The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has said the report that the Executive Secretary of the Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA), Dr Dakorinama Alabo George, continued to occupy his office and hold meetings with senior officials of government after his removal showed that President Bola Tinubu is losing control of his government.
ADC, in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, recalled that under the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government, a fake government agency, Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), operated at the highest level of government, and conducted itself with the confidence of a legitimate institution until issues arose relating to his alleged collaboration with the president’s Chief of Staff.
According to the party, “these episodes reveal a presidency steadily losing its monopoly over one of the most fundamental powers of government – the constitutional authority to appoint and remove public officers.”
ADC stated that Nigerians no longer know whether an appointment announced by the presidency is final, whether a dismissal actually takes effect, or whether someone somewhere possesses a superior authority capable of overruling presidential decisions without explanation.
The party added that the “Tinubu administration has become a place where official announcements compete with unofficial power, where competing interests fight over appointments and patronage.”
It regretted that under President Tinubu’s administration, “the Nigerian presidency, like the Nigerian economy and Nigeria’s security situation, has started to resemble a system governed by the principle of the survival of the fittest.”
The party also noted what it described as “a disturbing pattern of public reversals” that has become the defining feature of the APC administration.
These, according to the ADC, included the suspension of the Cybersecurity Levy after nationwide outrage, the withdrawal of the Expatriate Employment Levy following resistance from investors, as well as other policy somersaults and contradictory government announcements across several sectors.
The party described the APC as “a government that announces first, retreats later, and explains afterwards.”
It added that a government that cannot consistently stand by its own decisions gradually loses not only credibility but authority.
The party demanded to know who countermanded the President’s directive at the BCDA, and who permitted a fictitious agency to masquerade as an arm of the presidency?
This, the ADC stated, is not about politics but about the integrity of executive authority and the stability of the nation.
It added that a country where citizens, investors, diplomats and even public servants doubt whether the signature of the president is the final authority of the executive arm of the federal government is a country in serious trouble.
The party called on the National Assembly to immediately exercise its oversight responsibilities and invoke the relevant constitutional provisions to know if President Tinubu is capable in body and sound mind to discharge the duties of his office, and that the powers vested in him by the Constitution are being personally exercised by him, not appropriated by unelected interests operating behind the scenes.
“If President Tinubu is unable to assert control over his own presidency, then the honourable course is to acknowledge that reality and resign.
“Nigeria cannot afford a presidency where nobody knows who is truly in charge,” ADC demanded.
