BY EDITOR.
The ADC Chieftain Ladan Salihu has unleashed a blistering Democracy Day message, calling on Nigerians, with a pointed appeal to Bauchi voters, to troop out en masse in 2027 and install Atiku Abubakar and ADC candidates as the antidote to what he termed the country’s “economic asphyxiation and security implosion.”
Salihu, in the statement obtained by Guarantee Newspaper framed the next general election as an existential referendum.
He accused the incumbent power structure of presiding over policy paralysis, fiscal recklessness, and a collapse of basic state protection that has left citizens vulnerable to hunger, banditry, and institutional decay.
“Democracy Day must not be another ritual of empty speeches,” Salihu declared. “It must be a rallying cry for electoral retaliation against the forces that have turned Nigeria’s economy into a graveyard and surrendered swathes of territory to criminal syndicates.”
The ADC chieftain was unequivocal in his endorsement: only Atiku Abubakar, backed by a full slate of ADC candidates, possesses the political capital and administrative experience to dismantle the current trajectory of decline. He urged voters to treat the ballot as a corrective instrument, not a ceremonial gesture.
Turning directly to Bauchi, Salihu warned that voter apathy would amount to “political self-sabotage.” He called on the state’s electorate to deliver overwhelming margins for ADC at the presidential, legislative, and gubernatorial levels, arguing that Bauchi’s vote bloc could tilt the national balance of power.
Salihu did not spare the ruling elite in his critique, describing their governance model as one of “extractive complacency” that prioritizes patronage over production, and optics over outcomes.
He said the result has been spiraling inflation, collapsing public services, and a security architecture that reacts rather than prevents. In a stark appeal to patriotism, Salihu reminded Nigerians that there is no exit route from the country’s crisis.
“We have no other country to survive comfortably apart from Nigeria,” he said.
“Our survival hinges on the hard, collective work of reclaiming the state and restoring a conducive atmosphere for peace, enterprise, and dignity.”
He positioned the ADC as the vehicle for that reclamation, claiming its candidates are committed to fiscal discipline, security sector overhaul, and policies that prioritize job creation over rhetorical posturing.
According to Salihu, the party’s platform represents a structural break from the cycle of recycled failures.
The Democracy Day intervention comes amid intensifying opposition alignment ahead of 2027, with the ADC seeking to consolidate disaffected voters across the North and Middle Belt.
Salihu’s message signals an aggressive ground campaign targeting constituencies hardest hit by economic hardship and insecurity.
Political analysts say Salihu’s tone reflects mounting public frustration with cost-of-living pressures and persistent violence.
By casting the election as a battle for national survival, he is attempting to elevate voter turnout from routine participation to urgent intervention. As Nigeria marks Democracy Day, Salihu’s message leaves little ambiguity: he sees the 2027 polls as a political rupture point.
For him, and for the ADC, the choice is binary either Nigerians vote for a systemic reset, or they risk entrenching the very dysfunctions that have brought the country to its knees.
