Dr. Umar Ado has criticized the opposition’s focus on removing President Tinubu, arguing that Nigeria needs systemic change rather than mere leadership replacement, drawing parallels with previous unsuccessful transitions.
During his TrustTV interview From 13:29, Dr. Ado warned against repeating past mistakes of focusing solely on removing incumbents. “We should look beyond removing President Tinubu because that is what we did previously. We said we have to remove Jonathan, let us just get Jonathan out, and we removed Jonathan and brought something worse than Jonathan”.
The Northern Democrat leader traced a pattern of disappointing leadership changes. “Now we said Buhari must go, and Buhari has gone, and then Tinubu has come. When we say we must remove Tinubu, just remove Tinubu for the sake of removing Tinubu, and then you bring somebody or a system that is even worse or continues with that—that is not what Nigerians need”.
Dr. Ado emphasized the need for fundamental systemic transformation. “Nigerians need new things, a system to create a system that will work for them, that decentralizes power, decentralizes opportunities, decentralizes the economy, and so on, and fights poverty and reduces poverty”.
He highlighted the severity of poverty in northern Nigeria. “For us in the north, we have gone beyond poverty. We are destitute—all of us, most of us are destitute”.
Dr. Ado argued that the current political class bears responsibility for Nigeria’s problems. “For me personally, the political class that brought this thing is purely the PDP and the APC, which you happen to be part of”.
Despite his PDP background, he emphasized his consistent opposition to problematic policies. “I have been in PDP, I have worked in PDP government, but I have always fought against these things. I have at one time resigned from the presidential villa, so even though I was PDP, there are a lot of things that I did not accept”.
