By Euclid Myke, Abuja
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has stated that President Bola Tinubu’s sudden reforms on bureaucracy and plans to remove bottlenecks on food security and export push was not born out of compassion or policy, but of political panic sparked by the growing influence and credibility of the mega coalition.
The Nigerian president had, during a bilateral meeting held at the Copacabana Forte with the Brazilian president Luiz Lula Da Silva that Nigeria was already undergoing reforms to reposition the economy for global competitiveness, particularly in agriculture, where it already has a competitive advantage.
Tinubu stated that all technicalities in agreements between the two countries will be streamlined and fast-tracked in trade, aviation, energy transition, food and agricultural development, mining, and natural resources exploration.”
In a statement by its Acting National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, ADC made reference to the disclosure by Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, that government plans to remove bottlenecks to food security and export. The ADC wondered why it has taken the emergence of the coalition to make the Tinubu government start thinking of how to make food available to Nigerian people. He noted that without the pressure mounted on the government with the successful unveiling of the opposition coalition last week, the government would have persisted on its calculated indifference to the plight of the Nigerian people.
He said that on Saturday, “when Bayo Onanuga tweeted that all bottlenecks hindering “the realization 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 clearcut election between the APC and the Nigerian people.
“Make no mistake, the APC has been deliberately weaponizing 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”.
He said that Nigerians must begin to ask this government, “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 not governance. This is desperation.
“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.”
ADC said that the President is not governing but campaigning two years earlier because he knows he’s in trouble. He said that 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” he said.
The ADC called on all Nigerians not to be swayed by choreographed press releases and sudden awakenings.
