The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has “lost control” of his administration, citing the reported leadership crisis at the Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA) as evidence of a Presidency where official appointments can allegedly be ignored without consequence.

Reacting to the development on Friday through its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC said the BCDA dispute, together with the earlier Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) scandal and a pattern of policy reversals, suggested that unelected individuals might have hijacked the President’s constitutional powers to appoint and remove public officers.

The party called on the National Assembly to “immediately exercise its oversight responsibilities and invoke the relevant constitutional provisions” to ascertain the President’s fitness to continue in office.

It added that if the President can no longer assert control over his government, “the honourable course is to acknowledge that reality and resign.”

“The African Democratic Congress is deeply alarmed by yet another bizarre episode in the affairs of the Federal Government, where a man publicly removed from office by presidential directive reportedly continues to occupy that same office and still hold meetings with senior officials of the same government,” the statement said.

“If the reports concerning the Border Communities Development Agency are true, then this is no longer about one disputed appointment. It is about something far more disturbing: 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 ADC said the BCDA episode cannot be dismissed as an isolated incident, noting that it follows the “embarrassing spectacle” of the PFIPC, “a government agency that officially did not exist, yet somehow operated at the highest level of government.”

“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,” the party stated. “Today, Nigerians no longer know whether an appointment announced by the Presidency is final, whether a dismissal actually takes effect, or whether someone somewhere possesses superior authority capable of overruling presidential decisions without explanation.”

The party also cited a “disturbing pattern of public reversals” under the administration, including the suspension of the Cybersecurity Levy and the withdrawal of the Expatriate Employment Levy, saying Nigerians have become accustomed to “a government that announces first, retreats later, and explains afterwards.”

“A government that cannot consistently stand by its own decisions gradually loses not only credibility but also authority. Investors become uncertain. The bureaucracy becomes confused,” the ADC said.

On Wednesday, former Vice President and ADC presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar also weighed in on the BCDA crisis, describing it as “another disgraceful episode” and part of a growing catalogue of administrative confusion.

Speaking through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the controversy has portrayed Nigeria as “a state where official pronouncements no longer command official obedience.”

He called on the Presidency to clarify the legal status of the BCDA leadership and ensure future appointments comply with enabling laws.

The former Vice President also urged President Tinubu to shelve any 2027 re-election bid and focus on governance.

“Having presided over an administration that has lurched from one avoidable controversy to another, President Tinubu should take an honest look at the state of the nation and draw the only honourable conclusion. Rather than diverting public attention to an early re-election campaign, he should devote whatever remains of his tenure to addressing the pressing challenges confronting the nation or, better still, acknowledge that he has fallen short of the expectations of Nigerians and gracefully withdraw from the 2027 presidential contest,” Atiku said. (Tribune News)