ABUJA – The Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, Mr Bayo Onanuga, has dismissed the emerging opposition coalition led by the African Democratic Congress (ADC), describing it as a grouping driven by “hatred” for the president and lacking any clear ideology.
Onanuga’s comments followed the unveiling of the ADC as a new platform by several high-profile political figures, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate Peter Obi, former Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi, and ex-Kaduna governor Nasir el-Rufai. The coalition has declared its intention to unseat President Tinubu in the 2027 general elections.
Reacting in a statement posted on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle on Thursday, Onanuga said the coalition is a gathering of “desperados” motivated by personal ambition, not the public interest.
“Some members of the hijacked ADC, who were reported as members of the APC, left the APC years and months ago. Let the public not be deceived by the opposition’s narrative about their relevance or whether the APC will mourn their departure,” he stated.
Onanuga named former ministers Rotimi Amaechi, Abubakar Malami, Hadi Sirika, former Osun State governor Rauf Aregbesola, Kashim Imam, and ex-APC national chairman John Odigie Oyegun as either expelled from or disenchanted with the APC.
He described the coalition as a political formation with no coherent agenda, warning Nigerians not to fall for what he termed a desperate attempt by power-seeking politicians.
“A political party with no clear agenda or ideology—whose members are united only by their hatred for President Tinubu—cannot be good for our country. It will only set us back by decades,” Onanuga wrote.
He added that the group’s internal contradictions and clashing personal ambitions would likely cause it to collapse before the next elections.
“These politicians are desperados, hungry for power, not for the benefit of Nigerians but for themselves,” he said. “They want power at all costs because they cannot endure another four years in the political wilderness or be banished to political winter and irrelevance.”
The statement reflects the presidency’s growing pushback against what appears to be a rising opposition front ahead of the 2027 polls.
