ACF slams Tinubu for emphasising 2027 campaign over national issues.
The Arewa Consultative Forum, or ACF, has expressed disappointment that the ruling All Progressives Congress, or APC, led by President Bola Tinubu, is more concerned with unprecedented early campaigns, defections to its fold, and other re-election manoeuvres in 2027 than with addressing the nation’s security challenges and other existential issues.
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Professor Muhammad-Baba, the ACF lamented that public policy responses to the insecurity situation, particularly in the country’s north, had remained ineffective, despite public officials’ profligacy and reckless spending in contrast to citizen sacrifices.
ACF stated: “A most absurd example of reckless profligacy in public expenditure has been the revelation concerning insertions in the 2025 federal budget for the provision of streetlights at startling and unthinkable rates of over N260 million each.
“The fact that there has been no official rejection of such blatantly reckless and surreal insertions demonstrates the insensitivity of public authorities and political leaders to the misery of ordinary Nigerians, whose living conditions continue to deteriorate all around.
“Based on precedent, such budgetary insertions are repeated in various ways at the state level. As ACF noted a year ago, the existential difficulties outlined above are symptomatic of a deep illness in the political economy that requires immediate public policy response.
“Delusional hubris and head-in-the-sand statements continue to characterise pronouncements by officials charged with security responsibilities in contrast to screams of state governors on the ground in places.”Such obsessions and claims often ignore the potential for widespread disillusionment, despair, discontent, hopelessness, and distress among the population.
“It is a telling testament to Nigerians’ admirable resilience, which we should not underestimate, that they can still endure and celebrate occasions like Eid.”
The forum also congratulated the Muslim communities of Nigeria on the occasion of Eid-el-Kabir, calling it as a solemn reminder of the importance of humanity’s ideals of sacrifice, fellowship, and devotion in recognition of Almighty God’s generosity.
It observed that the Eid-el-Kabir celebration took place in the midst of economic and existential concerns, such as rising living expenses, inflation, and a rapid decline in the value of earnings and salaries, among other things.
However, the ACF praised Nigerians for their tenacity, claiming that national difficulties outlined by the forum could be overcome by instilling good governance principles in public officials at the municipal, state, and federal levels.