Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has once again taken a swipe at President Bola Tinubu’s administration, echoing sentiments expressed by the African Democratic Congress (ADC), which accused the federal government of initiating reforms not out of national interest, but as a calculated response to mounting political pressure.
The ADC, through its interim national publicity secretary Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, described the Tinubu-led government as being gripped by “calculated incompetence,” arguing that its recent reform announcements, especially around food security and export, are a reaction to the rising profile of the ADC and other opposition coalitions, rather than a genuine concern for the suffering Nigerian masses.
The sharp criticism came after Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, tweeted about new efforts to remove obstacles hindering food security and boost agricultural exports. Abdullahi responded by questioning the timing and sincerity of such measures, wondering why it took the formation of a united opposition front before the government began addressing basic issues like hunger and inflation.
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According to Abdullahi, the government’s sudden sense of urgency is not reformative leadership but political damage control. He argued that the Tinubu administration had long ignored the deepening food crisis until it became politically expedient to act. “If these so-called obstacles could have been removed all along, why did millions of Nigerians have to go hungry? Why did businesses have to collapse? Why now, if not for the fear of the 2027 elections and the growing credibility of the opposition?”
He accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of deliberately weaponizing poverty for political gain and manipulating public sentiment with last-minute performance theatrics designed to create a false narrative of progress.
“This isn’t reform,” Abdullahi said. “This is a desperate administration responding not to the cries of the people, but to the threat of losing power. Every step they’ve taken is not rooted in governance but in optics, in public relations, in survival.”
The ADC’s critique, aligned with Atiku’s recurring condemnation of Tinubu’s governance, signals an intensifying political showdown ahead of the 2027 general elections.