Nigeria Opposition Cries Foul: ‘Credible Intel’ Shows Govt Sabotage Attempt

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has raised serious concerns about what it calls a “dangerous political scheme” orchestrated by elements within President Bola Tinubu’s administration to undermine Nigeria’s growing opposition alliance. In a strongly-worded statement issued on Monday, the party’s Interim National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, alleged that former ADC state chairmen and key party executives from the North East and North West zones were recently summoned to a clandestine meeting with top Federal Government officials.

The ADC claims this move represents a desperate attempt to fracture opposition unity ahead of Nigeria’s crucial 2027 elections. According to Abdullahi, the party possesses credible intelligence about these underhanded political maneuvers, which they believe demonstrate the administration’s growing unease about the strengthening opposition coalition.

This revelation comes amid heightened political tensions in Nigeria and raises critical questions about potential interference in the country’s democratic processes. The ADC’s allegations add to a series of recent controversies surrounding the Tinubu administration, while also highlighting the increasing significance of opposition alliances in shaping Nigeria’s political future.

According to the statement, “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”.

According to the ADC, ‘the motive is clear: to sow confusion within the party, delegitimise its new leadership, and derail its rising momentum as the new face of the opposition in Nigeria.

“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 that the country is facing is a coordinated assault on multiparty democracy. This is how one-party states are born—through intimidation.

“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.

“Let it be clear: the coalition movement is an idea whose time has come. This party belongs to every Nigerian who is tired of the lies, the manipulation, and the hardship.

‘It belongs to every Nigerian who wants to restore decency, vision, and justice to governance.

“We would therefore not allow a handful of desperate men to turn Nigeria into a one-party dictatorship. And it would be our patriotic duty to resist it with every democratic means available to us.

“We call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take note of this 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. 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.”