Get Guardian on GoogleTHE African Democratic Congress (ADC) has described the newly released 2027 manifesto of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a shameless repackaging of promises made in 2023, claiming that many of the promises have remained unfulfilled.
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC said the document reads like the manifesto of a new political party seeking power for the first time, rather than one that has governed Nigeria since 2015 and presided over the worst affordability crisis Nigerians have experienced under the current administration.
“The fundamental question Nigerians must ask is simple: Why is a government campaigning on promises it should already have fulfilled? President Tinubu has been in office since May 2023. The APC has controlled the Federal Government for nearly twelve years. Yet, reading this manifesto, one would think they are only now discovering the problems they were elected to solve.
“In 2023, President Tinubu promised health insurance for 40 per cent of Nigerians within two years. Today, barely one in ten Nigerians is covered, and the same target has been moved to 2031. He promised one million ICT jobs within 24 months. His government’s own figures indicate only about 15,000 jobs and opportunity pathways.
“In 2023, the APC described electricity supply of 4,500 megawatts as a crisis. Its new manifesto acknowledges average generation of just 4,022 megawatts. How does a government campaign to solve a crisis it has made remarkably worse?
“Most astonishingly, President Tinubu now promises a programme for his first 100 days after re-election, including measures he already possesses the executive powers to implement right now. What exactly is stopping him from acting today? What stopped him from acting in 2023 when he came into office?”
The ADC emphasized that Nigerians should not have to re-elect a President to get him to do the job they elected him to do four years earlier.
“Tinubu wants Nigerians to forget that poverty has risen to 63 per cent under his watch; that the N70,000 minimum wage has lost more than a quarter of its purchasing power, and that millions of families can no longer afford the basic necessities of life.
“Yet, rather than account for the hardship he has inflicted on Nigerians and his long catalogue of failures across the economy and security sectors, the president and his party have the temerity to present another colourful brochure full of the same undelivered promises.
“A manifesto is a promise of what a party will do. A record is evidence of what it has done. After eleven years, the APC cannot keep presenting promises as a substitute for performance.
“The ADC demands that President Tinubu account for every major promise he made to Nigerians in 2023 before presenting another manifesto in 2027. He must tell Nigerians, clearly and publicly, what he promised, what he delivered, what he failed to deliver, and why. He cannot simply shift the deadlines he missed, recycle the promises he broke, and expect Nigerians to reward him with another four years. The President must understand that 2027 is first a referendum on his abysmal record since 2023, not an opportunity to pretend that his presidency is just about to begin.
“Nigeria needs a change of government, not another change of slogans.”
