APC Is Nigeria’s Cancer – Kenneth Okonkwo Tackles Tinubu
A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, Kenneth Okonkwo, has claimed that ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is responsible for the country’s worsening challenges.
Okonkwo was reacting to President Bola Tinubu’s Independence Day address on Thursday, in which the president likened Nigeria to a sick patient that had been diagnosed with cancer and defended his administration’s economic reforms as necessary treatment.
Tinubu said his government had chosen to “excise the cancer”, referring to measures including the removal of fuel subsidy, while arguing that the reforms were aimed at addressing longstanding structural weaknesses in the economy.
The president also said the reforms had begun producing positive results, citing economic growth of more than four per cent in 2026, a decline in inflation from its peak, increased foreign reserves and greater stability in the foreign exchange market.
He declared that Nigeria had moved from an “age of reform” into an “age of prosperity”.
But Okonkwo rejected the president’s description of Nigeria as a country suffering from cancer, insisting that the country remained blessed despite its challenges.
“God forbid! With respect to President Tinubu, Nigeria is a blessed country that has no cancer,” Okonkwo said.
“According to Wike, it is the All Progressives Congress (APC) that has cancer, and Tinubu’s leadership style has made the cancer to metastasise.”
The ADC chieftain then compared some economic indicators under the current administration with the situation when Tinubu assumed office in May 2023.
Okonkwo said petrol, which he claimed was sold for about N195 per litre when Tinubu took office, had risen to about N1,500 per litre.
He also said the naira, which traded at about N450 to the dollar at the beginning of the administration, had fallen to about N1,400 to the dollar.
On public debt, Okonkwo said Nigeria’s total debt stood at about N77 trillion when Tinubu assumed office but had risen to N166.6 trillion under his administration.
He further criticised the government over insecurity, transportation costs, food prices, electricity supply, employment, poverty, infrastructure, the rule of law and human rights.
“Insecurity is at its worst under Tinubu,” he said, alleging that the President had been outside Nigeria “more than 290 days and about 52 times in just about three and a half years.”
He added, “Transportation and food costs are horrible, electricity and employment are absent, poverty is ravaging, roads are deplorable, rule of law and human rights trampled on. No microeconomic index is good.”
Tinubu, however, maintained in his address that his administration did not create Nigeria’s economic weaknesses but had taken measures to address them.
“Our reforms did not create the weaknesses in our economy. They confronted them,” the President said.
He also rejected calls for a return to fuel subsidy, describing such demands as a “siren song” and warning against a return to what he described as the abuse of subsidies.
Okonkwo disagreed with the president’s position and called for a change of political direction.
He urged Nigerians to “democratically cut out Tinubu and APC’s cancerous leadership style” by voting against the ruling party in the January 16, 2027 presidential election.
The actor-turned politician also endorsed ADC presidential candidate and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, urging Nigerians to vote for him to “rescue Nigeria from its inevitable cancerous demise under Tinubu’s watch.”
Okonkwo further called for the introduction of a refined petroleum production subsidy, arguing that it would reduce the cost of living and make life more affordable.
Despite his criticism of the administration, Okonkwo described himself as an “incurable optimist” and maintained that Nigeria remained blessed at 66.
