Deji Elumoye, Chuks Okocha and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Presidency and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday tackled the African Democratic Congress (ADC) over the opposition party’s claim that President Bola Tinubu’s administration exploited the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari for political image laundering.
ADC had Friday mocked President Tinubu, accusing him of exploiting Buhari’s death for political gains.
The opposition party noted that Tinubu’s administration had spent over a year blaming Buhari for the country’s economic troubles, only to now perform public grief in a bid to whitewash its battered image, especially in the North and among Buhari’s loyalists.
ADC also described the recent announcement of appointments by President Tinubu as a “desperate, cynical attempt to buy back the trust that he has spent over a year squandering, particularly in Northern Nigeria.”
But in a swift response, the Presidency described the opposition party’s claims as “shameless” and “obnoxious.”
Similarly, APC also berated the ADC for accusing President Tinubu of exploiting Buhari’s burial for political gains. 
 Reacting through a statement issued yesterday, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Mr. Sunday Dare, the Presidency accused the ADC and its leading figures of “disrespecting Buhari and dancing on his grave for relevance.”
“Let it be said clearly: ADC is the one exploiting Buhari’s death for political attention, not this government. From Atiku and El-Rufai’s choreographed arrival in Daura — greeted with chants seeking to make political capital from the solemnity of the moment — to this disgraceful press statement, the ADC has shown itself to be utterly shameless,” it stated.
The presidency dismissed the ADC’s criticism as a “laughable tantrum” and part of a pattern of opportunistic outrage. 
“This is not the first time the ADC — in its pitiful, stuttering attempts at reinvention — has embarrassed itself with hollow, attention-seeking criticisms. A party still grappling with an identity crisis presumes lecturing the President of the Federal Republic on governance, decorum, and public accountability. How utterly ridiculous”, the statement read.
The Presidency insisted that President Tinubu’s conduct during the mourning period was both dignified and befitting of the stature of the late former President. 
“The burial of former President Buhari was conducted with the complete honour befitting a leader of his stature. That is why world leaders showed up, millions of Nigerians tuned in on television and across social media, and even ADC promoters were falling over themselves in Daura, prancing about the Buhari family compound like eager real estate agents scouting new territory,” it noted.
Highlighting the administration’s focus and performance, the statement outlined what it described as President Tinubu’s growing list of achievements.
According to the statement, Tinubu’s achievements “are not press statements. These are the results. Tangible, measurable, and ongoing. That is leadership,” the statement added.
The Presidency described the ADC as a political “contraption” plagued by internal strife and legal woes, noting that the party has become consumed by “internal squabbles” and is “reduced to issuing these baseless attacks to cling to the fringes of relevance.”
It added that “President Tinubu honoured Buhari with dignity in death and continues to honour his legacy through hard work, not hollow words.”
On its part, the APC, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, noted that ADC’s criticism of the dignified state burial accorded the late President was as spooky as it was unconscionable. 
Morka said: “It (ADC) has cut its own portrait as a party of mindless political dregs, a dump of Nigeria’s internally displaced politicians, ready to do or say anything in the chase of attention but sinking itself deeper in the quicksand of ignominy. 
“That the ADC is blowing up over the state burial of the late President only reflects the party’s duplicity and insensitivity.” 
 It’s Too Late for You to Buy the North with Token Appointments, ADC Tells Tinubu
In a similar development, the ADC also described the recent announcement of appointments by Tinubu as a “desperate, cynical attempt to buy back the trust that he has spent over a year squandering, particularly in Northern Nigeria.”
In a separate statement signed by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Abdullahi, the ADC dismissed the so-called appointments as “too little, too late,” adding that “you cannot marginalise a region for over twenty-five months and expect applause because you suddenly remembered on the twenty-sixth month that Nigeria is bigger than Lagos State.” 
According to the ADC, these appointments are nothing more than “political panic management,” a frantic attempt to bandage the gaping wounds inflicted on Northern Nigeria by over a year of calculated neglect, presidential arrogance, and unprecedented nepotism. 
 “For over a year, this government turned a blind eye as bandits terrorised villages in the north, as our farmers abandoned their land, and as rural economies crumbled under the weight of poorly thought-out fuel subsidy removal,” Abdullahi said. 
 “Now, under the rising heat of public discontent, and with the emergence of a formidable opposition coalition gaining traction in the North and across the country, President Tinubu suddenly remembers that there are Nigerians to appoint into positions outside Lagos.
“Every major decision of this administration, from subsidy removal to a majority of the political appointments, has been taken without the North at the table. Now that the consequences of those decisions have become glaring, the President is doling out appointments as consolation prizes. 
 ”But Northerners, as co-owners of our great Federal Republic, know better than to be deceived by these token appointments. They see through President Tinubu’s actions — and can sense that this is not genuine. Tokenism is not inclusion, and symbolism is not governance,” the ADC spokesperson said.