The African Democratic Congress (ADC) is calling out President Bola Tinubu's administration, stating the government's sudden urgency to promote Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) for transportation is less about easing Nigerians' pain and more about securing votes for the 2027 elections.
The party, through its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, argued on Friday that after three years of Nigerians grappling with sky-high transport fares, runaway food prices, and a generally weakened economy, this last-minute push for cheaper transportation feels like a political manoeuvre.
According to the ADC, an emergency meeting involving President Tinubu and state governors to discuss lowering transportation costs is a reaction to political pressure, not a sincere response to the hardship citizens have endured. "They left the people to suffer for three years, and now that the election approaches they suddenly realize that they could make transportation cheaper," Abdullahi stated.
The ADC pointed out the timing of the CNG initiative, questioning why it wasn't a priority when the impact of removing petrol subsidies first hit Nigerians hard three years ago. They suggested the government could have acted much sooner.
The party believes this sudden focus on CNG gained momentum only after Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the ADC's presidential candidate, made targeted subsidies and the cost of living central to political discussions. "Why did it take Atiku’s subsidy plan for this government to suddenly start running helter-skelter and to realize the need to bring down the cost of transportation?" Abdullahi asked.
The ADC insists that this latest government intervention reveals that options for softening the economic blow were available all along but were withheld until electoral interests were threatened. "No doubt, if these interventions are possible now, they were possible. The difference is that then, President Tinubu didn't think it was necessary to support suffering citizens until now when he needs their votes," the party said.
They added that Nigerians can easily distinguish between a government that genuinely responds to their struggles and one that merely reacts to the threat of losing an election. "A president who truly cares wouldn't wait for three years and an approaching election before treating the cost of transportation as an emergency," the ADC maintained.
Beyond transportation costs, the ADC also accused the administration of failing to tackle critical issues like insecurity, unemployment, and the overall rising cost of living. The party sees the 2027 election as a moment where the political fallout from these failures will become evident.
"President Tinubu isn't suddenly responding to the suffering of Nigerians. He is responding to ADC and Atiku; he is responding to the impending reality of the 2027 election," the party concluded, suggesting the president's actions are politically motivated rather than driven by concern for the populace.