Fix Your Crisis, Presidency Tells ADC

The Presidency yesterday urged the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and its Forum of National Legislators to resolve their internal crisis and stop what it described as needless political noise.

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Special adviser to the president on media and public communications, Mr Sunday Dare, said recent allegations by the ADC against President Bola Tinubu and the administration were baseless, speculative and aimed at attracting attention ahead of the election season.

In a statement, Dare accused the opposition of attempting to blackmail the president, discredit the electoral process and seek sympathy from the international community even before campaigns begin.

He said, “Even before the official commencement of the election season and before the polls open, the opposition, a hurriedly stitched together contraption in search of a launch pad, are screaming blue murder. The script is familiar: attack and blackmail the President, discredit and second guess the electoral process and hold press briefings to flaunt unsubstantiated allegations and lies against the administration.”

Dare said the ADC legislators chose a former chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, Hon. Nnenna Ukeje, as their spokesperson, but added that the party would need more than “sophistry and phonetics” to convince Nigerians.

According to him, the outing by the so-called ADC National Legislators Coalition was “remarkably full of theatrics but expectedly short on substance, restraint and constitutional fidelity.”

He said what Nigerians witnessed was not a principled defence of democracy but “a calculated attempt to weaponise rhetoric, manufacture outrage and distract from internal disarray within a political party struggling to maintain coherence and balance.”

Dare noted that the ADC itself began its press conference by acknowledging Tinubu’s democratic credentials, including his role in strengthening opposition politics, expanding democratic space, defending pluralism and resisting military rule.

He said, “On that point, they were correct and that is because they could not change that solid democratic foundation and narrative of President Bola Tinubu.”

The presidential aide, however, faulted the opposition for later attempting to portray Tinubu as a threat to democracy.

He argued that Tinubu’s democratic values and convictions had remained consistent throughout his political career and could not have suddenly changed overnight.

On the specific issue that triggered the controversy, Dare said the President neither mentioned the ADC by name nor implication in his recent remarks.

He said the party’s decision to assume the comments were directed at it amounted to “self-indictment.”

“If the description of noise resonates, perhaps the issue is not with the statement but with the conduct it reflects,” he added.

Dare said democracy thrives on competition but also requires organisation, coherence and credibility, insisting that disorder cannot be rebranded as authenticity simply because it happens in public.

He also dismissed ADC’s allegations of judicial interference, describing them as speculative and irresponsible.

According to him, Nigeria’s judiciary remains constitutionally independent, and no amount of conjecture can replace evidence.

He warned that attempts to cast doubt on the courts based on political disagreements would weaken institutions rather than protect them.

Dare also defended the Chief of Staff to the President, saying attempts to drag him into the controversy were misplaced.

“The President speaks for himself and through his spokespersons clearly and consistently. Isolated remarks of the Chief of Staff, stripped of context and amplified for political effect, cannot be weaponised into proof of executive interference,” he said.

He added that internal disputes within the ADC could not be outsourced to the Presidency or the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The presidential spokesman said the ADC was grappling with internal fragmentation and had chosen to project its problems outward instead of consolidating its ranks and presenting a credible alternative to Nigerians.

He also criticised what he described as alarmist claims of democratic collapse, institutional capture and authoritarian drift, saying Nigeria’s constitutional order remained intact and the separation of powers was functional.

“No credible evidence has been presented to suggest otherwise. The truth is far less dramatic: internal party disorganisation is being reframed as external persecution,” he said.

Dare further described the ADC as “not a coalition of ideas, but a congregation of political opportunists,” driven more by personal ambition than shared conviction.

He said the party lacked a unifying doctrine and was marked by glaring internal contradictions.

Referring to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, whom he described as the coalition’s chief convener, Dare said Atiku had publicly criticised some of the same political figures he now aligned with.

He claimed Atiku had said one of his Kano allies had relevance only within Kano and had also dismissed a former South-East running mate as unelectable.