The African Democratic Congress (ADC) says President Bola Tinubu’s “sudden reform push” towards food security is not a product of policy but a “scramble for survival”.

Last week, opposition politicians announced the adoption of the ADC as the coalition platform for the 2027 elections.

Bayo Onanuga, special adviser on information and strategy to the president, in a statement on Saturday, said all bottlenecks hindering the realisation of the agricultural sector’s potential, including livestock production, would be removed to enable food sovereignty and export.

However, in a statement on Sunday, Bolaji Abdullahi, ADC spokesperson, said the government’s policy shift on food security was a panic response to the growing influence of the opposition.

Abdullahi described the presidency’s statement as a “confession of failure,” adding that it was not the hardship faced by Nigerians that prompted the administration’s action, but the fear of losing power in 2027.

“When Bayo Onanuga tweeted that all bottlenecks hindering the administration’s potential would be removed, he didn’t just issue a statement—he admitted that the government sat back while Nigerians went hungry,” the statement reads.

“A confession that this government had, by design, been sitting on its hands while Nigerians starved.

“Now, under mounting political pressure, they want applause for doing the bare minimum? This is not reform. This is not leadership. This is a scramble for survival by an administration that has been cornered by its own failures.

“It took the emergence of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the growing momentum of a united opposition to push this government into action.

“It wasn’t the hunger of hundreds of millions of Nigerians that moved them; it was fear. Fear of the 2027 elections.

“Fear that Nigerians have woken up. Fear that, with a united opposition, 2027 will be a clear-cut election between the APC and the Nigerian people.”

The ADC spokesperson also accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of deliberately weaponising poverty.

He said Onanuga’s comments suggest that the government intentionally failed to act in the last two years while citizens suffered.

“We must all begin to ask this government the obvious questions: If the bottlenecks that Onanuga alluded to in his press statement could have been removed earlier, why did they keep them in place while millions went hungry and businesses collapsed?” he asked.

“Was it so they could stage a last-minute, propaganda-driven performance closer to the 2027 elections?”

He claimed the government’s decisions are politically motivated and aimed at improving its image ahead of the next general election.

“This is a pattern. This is a strategy. This is not a government reacting to an urgent national crisis, it is a political machine managing optics,” he said.

“Every move they have made has been about political calculation ahead of 2027. Nigerians, shine your eyes.”

“The president is not leading. He is campaigning two years early because he knows Nigerians have had enough.

“He is risking the country’s future to secure a second term.

“The worst part? He is risking the country’s future, all in the name of his re-election bid.

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, on Sunday, disclosed that the church almost made a costly mistake in 2023 that would have cost Nigeria its future.

He spoke during the official thanksgiving service for the successful completion of projects commissioned by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at St. James’ Anglican Church, Asokoro in Abuja

He cautioned the church to be careful against making such a similar mistake in 2027.

The Minister urged church leaders to ask politicians in their denominations for advice on what is happening within the political space.

According to Wike: “Let me use this opportunity to tell us, particularly the church you nearly made the worst mistake in 2023, we have to be very careful this time around.

“You took a decision that would have cost some of us our future, ask us questions, we are the politicians.

“You have to be careful of what they tell you, if that thing had happened some of us wouldn’t have been here today.

“If you want us to educate you, call us – you have senators in this church, call on them, askwhat is going on and they would be able to educate you. Blackmail, they are at it again.”