The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has berated leaders of the opposition coalition who on Wednesday adopted the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as the platform to challenge President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 general election.
The coalition led by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar had adopted the ADC and appointed a former Senate President David Mark and former Interior Minister, Rauf Aregbesola, as interim national chairman and secretary.
In his speech, Mark criticised the Tinubu administration “for its failure to address the avalanche of challenges” bedeviling the country including insecurity, hunger, poverty, corruption and many others.
But reacting, the APC in a statement on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, said, “It was an unveiling of a coalition of hoaxers and self-obsessed merchants of vendetta.”
The APC described Mark’s speech as empty, saying it was characterised by “stitches of untruths, diatribe, and regurgitated and baseless allegations” against the APC-led administration.
The statement reads in parts, “From beginning to end, Senator Mark said nothing about the purpose of the so-called coalition other than a loud declaration of desperation for power. What value does the coalition bring to Nigerians?
“Why should any Nigerian be concerned about a coalition of a bunch of egotistical maniacs for whom power and patronage are the oxygen on which their lives depend? One would have expected that, after months of vacillating between the devil and the deep blue sea, in search of a host platform, Senator Mark and his co-travelers would take Nigerians seriously enough by telling them what their coalition would do differently regarding the administration’s bold economic and sectoral policy reforms.
“What key alternative policy approaches would the coalition implement, and with what prospects of success compared to the high value and transformative impact of the administration’s reform policies?
“What exactly is the philosophical or ideological leaning of the coalition or its new party, aside from desperation for power at all cost, by all means necessary and unnecessary?
“Senator Mark’s speech was loud in its silence to these questions because himself and his coalition partners are disgracefully clueless, without a care or concern about Nigeria and Nigerians, only filled with wolfish quest for power for their own mendacious end.
“They must think Nigerians to be gullible and uncritical. Quite to the contrary, Nigerians are highly perceptive and discerning and will not be taken in by the coalition’s grand folly.”
The APC enumerated the achievements of the Tinubu-led government, saying while coalition members remain preoccupied “swimming in mud and throwing bricks, our great party and President Tinubu remains undisturbed and focused on using all available bricks to building a stronger, enduring and more prosperous nation for this and future generations of Nigerians.”
