The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has criticised the recent appointments by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu saying it was a “desperate attempt to buy back the trust that he has spent over a year squandering, particularly in Northern Nigeria.”
The party’s spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, in a statement on Saturday described the appointments as “too little, too late,” and told the president that “you cannot marginalise a region for over twenty-five months and expect applause because you suddenly remembered on the twenty-sixth month that Nigeria is bigger than Lagos State.”
The ADC said these appointments are were made as a result of “political panic management,” adding that it was a face saving to cover up the sidelining of Northern Nigeria by over a year of calculated neglect, presidential arrogance and unprecedented nepotism.
“For over a year, this government turned a blind eye as bandits terrorised villages in the north, as our farmers abandoned their land, and as rural economies crumbled under the weight of poorly thought-out fuel subsidy removal,” Abdullahi said.
“Now, under the rising heat of public discontent, and with the emergence of a formidable opposition coalition gaining traction in the North and across the country, President Tinubu suddenly remembers that there are Nigerians to appoint into positions outside his Lagos.
“Every major decision of this administration, from subsidy removal to a majority of the political appointments, have been taken without the North at the table. Now that the consequences of those decisions have become glaring, the President is doling out appointments as consolation prizes.
“But Northerners as co-owners of our great federal republic know better than to be deceived by these token appointments. They see through President Tinubu’s actions — and can sense that this is not genuine. Tokenism is not inclusion, and symbolism is not governance,” the ADC spokesperson said.
The ADC told the Tinubu administration to abandon what it described as “Bourdillon-style appeasement politics,” and through consultation, policy equity, and sincere federal character carry every segment of the nation along.
“You cannot patch a broken roof with press releases and photo-ops. And you certainly cannot restore the trust that you have lost with the public by pretending that titles are a substitute for genuine commitment to nation-building.”
