ADC, APM Knock Tinubu’s Campaign Team

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) have faulted President Bola Tinubu’s expanded Presidential Campaign Council, accusing the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of prioritising political alliances over the welfare of Nigerians.

While the ADC Presidential Campaign Council accused the APC of undermining multiparty democracy, the Makinde/Daura Presidential Campaign Organisation (MDPCO) claimed that its composition reflected an overreliance on political influence rather than public trust.

The opposition groups made their positions known following the inauguration of the APC Presidential Campaign Council in Abuja on Wednesday. They raised concerns about the size and composition of the council, the use of the

Presidential Villa for its inauguration, and the country’s worsening economic and security challenges.

The ADC Presidential Campaign Council criticised the APC over the inauguration, with its Director of Media and Publicity, Kola Ologbondiyan, alleging that the ruling party was seeking to weaken opposition parties and consolidate its hold on power.

Ologbondiyan accused the APC of attempting to incorporate opposition governors into its campaign structure without requiring them to formally defect from their respective parties.

“What we are witnessing is not politics but political abduction,” he alleged, claiming that the ruling party was using its influence to undermine opposition forces and weaken Nigeria’s multiparty democratic system.

He further accused the administration of deploying national institutions and security agencies against opposition figures, although the statement did not provide specific evidence to substantiate the allegations.

The ADC spokesman said economic hardship, hunger and insecurity had compounded the difficulties facing ordinary Nigerians, accusing the political establishment of prioritising the retention of power over citizens’ welfare.

He called on Nigerians, media organisations, civil society groups and the international community to oppose what he described as the APC’s anti-democratic agenda.

Ologbondiyan also expressed confidence in the ADC presidential ticket of Atiku Abubakar and former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, describing the duo as capable of addressing the country’s challenges and restoring confidence in democratic institutions.

Similarly, the Makinde/Daura Presidential Campaign Organisation dismissed the APC campaign council as a “Nebuchadnezzar Coalition,” arguing that the size of the political gathering did not necessarily translate into public support.

In a statement signed by its Director of Strategic Communications, Richard Ihediwa, the organisation accused the ruling party of assembling political figures whose presence, it said, would not erase the administration’s record on economic hardship, unemployment and insecurity.

The MDPCO questioned what it described as the government’s failure to adequately address widespread poverty, educational deprivation and the difficulties confronting Nigerian families.

It cited figures on multidimensional poverty and children’s literacy to argue that the country’s socioeconomic challenges required concrete policy interventions and measurable results rather than an expanded campaign structure.

The organisation also accused the APC of surrounding the President with political loyalists while many Nigerians continued to struggle with the cost of food, education and other basic necessities.

According to the MDPCO, the size of a campaign council was not, in itself, an indication of public support, arguing that voters would ultimately judge the administration by their experiences.

The organisation reaffirmed its confidence in the presidential candidacy of the Allied Peoples Movement’s flagbearer, Engr. Seyi Makinde, whose campaign is anchored on the “Reset Nigeria” agenda.

It said the agenda promised a new national direction centred on service, productivity, accountability, dignity and prosperity.

The opposition campaign organisations maintained that the expansion of the APC Presidential Campaign Council would not, by itself, resolve the economic and security challenges they said were confronting Nigerians.