A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, has said President Bola Tinubu is rattled by the growing influence of the African Democratic Congress.
Babachir insisted that the president’s recent remarks reflect deep concern ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Babachir, who also serves as ADC National Deputy Chairman, stated this during an appearance on Channels Television’s Inside Sources on Sunday.
He stated the coalition was committed to rescuing Nigeria from what he described as the hardship the All Progressives Congress had placed on Nigerians.
He said, “Now, ADC means we need to rescue Nigeria because Nigeria is in dire stress. Nigeria is facing insecurity of unimaginable proportions. I know a government that is careless about it. Nigerians are facing an economic crisis of unimaginable proportions. It is difficult now to feed and to pay school fees. It is difficult to go to work, to the extent that civil servants or workers generally do shifts because you cannot fuel your car from Nyanya to Abuja and back and still have something left in your salary to pay rent, to eat, to pay medical bills, to pay school fees for your children, talk more of clothing yourselves.
“So, the position we find ourselves in Nigeria is that we are all in danger. In danger. In danger of losing our lives to all manner of insecurity, to all sorts of people. Others call them bandits. Others call them Boko Haram. Others call them insurgents. Whatever you call them, there is one knocking behind your door to harm you. Kidnappers are there, apart from the normal armed robbery that we are used to. So Nigeria, every Nigerian is in danger of losing his life, of starving to death, of being unable to live the life that we are expected to live under a good Nigerian government.”
Babachir said the ADC believed it was critical to work to get Nigerians out of the condition he said the current government had created.
“We are under hostage. We are held hostage by people who are more interested in power and wealth than in the safety, security, and well-being of our people. So we need to rescue all of us. I believe even President Tinubu himself needs to be rescued from himself,” he said.
He was particularly pointed in his assessment of Tinubu’s recent public remarks, saying, “Bola, in the condition he finds himself right now, needs to be rescued from himself. A president who brags that because he is now in power, things will be easier for him in the general election is somebody who has lost all sense of decorum, has lost all sense of what politics is all about. It is about electing a leader and judging him if he fails to perform based on expectations. So if Bola thinks that he is a democrat, and I think he likes to see himself as one, he should not have said what he said.”
Babachir also claimed that APC governors were merely misleading the president, saying: “He is in panic because even the 31 governors that you say are with him are not with him sincerely, and he knows it.”
He further alleged that Tinubu was personally behind efforts to suppress the opposition, saying: “Hitherto, I have always told people that I do not think Bola is directly aware of what his subordinates are doing to muzzle the opposition. So, being a democrat from his background, I always thought it was lieutenants who wanted to please the boss that had gone overboard. But listening to that interview, I realized that he is the architect of it all.”
The African Democratic Congress has in recent months emerged as a major opposition platform ahead of the 2027 general elections, following the defection of several prominent politicians from the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, ex-Anambra Governor Peter Obi, and former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi were among the high-profile figures who attended the ADC’s national convention on April 14, signalling the party’s growing ambitions as a third-force movement.
Tinubu, responding to criticism from the ADC leaders at the convention, told a meeting of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors on April 16 that he would not be intimidated.
He also described the ADC gathering as a “street convention” and accused the coalition of attempting to hijack the party.
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