You can’t be life president, Nigeria isn’t Lagos – ADC tells Tinubu
The African Democratic Congress, ADC, has asked President Bola Tinubu to prepare to leave office at the end of his current term in 2027, declaring that he has not done enough to deserve a second tenure.
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the party faulted recent remarks by presidential aide Bayo Onanuga suggesting that Tinubu has no intention of leaving office before 2031.
The ADC described Onanuga’s position as “presumptuous and patently undemocratic,” insisting that the president’s mandate ends in 2027.
“The presidency’s desperate response to the recent remarks by former governor Nasir El-Rufai that President Bola Tinubu has plans to be a life president only serves to confirm what Nigerians have long suspected: this administration is not only out of touch with reality, it has also become dangerously self-satisfied,” the statement read.
The opposition party said Tinubu has presided over deepening insecurity, worsening poverty, and a collapsing economy in just two years in power.
It accused him of dividing the country, taxing Nigerians “to death,” and presiding over an era where bandits control vast swathes of the North while citizens are kidnapped and killed with impunity.
“The economy, meanwhile, is in free fall. The naira has collapsed. Inflation is out of control. Food prices have tripled in many parts of the country. Jobs are vanishing. The middle class is disappearing.
“Businesses that once thrived are collapsing under the weight of punitive taxes and policy inconsistencies. Nigerians are now poorer, hungrier, and angrier than they were before Tinubu took office,” the ADC said.
The party also accused the administration of authoritarian tendencies, citing harassment of journalists, brutality against protesters, and disregard for court orders.
It said Tinubu’s governance has become opaque, riddled with fiscal indiscipline, and tainted by scandals such as the “subsidy removal saga.”
On the power sector, the ADC dismissed government claims of reform, saying blackouts remain the norm despite repeated promises and spending.
It added that Nigeria’s social indices continue to slide, with worsening education and healthcare systems and a restless, jobless youth population.
“Given this comprehensive failure, it is not only insensitive but downright dangerous for anyone in the Tinubu presidency to speak so glibly of a second term.
“The President should not be plotting to stay. He should be preparing to leave. He has done enough damage,” the statement stressed.
The ADC warned that Nigerians would not tolerate any attempt to extend Tinubu’s rule beyond the constitutional limit.
“Let it be said clearly and without ambiguity: Nigeria is not Lagos. Nigerians are watching. And come 2027, it won’t be APC versus ADC, it will be APC versus the Nigerian people,” it declared.
