“For over 25 months, the Tinubu government deliberately shut out the North—neglecting our people, ignoring our suffering, and marginalizing our voices. Now, in the twilight of public goodwill, they think sprinkling a few northern names in top offices will erase over two years of betrayal,”
— Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi
By Abdulrahman Aliagan, Abuja
As Nigeria inches closer to another decisive election cycle, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has launched a scathing attack on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), accusing them of playing “cheap ethnic politics” with the lives and dignity of Northern Nigerians.
In what many are describing as a damning indictment of the administration’s failed leadership, the ADC labelled Tinubu’s latest appointments as a “desperate, cynical stunt to salvage dwindling credibility” in the North, where anger and disillusionment have reached boiling point.
According to the ADC’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the so-called appointments are not acts of governance, but political bait designed to deceive the North ahead of 2027.
“For over 25 months, the Tinubu government deliberately shut out the North—neglecting our people, ignoring our suffering, and marginalizing our voices. Now, in the twilight of public goodwill, they think sprinkling a few northern names in top offices will erase over two years of betrayal,” Abdullahi said.
The ADC tore into the administration’s tokenism, calling it a “Bourdillon-style appeasement strategy that reeks of arrogance, insincerity, and contempt for the intelligence of Northern citizens.”
“This government watched bandits overrun our villages, forced our farmers off their lands, and sat idle while hunger ravaged our communities—yet they want applause now for late-night, self-serving appointments,” the statement continued.
The party described the move as “too little, too fake, and far too late,” warning Northerners not to be swayed by cosmetic gestures or choreographed photo ops. The ADC insists that no political appointment can cover up the monumental failures of the Tinubu-led regime—failures that have left Nigeria’s economy gasping, insecurity festering, and unity hanging by a thread.
“We reject these so-called appointments as nothing more than consolation prizes offered to a region this administration never planned to carry along,” Abdullahi charged. “You don’t marginalize a people for two years and then ask for their loyalty because you remembered them in the third.”
The ADC accused Tinubu of running Nigeria like a “Lagos extension,” where cronyism, ethnic favoritism, and photo-op governance override national interest and inclusive policy. They further slammed what they called the “federal character fraud” perpetrated by the APC—where appointments are reduced to mere statistics, not sincere representation.
“Tokenism is not governance. Symbolism is not leadership. And empty optics are no substitute for performance,” the ADC said, urging Nigerians to reject what they called “a government that governs by deception and desperation.”
The opposition party called on all Nigerians, especially the youth and Northern leaders, to wake up to what it termed “a coordinated scam of political pacification” being deployed by the APC as elections approach.
“The North will not be used, dumped, and then flattered with crumbs from the political table,” the party concluded. “2027 is around the corner, and no amount of belated appointments can erase the record of incompetence, exclusion, and executive failure.”
