The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has raised alarm over what it described as a “desperate and dangerous plot” by elements within the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to destabilise the growing opposition coalition in Nigeria.
In a statement issued on Monday, the party’s Interim National Publicity Secretary and National Coalition Spokesperson, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, alleged that former state chairmen and senior members of the party’s executive committees in the North East and North West have been invited to a secret meeting with top federal government officials.
“We have credible intelligence that the aim of this meeting is not for national security or peacebuilding. It is to intimidate, coerce, and if possible, co-opt these individuals into a fabricated scheme against the opposition coalition. This is not politics. This is sabotage,” the statement read.
The ADC said the covert meeting was part of a wider plan to sow confusion within the party, delegitimise its newly formed leadership, and halt its momentum as the emerging voice of opposition in the country.
“Let it be clear, this surreptitious dalliance with the ADC State Chairpersons by appointees of the federal government—who should be focused on urgent national security priorities and challenges facing the country—is a coordinated assault on multiparty democracy. This is how one-party states are born—through intimidation,” the party warned.
The ADC pointed to the July 1st Coalition Declaration and the July 2nd unveiling of the party’s new leadership as key developments that have rattled the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), claiming the Tinubu-led government was reverting to tactics of opposition destabilisation.
“The July 1st Coalition Declaration, and the July 2nd unveiling of the ADC, have clearly rattled the ruling party. It is now obvious that the Tinubu administration—having lost the trust of the Nigerian people—cannot withstand the pressure of a united and credible opposition. But rather than correct its ways, it has resorted to its old playbook of destabilising opposition parties,” the statement continued.
Abdullahi asserted that the coalition movement is not merely a political alliance but “an idea whose time has come,” representing all Nigerians tired of “lies, manipulation, and hardship.”
“This party belongs to every Nigerian who wants to restore decency, vision, and justice to governance. We will not allow a handful of desperate men to turn Nigeria into a one-party dictatorship. And it will be our patriotic duty to resist it with every democratic means available to us,” he vowed.
The ADC also issued a direct appeal to President Tinubu, urging him to rein in members of his administration allegedly involved in these plots.
“We call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take note of these sinister moves by some of his appointees and call them to order. The President needs to prove to Nigerians that he is indeed a Democrat,” the statement said.
“He needs to remind his men that if the Goodluck Jonathan administration were as intolerant and as subversive of the opposition, the APC would not have come to power in 2015, and he would not have been a President today.”
The statement concluded with a strong message that the ADC remains committed to defending democracy and resisting political intimidation.
