The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has described President Bola Tinubu’s emerging 2027 campaign council as a “rehabilitation centre” for persons facing unresolved corruption questions.
In a statement by Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC National Publicity Secretary, the party questioned the inclusion of former officials Betta Edu and Ngozi Olejeme, calling on the government to disclose whether outstanding corruption cases involving them had been resolved or this appointment is Tinubu’s way of pardoning corrupt officials affiliated with his party.
The party says most of the individuals assembled for the President’s campaign lack credibility, insisting that the 2027 general election is going to be a referendum on Tinubu’s performance in the last three years.
“We have taken note of the composition of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 2027 campaign council. What should ordinarily be a political task team ends up looking like a rehabilitation system for individuals carrying unresolved questions of corruption and public accountability.
“We note, especially the inclusion of former Humanitarian Affairs Minister Betta Edu, who was suspended by President Tinubu following the controversy surrounding the attempted transfer of N585 million into a private account as well as Former NSITF Chairman Ngozi Olejeme, who has faced EFCC prosecution over allegations of financial malpractices , among others whose name carry pungent odour of corruption.
“One important question that the inclusion of these individuals provokes is what happened to the cases involving these individuals. If they have been cleared, the government should show how and when and by whom they were cleared. It has become a familiar pattern under this administration for investigations into financial crimes to quietly disappear only for the accused to suddenly reappear in a different official role.
“Under this government, corruption allegations increasingly appear to have an expiry date. Once a person becomes politically useful enough, yesterday’s questions apparently no longer require today’s answers.”
The statement continued ,”for emphasis, the 2027 election will be a referendum on President Tinubu’s record. The President may assemble his old friends and political allies, including those carrying unresolved corruption questions, but all of their collective brooms cannot sweep away the grave pains they have brought on the Nigerian people. They cannot campaign away the cost of living crisis or the endemic poverty that their bad policies have created.
“For three years, they have told Nigerians who can barely afford food to tighten their belts, while those connected to the government continue to live in obscene opulence, feeding fat on the common wealth. The time for reckoning has come.”
On what it’s presidential candidate ,Alhaji Atiku Abubakar will do, the party said, “we reinstate our commitment to subidise production of fuel as a way of bringing down the pump price of fuel and the general cost of living in the country.
“We have observed the flurry of government sponsored attacks on our proposal for a targeted, capped, budgeted and independently audited subsidy intervention on the grounds that Nigeria cannot afford it.
“However, what we understand the APC government to be saying is that Nigeria cannot afford to protect struggling families. They are saying that a government that has continued to engage in monumental waste of resources cannot afford to help poor Nigerians who are merely struggling to survive.
“Our proposal is straightforward: every naira must be traceable and every barrel accounted for. Before President Tinubu lectures Nigerians about the cost of helping them, he should account for the cost of his own government’s wrong-headed policy that has turned state governors into wastrels and federal agents into profligates.”
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