ADC: Tinubu’s government exploiting Buhari’s death for political gains

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has hit out at President Bola Tinubu’s government for exploiting the death of Muhammadu Buhari, the former President for political gains.

Bolaji Abdullahi, the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the ADC in a statement on Friday said Tinubu’s government is only whitewashing its battered image with Buhari’s death, calling it a cynical and opportunistic attempt.

The coalition party in the statement also condemned the choreographed Federal Executive Council (FEC) tribute and the publicised appearance of Buhari’s grieving son, Yusuf, as “a calculated public relations (PR) stunt by an unpopular government.”

“The African Democratic Congress (ADC) condemns the Tinubu administration’s sudden and cynical attempt to wrap itself in the memory of the late President Muhammadu Buhari—a man this same government spent over a year blaming, sidelining, and scapegoating for every major challenge confronting the nation,” the statement read in part.

“The choreographed Federal Executive Council (FEC) tribute, complete with a publicised appearance by our late President’s grieving son, was not a demonstration of genuine respect. It was a calculated public relations stunt by an unpopular government, carefully stage-managed to distract Nigerians from the administration’s deepening failures and to rewrite history while the nation mourns.

“This is hypocritical and in bad taste. You cannot spend months discrediting a man’s legacy only to turn around and perform grief for the cameras.

“It is equally troubling that the young man, Mr. Yusuf Buhari, a private citizen and grieving son, was pulled into the political theatre of a Federal Executive Council meeting, just days after burying his father. Nigerians must ask, what kind of government uses the private pain of a bereaved family to varnish its own public image?”

The ADC said Nigerians remember that since taking office, the Tinubu administration and its officials have launched a relentless campaign to disown their predecessor’s policies.

It said they have blamed Buhari for everything , accused him of fiscal recklessness, and claimed to have inherited a broken economy—not from the opposition, but from their own party’s former leader, adding that for months, the official stance of the Tinubu Presidency was that Nigeria’s hardship was Buhari’s fault.

“The message was clear: Buhari was the problem, Tinubu was the solution. But now that it suits their political agenda, they seek to recast themselves as defenders of the late President’s legacy, pretending to give him in death, the honour they denied him while he was alive,” the statement added.

“Recall that earlier this week, the ADC warned the family of the late President of the Plan by government to make political gains from their father’s death. What we witnessed at the Federal Executive Council this week was only a part of the larger plan that had only started to unfold.

“The unfolding stage-managed displays of grief and the exploitation of a mourning son who was compelled to perform gratitude in front of the cameras is unconscionable and must be condemned by all decent people.”