The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has issued a scathing criticism of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, accusing it of cynically exploiting the recent death of former President Muhammadu Buhari for political advantage and image rehabilitation.
In a statement released on Friday and signed by the party’s Interim National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC condemned the federal government’s actions following Buhari’s passing as disingenuous and manipulative.
According to the party, the public gestures of mourning including tributes during the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting and the highly publicized appearance of Buhari’s son, Yusuf Buhari were part of a “stage-managed” campaign designed to score sympathy points, especially in northern Nigeria, where the late president retained considerable political clout.
“The choreographed Federal Executive Council (FEC) tribute, complete with a publicised appearance by our late President’s grieving son, was not a demonstration of genuine respect,” the statement read.
“It was a calculated public relations stunt by an unpopular government, carefully stage-managed to distract Nigerians from the administration’s deepening failures and to rewrite history while the nation mourns.”
The Federal Executive Council had recently held a session to honor Buhari, which included a rare public appearance by Yusuf Buhari. While the gesture received public attention and sympathy, the ADC strongly rejected its sincerity, accusing the Tinubu-led government of opportunism.
The ADC emphasized that President Tinubu and his team had spent over a year distancing themselves from Buhari’s legacy, regularly blaming him for Nigeria’s economic woes and criticizing his policy decisions including the controversial fuel subsidy removal and the now-scrapped currency redesign.
“You cannot spend months discrediting a man’s legacy only to turn around and perform grief for the cameras,” the statement continued.
“Grief is not a campaign strategy.”
The party went further, condemning the involvement of Yusuf Buhari in what it termed a “political theatre,” calling it an abuse of the privacy and dignity of a grieving family.
“It is equally troubling that the young man, Mr. Yusuf Buhari, a private citizen and grieving son, was pulled into the political theatre of a Federal Executive Council meeting, just days after burying his father,” Abdullahi said.
“Nigerians must ask, what kind of government uses the private pain of a bereaved family to varnish its own public image?”
The ADC reminded the public of the Tinubu government’s earlier criticisms of Buhari’s administration, accusing the current leadership of fiscal mismanagement, policy reversals, and blame-shifting for economic collapse inherited from their own party’s former president.
“Since taking office, the Tinubu administration and its officials have launched a relentless campaign to disown their predecessor’s policies.
They have blamed Buhari for everything, accused him of fiscal recklessness, and claimed to have inherited a broken economy not from the opposition, but from their own party’s former leader.”
The party claimed that the sudden outpouring of emotion and admiration for Buhari was a strategic political move, aimed at currying favour with northern elites and Buhari loyalists, especially amid rising public dissatisfaction and looming elections.
“Now that it suits their political agenda, they seek to recast themselves as defenders of the late President’s legacy, pretending to give him in death the honour they denied him while he was alive.”
The ADC also reiterated its previous warning to the Buhari family, urging caution against being drawn into political gamesmanship and cautioning that the former president’s death must not be politicized.
“The unfolding stage-managed displays of grief and the exploitation of a mourning son who was compelled to perform gratitude in front of the cameras is unconscionable and must be condemned by all decent people,” the party stated.
Finally, the ADC called on Nigerians to reject what it labeled a “grand deceit” by the federal government, arguing that no amount of public relations can redeem an administration it claims has governed like “an army of occupation.”
“Nevertheless, we are confident that Nigerians can see through their grand deceit,” Abdullahi concluded.
“No public relations stunt can save a government that has behaved in the last two years like an army of occupation.”
