ADC Accuses Tinubu of Using Buhari’s Death for Political PR

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has accused President Bola Tinubu’s government of exploiting the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari for political advantage.

In a strongly worded statement on Friday, ADC’s interim national publicity secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, described the special Federal Executive Council (FEC) session held in Buhari’s honour as “political theatre” aimed at salvaging the administration’s poor public image.

Abdullahi said the event was not a genuine tribute but a “calculated PR stunt,” claiming Buhari’s son, Yusuf, was made to show gratitude before cameras in what he called a staged display of mourning.

“This administration has spent over a year blaming Buhari for the country’s economic troubles — from subsidy removal to failed economic policies,” Abdullahi stated. “Now, the same government is attempting to align itself with the very legacy it once discredited.”

The ADC said the sudden embrace of Buhari’s legacy is part of a broader strategy to gain sympathy, especially in the North and among Buhari loyalists.

“Nigerians must ask what kind of government uses a bereaved family’s grief as a tool for image laundering,” Abdullahi said. “You cannot discredit a man for months and then perform grief for political benefit.”

He accused the presidency of exploiting Buhari’s passing to win political capital, adding that the tribute was carefully choreographed to distract from what he described as Tinubu’s “deepening failures.”

Earlier in the week, the ADC said it had warned the Buhari family of plans to politicise his death.

“The exploitation of a mourning son, compelled to perform gratitude before cameras, is unconscionable,” Abdullahi said. “Grief is not a campaign strategy. Let the family mourn in peace.”

He concluded by saying that no amount of PR would fix what he called a government that has, for two years, “acted like an army of occupation.”