ADC Coalition, real struggle: A rejoinder to Reno Omokri’s revisionist propaganda

Dahiru Yusuf Yabo,

The widely circulated article by Reno Omokri titled “ADC Coalition and Their Military Era ‘Telephone Is Not For The Poor’ Mentality” is an exercise in intellectual gymnastics, wrapped in selective memory and framed with partisan fervor.

While it attempts to paint President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a messianic reformer, what it truly reveals is the deep insecurity that now haunts the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), especially in light of a rising coalition of conscience prepared to challenge a failing status quo.

Resurrecting a quote from the 1980s attributed to David Mark about telephones not being for the poor is an old trick—emotional manipulation through outdated narratives.

It is historical gaslighting to ignore the fact that Mark later oversaw a legislature that contributed to the boom of telecommunications in Nigeria. The real question is: Who among today’s elite truly stands with the poor? Certainly not those whose private wealth flows from state-linked monopolies and ambiguous international dealings.

Omokri’s swipe at the ages of David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola is hypocritical at best. President Tinubu himself is in his seventies. Age should not be weaponized in political discourse.

The true measure of leadership lies in character, competence, and moral courage, not in calendar years. If gerontocracy is unacceptable, then the African Democratic Congress (APC’s current flagbearer should be the first to step aside.

The claim that the ADC Coalition exists solely to dislodge Tinubu without a clear agenda is untrue and cynical. A legitimate opposition must challenge government failure.

The economic hardship engulfing Nigerians today is not a figment of the imagination. It is real, raw, and widespread. Fuel now sells for over ₦900 per litre in many parts of the country, inflation is devouring the earnings of average workers, and the price of basic food items has more than tripled.

These are not the markers of economic prosperity but indicators of mass suffering.

Omokri boasts of a reduction in national debt, citing a drop from $108 billion to $94 billion. But such figures are misleading.

They are largely shaped by fluctuating exchange rates and scheduled repayments rather than any robust fiscal discipline. Nigeria’s debt servicing ratio remains dangerously high. The cost of borrowing has risen. States are choking under internal debts.

The so-called savings from subsidy removal have yet to translate into meaningful investment in infrastructure, health, or education.

His celebration of a 3.4% GDP growth rate in 2024 is detached from the lived realities of Nigerians. Economic growth means little when it fails to touch the lives of over 133 million multidimensionally poor citizens. Growth without development is a ghost statistic.

Even the much-hyped student loan scheme has barely scratched the surface. It is mired in bureaucracy and poor awareness. Similarly, the ₦70,000 minimum wage law, while promising on paper, remains largely unimplemented across states and sectors.

When he lauds infrastructural projects such as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and other federal expressways, Omokri offers no details about cost efficiency, contractor transparency, or project sustainability.

Many of these road projects are recycled from previous administrations and dressed in new rhetoric. Nigerians want roads, yes—but they also demand clarity, value for money, and honest execution.

Breaking a power generation record of 5,801MW is hardly worth chest-thumping in a country of over 200 million people. It is an incremental achievement that falls short of what is required for industrial transformation.

Passport availability, another of Omokri’s so-called “reforms,” is not a national triumph but simply an administrative duty long overdue.

It is intellectually dishonest to reduce the ADC Coalition to an anti-Tinubu crusade. Opposition is not sabotage. It is the lifeblood of democracy. The coalition represents a collection of voices—many of them former allies of this administration—who are disillusioned with the widening gulf between propaganda and performance.

They are not demanding chaos, but a redirection. They seek a Nigeria that serves all, not just a privileged few.

To suggest that Nigeria’s political stability and economic growth can only be guaranteed by allowing President Tinubu to serve two terms is dangerously undemocratic. Leadership is not a reward; it is a responsibility. If that responsibility is breached, the people have every right to demand change.

Reno Omokri’s article is not a defence of good governance. It is an emotional endorsement of a collapsing doctrine—a glorified hymn for a regime that has failed to match hope with substance. Propaganda may momentarily distract, but it cannot erase the daily agony of the common Nigerian.

The ADC and similar coalitions may be imperfect, but they are necessary. They reflect the search for alternatives, for dignity, for a leadership that listens and acts. We must never allow democratic debate to be reduced to blind loyalty and orchestrated applause. Our future demands more.

Dahiru Yusuf Yabo, PGD-CMPC, MCM & MPPA
Political & Security Analyst | Former Commissioner
Publisher, Yabo International Magazine