s record on security, the economy, and governance, condemned the Electoral Act 2026 for removing certificate forgery as a ground to challenge election results, questioned the silence of civil society organisations, labour unions, academia, and the media, and articulated what he said would be a fundamentally different approach to governance under an ADC administration.
Responding to the argument that President Tinubu should be allowed to complete two terms like his predecessors, Abdullahi pointed out that the Nigerian Constitution does not provide for automatic eight-year tenures.
“The Nigerian Constitution that provides for second term does not make it automatic. It says after four years you renew your mandate. If the Nigerian Constitution envisages automatic eight years, the constitution will just simply say you are elected for eight years,” Abdullahi stated.
He said the verdict of Nigerians is already clear, citing the 2025 Afrobarometer report which found that 94 per cent of Nigerians said they are not happy with the direction of the country.
“You don’t get to mark your own script. Nigerian people will mark your answer sheet and decide whether you have passed or you have failed. And the verdict today is that the APC government has failed,” the ADC spokesman declared.
He alleged that more people have died under President Tinubu’s administration than in many countries experiencing active conflict, pointing to the Borno bomb blast and the daily killing of Nigerian soldiers as evidence.
“The only way they can come back is to rig this election. That’s the only way. And they know, and that’s why they are doing all that they are doing,” Abdullahi stated.
Abdullahi launched his fiercest attack on the Electoral Act 2026, which he said removed certificate forgery as a ground to challenge election results through post-election litigation.
“In what other clime will you see a National Assembly make a law that says certificate forgery is no longer a basis to challenge election results? What are we telling children?” Abdullahi asked.
He described the law as meaning that if someone forges a certificate and manages to win an election without being challenged before the poll, nobody can contest the result afterwards.
“So, if an armed robber robs a house, as long as you didn’t catch him at the venue of stealing, he can get away with it? So as long as he gets away with it and was not caught at the crime scene, then you can no longer challenge him for armed robbery. That is the meaning of what they are saying,” the ADC spokesman stated.
He accused the APC of destroying the moral fabric of Nigerian society and questioned why the Academic Staff Union of Universities, student unions, the Nigeria Labour Congress, and civil society organisations have remained silent.
“APC has destroyed the moral fabric of our society. They now say children can go ahead and forge certificates,” Abdullahi declared.
In a broad critique of Nigerian society’s response to the current governance challenges, Abdullahi lamented the silence of institutions that have historically served as watchdogs.
“Where is ASUU? Where is the Nigerian Labour Congress? As a matter of fact, where is the media? Where are the civil society organizations?” he asked.
He noted that civil society organisations have been “demobilised since 1999,” reduced to election monitoring and voter education, while labour unions only speak up when demanding salary increases.
“All through the Abacha era, all through the civilian era, the media was at the forefront of protecting the conscience of Nigeria and Nigerians. Everybody now appears demoralized,” Abdullahi observed.
He offered several possible explanations for the silence: “Maybe they have given up. Maybe they are tired. Maybe they don’t have the consciousness. Maybe some of them have joined the ruling party secretly. Maybe some of them are collecting what everybody is collecting.”
Abdullahi made an important theoretical point about the challenges of democratic opposition.
“A bad civilian government is more difficult to remove than a bad military government. A bad military government is fundamentally illegitimate, so anything you do to remove it is legitimate. A bad civilian government, no matter how bad, is fundamentally legitimate because it can claim that it was elected by the people. So, anything you do other than democratic process is illegitimate,” he explained.
He argued that this reality makes it even more critical for civil society, labour, academia, and the media to play their traditional roles in democratic accountability.
Abdullahi directly criticised President Tinubu’s state visit to the United Kingdom, demanding his return to address domestic challenges.
“ADC is saying come back home. You have no business in the UK. Come back home. Your job is here. For once, do your job,” Abdullahi stated.
He accused the government of treating Nigerians as “a conquered people” who can be ignored with impunity. “They know the worst that will happen is ADC will issue a statement,” he acknowledged.
He also condemned what he described as the weaponisation of poverty, referencing reports of rice distributions where people were required to show their Permanent Voter Cards.
“After pauperising the people, you weaponise their poverty against them. People are dying every day, people are being kidnapped every day for ransom, and the only response is President Tinubu sharing rice. Do dead people eat rice?” Abdullahi asked.
On the question of what the ADC would do differently in government, Abdullahi laid out the party’s foundational philosophy and specific policy positions.
He said ADC’s foundational philosophy is that Nigeria has a duty to provide leadership for Africa and the entire black race, but can only do so by investing in its people to be productive and competitive.
“ADC will not measure progress by the growth of GDP. ADC will measure progress by the number of people we are able to take out of poverty,” Abdullahi stated.
On the critical issue of fuel subsidy, Abdullahi articulated what he described as means-tested subsidy — providing subsidy to those who need it rather than the blanket approach of either subsidising everyone or removing subsidy from everyone.
“There is no country in the world that does not give one subsidy or the other. The problem with fuel subsidy was not subsidy itself but the governance of that subsidy. Giving fuel subsidy to everybody is wrong. Removing subsidy from everybody is equally wrong,” Abdullahi stated.
He cited Malaysia as an example, where the government provides vouchers that subsidise petrol for poor people up to 300 litres per month, with market prices applying only beyond that threshold.
“We will not punish the poor people for the crime of the rich people. It’s not poor people that are smuggling petrol. Poor people don’t have five SUVs. Poor people just want to be able to survive,” Abdullahi said.
Abdullahi questioned what happened to the savings from the removal of fuel subsidy, noting that the government claims to have distributed surplus funds to state governors.
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