The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has told President Bola Tinubu that he cannot buy the North with token federal appointments.
The party was reacting to fresh appointments of persons of northern extraction made by President Tinubu on Friday.
Mohammed Babangida, the first son of former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida was one of the new appointees.
But in a statement on Saturday, the spokesman of the ADC, Bolaji Abdullahi, likened the appointments to “Bourdillon-style appeasement politics.”
The party said the appointments were “a desperate, cynical attempt to buy back the trust that he has spent over a year squandering, particularly in Northern Nigeria.”
The ADC dismissed the appointments as “too little, too late,” adding that, “you cannot marginalise a region for over twenty-five months and expect applause because you suddenly remembered on the twenty-sixth month that Nigeria is bigger than Lagos State.”
The new opposition party further said the appointments were nothing more than “political panic management” and “a frantic attempt to bandage the gaping wounds inflicted on Northern Nigeria by over a year of calculated neglect, presidential arrogance and unprecedented nepotism.”
Continuing, the ADC said, “For over a year, this government turned a blind eye as bandits terrorised villages in the north, as our farmers abandoned their land, and as rural economies crumbled under the weight of poorly thought-out fuel subsidy removal.
“Now, under the rising heat of public discontent, and with the emergence of a formidable opposition coalition gaining traction in the North and across the country, President Tinubu suddenly remembers that there are Nigerians to appoint into positions outside his Lagos.
“Every major decision of this administration, from subsidy removal to a majority of the political appointments, have been taken without the North at the table.
“Now that the consequences of those decisions have become glaring, the President is doling out appointments as consolation prizes.
“But Northerners, as co-owners of our great federal republic, know better than to be deceived by these token appointments.
“They see through President Tinubu’s actions — and can sense that this is not genuine. Tokenism is not inclusion, and symbolism is not governance.”
The party urged the Tinubu administration to abandon what it described as “Bourdillon-style appeasement politics,” and embrace real national inclusion through consultation, policy equity, and sincere federal character.
“You cannot patch a broken roof with press releases and photo-ops. And you certainly cannot restore the trust that you have lost with the public by pretending that titles are a substitute for genuine commitment to nation-building,” the ADC added.
