The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has sounded the alarm over what it describes as a desperate and dangerous plot by elements within President Bola Tinubu’s administration to sabotage the growing opposition coalition in Nigeria.
In a strongly worded statement issued on Monday, the party’s Interim National Publicity Secretary and National Spokesperson, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, revealed that the party had received credible intelligence indicating that former state chairmen and key members of its state executive committees in the North East and North West have been invited to a clandestine meeting with top Federal Government officials.
According to the ADC, the objective of this secret meeting is not related to national security or peacebuilding, but rather an attempt to “intimidate, coerce, and if possible, co-opt these individuals into a fabricated scheme against the opposition coalition.”
“This is not politics. This is sabotage,” the party declared.
The ADC further alleged that the true motive behind the meeting is to sow internal discord, delegitimise the party’s new leadership, and derail its rising momentum as a revitalised force in the Nigerian opposition space.
“The surreptitious dalliance with ADC state chairpersons by appointees of the federal government who should be focused on addressing the urgent national security challenges facing the country is a coordinated assault on multiparty democracy,” the party said.
“This is how one-party states are born through intimidation.”
The ADC attributed the alleged attacks to the success of the July 1st Coalition Declaration and the July 2nd public unveiling of the party, which it claimed have unsettled the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
“It is now obvious that the Tinubu administration having lost the trust of the Nigerian people—cannot withstand the pressure of a united and credible opposition. But rather than correcting its course, it has chosen to revert to the old playbook of destabilising opposition parties,” the statement added.
Reaffirming its commitment to democratic principles, the ADC stated: “This coalition movement is an idea whose time has come. This party belongs to every Nigerian who is tired of the lies, the manipulation, and the hardship. It belongs to everyone who wants to restore decency, vision, and justice to governance.”
The party vowed to resist any attempts to convert Nigeria into a one-party state, asserting it as a patriotic duty to defend democracy through every legal and democratic means available.
Concluding its statement, the ADC issued a direct call to President Tinubu to rein in his appointees and prove his democratic credentials.
“We call on President Bola Tinubu to take note of these sinister moves by some of his appointees and call them to order. The president needs to prove to Nigerians that he is indeed a Democrat.
“He must remind his men that if the Goodluck Jonathan administration had been this intolerant and subversive of opposition forces, the APC would never have come to power in 2015 and he would not be President today.”
