Abuja – The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has dismissed the latest round of federal appointments announced by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, describing them as a “desperate, cynical attempt” to regain the trust of Northern Nigerians after months of alleged neglect and marginalization.
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In a strongly worded statement issued on Saturday by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC accused the Tinubu administration of engaging in “political panic management,” claiming the appointments are belated and insincere.
“You cannot marginalise a region for over twenty-five months and expect applause because you suddenly remembered on the twenty-sixth month that Nigeria is bigger than Lagos State,” the party said.
The ADC argued that the North has borne the brunt of the government’s policies, including the removal of fuel subsidy, which it said devastated rural economies and deepened insecurity across many parts of the region.
“For over a year, this government turned a blind eye as bandits terrorised villages in the North, as our farmers abandoned their land, and as rural economies crumbled,” Abdullahi stated. “Now, under the rising heat of public discontent, and with the emergence of a formidable opposition coalition, President Tinubu suddenly remembers that there are Nigerians to appoint into positions outside his Lagos.”
The party described the move as a superficial attempt to quell discontent rather than a meaningful step toward national inclusion. “Tokenism is not inclusion, and symbolism is not governance,” Abdullahi stressed.
The ADC also warned against what it called “Bourdillon-style appeasement politics,” urging the Tinubu administration to move beyond symbolic gestures and adopt a genuinely inclusive approach to governance that reflects Nigeria’s diversity.
“You cannot patch a broken roof with press releases and photo-ops,” the party said. “And you certainly cannot restore the trust that you have lost with the public by pretending that titles are a substitute for genuine commitment to nation-building.”
The statement concluded with a call for the government to embrace policy equity and uphold the federal character principle in both action and spirit.
