*ADC raises alarm over ‘appointment fiasco’ in Tinubu administration*

The African Democratic Congress, ADC, has raised the alarm over what it described as an ‘appointment fiasco’ in the President Bola Tinubu administration.

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the party said the National Assembly must determine whether the President remains fit to discharge the duties of his office.

The ADC said it was alarmed by reports that a man publicly removed from office by presidential directive allegedly continues to occupy that office and hold meetings with senior government officials.

According to the party, if reports concerning the Border Communities Development Agency, BCDA, are true, then the issue goes beyond one disputed appointment.

“Who is actually in charge of the Nigerian Presidency? When a President announces the appointment of one person and another simply ignores that directive and carries on in office, Nigeria is no longer witnessing administrative confusion. We are witnessing a struggle for control of the Presidency itself,” the statement said.

The ADC said the BCDA episode cannot be dismissed as isolated, citing what it called a growing pattern. 

It referenced the alleged “phantom Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, PFIPC,” which it said “officially did not exist, yet somehow operated at the highest level of government with the confidence of a legitimate institution.”

The party claimed the matter only came to light after allegations emerged of the fake Director-General’s collaboration with the President’s Chief of Staff.

“Taken together, 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,” it added.

The ADC further said Nigerians no longer know whether a presidential appointment is final, whether a dismissal takes effect, or whether “someone somewhere possesses a superior authority capable of overruling presidential decisions without explanation.”

“Effectively, the Tinubu administration has become a place where official announcements compete with unofficial power, where competing interests fight over appointments and patronage. Under President Tinubu, the Nigerian Presidency, like the Nigerian economy and Nigeria’s security situation, has started to resemble a system governed by the principle of survival of the fittest,” it said.

The party also cited a pattern of public policy reversals, including the suspension of the Cybersecurity Levy after nationwide outrage and the withdrawal of the Expatriate Employment Levy following resistance from investors.

“A government that cannot consistently stand by its own decisions gradually loses not only credibility, but authority. Investors become uncertain. The bureaucracy becomes confused. Public institutions begin to test the limits of their power because they no longer know whether today’s directive will still exist tomorrow,” the ADC stated.

The party demanded answers beyond “carefully managed press statements.”

“Who is exercising the constitutional powers of the President? Who authorises appointments? Who countermanded the President’s directive at the BCDA, if indeed it has been countermanded? Who permitted a fictitious agency to masquerade as an arm of the Presidency? 

“These are not opposition questions. They are constitutional questions. They go directly to the integrity of executive authority and the stability of our nation.”