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By Myke Agunwa
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has faulted suggestions from the Presidency that President Bola Tinubu could remain in office until 2031, insisting that his constitutional mandate ends in 2027.
According to the opposition party, any plan to extend Tinubu’s stay in office beyond 2027 would be disastrous for the nation.
The Presidency had responded to comments by former Kaduna State Governor, Nasiru El-Rufai, who warned that Tinubu risked becoming another “Paul Biya” if re-elected in 2027. Clarifying its position, the Presidency said Tinubu does not intend to be a lifetime President and that his tenure would end in 2031.
Reacting in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC argued that Nigerians have endured enough hardship under Tinubu’s administration and would not wish to extend his tenure by “a single day” beyond May 2027.
“Given the spate of banditry and killings across the country, the widespread hunger and suffering, the punitive taxes, and the flagrant abuse of power at a scale never seen before, the President should be preparing to leave in 2027. Any plan to stay in office beyond that date would indeed be a confirmation that this government is incapable of reading the room,” the statement read.
The ADC described the Presidency’s response as evidence that presidential aides were “out of touch with reality” and had become “dangerously self-satisfied.” It said Tinubu’s suggestion of remaining in office until 2031 betrayed a mindset that treated re-election as a mere formality rather than a constitutional test of performance.
“Re-election is not automatic, and President Tinubu has not earned a second term. In two short years, he has divided the country like no other President before him and sent millions of Nigerians deeper into poverty. More innocent lives have been lost under him, while bandits now control large swathes of the North,” the party charged.
The ADC further accused the government of failing in its most basic duty of security. “Under his watch, national security has degenerated into a cruel joke. Terrorists, bandits, and criminals operate with total impunity. Citizens are kidnapped in broad daylight. Rural communities have become warzones. Insecurity has metastasized into national trauma, and the government has neither the will nor the capacity to stop it,” the statement declared.
On the economy, the opposition party said the country was in “free fall.” It lamented the collapse of the naira, uncontrolled inflation, skyrocketing food prices, and the erosion of the middle class. “Businesses that once thrived are collapsing under punitive taxes and policy inconsistencies. Nigerians are now poorer, hungrier, and angrier than they were before Tinubu took office,” the ADC noted.
The party also decried the condition of the power sector, saying it remains “comatose despite yet another cycle of empty promises.” According to the statement, blackouts have become the norm, billions have been wasted, and the national grid continues to collapse.
It added that Nigeria’s social development indices were worsening, pointing to underfunded education, a failing healthcare system, and millions of out-of-school children. “The youth—Nigeria’s greatest asset—are increasingly hopeless, jobless, and restless. Meanwhile, government intervention remains cosmetic,” it stressed.
The ADC accused the Tinubu administration of authoritarian tendencies, human rights abuses, and disregard for the rule of law. “Court orders are ignored, journalists are harassed, and peaceful protesters brutalized. Transparency and fiscal discipline have become relics of a forgotten era. Budget padding, wasteful spending, opaque palliatives, and inexplicable loans have defined its fiscal conduct. The fuel subsidy saga alone remains a national scandal,” the statement read.
Concluding, the ADC insisted that the Tinubu government has failed comprehensively and warned that talk of a second term was both “insensitive and dangerous.”
“It is not only insensitive but downright reckless for anyone in the Presidency to speak of a second term instead of plotting an exit in 2027. Nigerians deserve better,” the party said.