A former member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, Adamu Waziri, has accused the administration of President Bola Tinubu of inflicting hardship on Nigerians in the last two years.

Waziri, who is a member of the African Democratic Alliance — the platform of the opposition coalition — stated this on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Friday, adding that Nigeria would not make progress without the right leadership.

“We are asking for Nigerians to give us three months. The Bola Tinubu administration is asking for Nigerians to give it another two years.

“What are the records? The two years of Bola Tinubu have inflicted severe pain on Nigeria,” the former Minister of Police Affairs said.

“That’s why some are saying that if you give it another two years, it will be a catastrophe. So, if you are ready to wait for two years, we are saying don’t wait for two years. Give us the next two years so that we can change this country,” he added.

Waziri said that the government of the ruling All Progressives Congress would be removed democratically, dismissing thoughts that there were plans to topple Tinubu’s administration.

He stated, “If I have the democratic means to remove this government tomorrow, I will move this government. But I don’t have that which means I have to wait for two years to do so.

“We are not toppling this government. We are going to democratically remove this government. It is cheap blackmail to say people are planning to oust this government.

“No, we are challenging this government on the democratic process and to remove it. If I can do that, if there is a way that constitutionality and democracy allow us to remove this government tomorrow, we will do it.”

The former minister said nobody other than Nigerians can turn around the fortunes of the country and save it from its current state, which he described as a “catastrophe of enormous proportion”.

He said the key members of the ADC —including a former vice president, Atiku Abubakar; a former Anambra State governor, Peter Obi; a former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai; and former governors of Rivers and Osun states, Rotimi Amaechi and Rauf Aregbesola, respectively — were competent people with records of service that would be beneficial to the party and masses.

It said the ADC would reverse a “couple of things” that the APC administration inflicted on Nigerians.

“What we have now is the negativity of all those good things we are expecting from a democratic leadership.

“Therefore, I am championing, among other patriotic Nigerians, to pursue the past whereby come 2027, the current leadership of Nigeria will be replaced by a more competent, more nationalistic, less corrupt, less tribalistic, less nepotic person to bring some measure of hope and good governance in Nigeria,” he added.

On the issue of zoning and calls for the South to complete its eight years at the presidency, he said such talks would not take Nigeria anywhere.

“I desist from reducing myself to North and South politics. I am for a Nigerian who will bring about some cohesion, who will stamp out corruption, who will penalise corrupt practices, who will not be nepotic, who will redress the economic hardship Nigerians are facing,” he added.

Opposition Coalition

The opposition coalition , which comprising two 2023 presidential candidates — Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Obi of the Labout Party (LP) — adopted the ADC as its political party, as part of efforts to defeat the ruling APC in the 2027 general elections.

It has a former senate president, David Mark, and Aregbesola as Interim Chairman and National Secretary, respectively.

But the APC and the Presidency said a coalition against President Tinubu in 2027 would fail.

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, also faulted the coalition, describing the leading members of the group as people who failed Nigerians when they had the chance and would not return to power. (Channels TV)