The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has stated that it seeks a Nigeria where everyone is safe, rather than one filled with excuses and lamentations. In an open letter addressed to Nigerians, the party paid tribute to all those who sacrificed, struggled, and stood firm in defense of the democratic freedoms enjoyed today.
June 12: A Reminder of Democratic Struggles
According to the opposition party, June 12 remains one of the most important dates in national history, serving as a reminder that the Nigerian people have always believed their voices matter. The ADC emphasized that Democracy Day must be more than a celebration of the past; it must also involve an honest reckoning with the present.
Measuring Democracy Beyond Years
The party argued that democracy is not measured by the number of years since military rule ended but by the meaning it has brought to citizenship and the freedoms it has provided to citizens. These include freedom from fear, freedom from poverty, freedom to participate, and freedom to choose. The ADC questioned whether citizens are safer, families live better, young people get opportunities, institutions command public trust, and government remains accountable to the people.
Twenty-seven years after the return to democratic rule and three years into the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC), the ADC posed simple questions to Nigerians: Is your life better today than in the past? Do you feel safer? Do you trust the government more? The party asserted that the answers are painfully clear: a resounding no.
Insecurity and Economic Hardship
In the letter signed by ADC's National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party noted that across vast stretches of Nigeria, insecurity continues to cast a shadow over everyday life. The ADC described life in Nigeria as a Hobbesian reality: nasty, brutish, and short. Every day, Nigerians are killed in their dozens and kidnapped in their hundreds. Bandits and other criminal elements openly negotiate ransoms and set the terms of coexistence.
The party stressed that the most important job of a government is to protect its citizens, but questioned whether anyone believes the current government can protect anybody. This has led to entire villages being deserted, schools hurriedly shut, and children withdrawn even during examinations. The ADC argued that the government is getting weaker while criminals grow stronger.
At the same time, a severe cost-of-living crisis continues to squeeze households across the country. Prices of food, transportation, housing, healthcare, and education have risen beyond the reach of millions of ordinary citizens. Workers watch their incomes lose value, small businesses struggle to survive, and parents make impossible choices between feeding their families, paying school fees, and meeting basic household needs.
Youth and Institutional Erosion
The ADC highlighted that young people, who should be the engine of national renewal and economic growth, increasingly confront a future defined by uncertainty. Many cannot find meaningful employment, and many others no longer see a future within Nigeria's borders. A generation that should be building Nigeria is instead searching for opportunities elsewhere.
Most troubling, according to the ADC, is the erosion of public confidence in democratic institutions. Nigerians increasingly question whether government listens, whether institutions serve the public interest, and whether democracy is delivering on its most basic promise: that the people should have both a voice and a stake in the future of their country.
The party emphasized that these are not opposition talking points but the concerns of a nation demanding not excuses but answers, not propaganda but performance, and not promises but progress.
Honoring Democracy Day Through Honesty
The ADC believes the most meaningful way to honor the democratic struggle of June 12 is not through self-congratulation but through honesty. This involves speaking truthfully about the condition of the country, acknowledging the hardships people face, and presenting a credible path forward.
While Nigeria faces profound challenges, the ADC rejects the notion that decline is inevitable. It rejects the idea that insecurity is a natural extension of global insecurity and therefore unavoidable. It also rejects that the hardships faced are a necessary sacrifice for a better tomorrow.
ADC's Critique of APC
The ADC stated that all the afflictions Nigerians face are direct manifestations of the ruling party's (APC) representation. Insecurity reflects their incompetence and indifference. Growing poverty reflects their wrong-headed economic policy that celebrates statistics but remains indifferent to human suffering. Weak institutions reflect their brazen lack of accountability and wanton disrespect for the rule of law.
The ADC accused the APC of telling Nigerians to endure, claiming there is light at the end of the tunnel, while they live a life of obscene luxury and excess. The ruling party tells citizens that there is no alternative to the policies causing pain and suffering, asking them to give more opportunity to do more damage.
ADC's Alternative Approach
The opposition emphasized that the APC government has no solution to insecurity, only condolence messages and empty threats to bandits and criminals. Similarly, they have no solution to the cost-of-living crisis, only propaganda and more promises of a better future.
The ADC insists that there are alternatives and that insecurity, fear, and poverty are not inevitable or insurmountable. Security is not just a military challenge but a national development challenge requiring intelligence, technology, coordination, accountability, and community partnership. The party criticized successive governments for approaching insecurity through reactive measures: criminals attack, government responds, criminals regroup, and government responds again, resulting in an endless cycle of violence without a sustainable prevention strategy.
Security Policy Framework
The ADC stressed that Nigeria must adopt a fundamentally different approach. The party's policy framework recognizes that security must be intelligence-led, technology-enabled, community-informed, and locally responsive. The ADC believes that state and local authorities should play a greater role in securing their communities, working in partnership with federal institutions. Security agencies must be better equipped, better coordinated, and more accountable for outcomes. Intelligence gathering must become proactive rather than reactive.
Protection of farming communities, food-producing regions, schools, transportation corridors, and critical infrastructure must become a national priority. Most importantly, security spending must be judged not by how much money is appropriated but by whether citizens are safer.
The measure of success is not the size of a budget but whether a farmer can return safely to his farm, a trader can travel without fear, parents can send their children to school without anxiety, and citizens can live, work, worship, and pursue opportunity in peace. The ADC declared that by this standard, the current administration has failed.
Economic Policy and Democracy
The ADC believes that democracy must mean more than the right to vote; it must also mean the opportunity to work, provide for one's family, and live with dignity. While the government points to economic reforms and improving macroeconomic indicators, Nigerians do not live inside economic reports and global ratings. Economic growth means little if citizens do not feel its benefits, and reform means little if not accompanied by relief.
Therefore, the ADC believes that economic policy must ultimately be judged by one simple standard: whether it improves the lives of ordinary Nigerians. Growth must be inclusive, prosperity must be broad-based, and every Nigerian willing to work hard should have a realistic pathway to economic advancement.
The promise of democracy is not merely freedom but the opportunity to build a better life. For too many Nigerians, that promise remains unfulfilled.
ADC's Vision for a Better Nigeria
The African Democratic Congress argued that there is a better way to do things in Nigeria than just paying lip service. At the heart of the ADC's vision is a simple principle: government must work for the people. Every policy, reform, budget, and institution should put the Nigerian people first.
The ADC's policy framework includes humane economic reform. The party plans to bring down the cost of energy, put more money in people's pockets, cut the cost of governance, reduce waste, simplify taxation, protect low-income earners, support small businesses, and ensure that economic growth translates into lower prices, more jobs, and higher living standards.
Food security must become a national priority, as a nation that cannot feed itself cannot truly prosper. The ADC will place farmers at the center of agricultural policy, expand mechanization, revive irrigation infrastructure, strengthen food reserves, improve storage and logistics systems, and take deliberate action to reduce food inflation and protect households from sudden price shocks.
Democracy must be accountable. Government spending must be transparent, public institutions must work, corruption must be prevented before it occurs, the rule of law must apply equally to everyone, and elected officials must remember that public office is a trust, not an entitlement. The ADC will strengthen transparency, publish legislative voting records, reform electoral administration, and restore public confidence in democratic institutions. These principles are encapsulated in the governance and ethical framework of the party, embedded in its constitution as a living standard by which the government would be held accountable.
The ADC believes that government should once again be judged by results—not by headlines, speeches, or excuses, but by whether Nigerians are safer, more prosperous, and can once again believe that their country is moving in the right direction.
That is the Nigeria the ADC seeks to build, and that is the choice before the nation. The party wished Nigerians a happy Democracy Day.
