BCDA crisis: NASS must probe Tinubu’s fitness to discharge duties, say ADC

From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has said the leadership crisis in the Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA) is an indication that President Bola Tinubu has allegedly “lost control” of his administration.

Consequently, the ADC, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, yesterday, stated that the National Assembly must probe the fitness of President Tinubu to continue to discharge the functions of his office, in line with relevant sections of the constitution.

The BCDA is reportedly engulfed in a leadership crisis, with persons laying claims to the position of Executive Secretary of the agency.

The opposition party noted that the BCDA crisis, as well as the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) scandal and a pattern of policy reversals, suggests that unelected individuals may have hijacked the President’s constitutional powers to appoint and remove public officers.  The party added that the President Tinubu should resign if he can no longer assert control over his administration, stating that an administration where no one is in charge is not in the interest of the country.

“The ADC 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 .

“If the reports concerning the Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA) 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 party stated.

“Effectively, Tinubu administration has become a place where official announcements compete with unofficial power, where competing interests fight over appointments and patronage. Under President Tinubu, the Nigerian Presidency, like the Nigerian economy and Nigeria’s security situation has started to resemble a system governed by the principle of the survival of the fittest.

“In view of the grave constitutional implications of these repeated episodes, the National Assembly should immediately exercise its oversight responsibilities and invoke the relevant constitutional provisions to satisfy itself that the President remains fully capable in body and sound mind to discharge the duties of his office and that the powers vested in him by the Constitution are being personally exercised by him, not appropriated by unelected interests operating behind the scenes.

“If President Tinubu is unable to assert control over his own Presidency, then the honourable course is to acknowledge that reality and resign. Nigeria cannot afford a Presidency where nobody knows who is truly in charge.”