Rabiu Kwankwaso, Atiku Abubakar and President Bola Tinubu
Atiku Abubakar challenged the APC’s defence of President Tinubu’s electricity record and proposed replacing the tariff-band system.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, challenged President Bola Tinubu’s electricity record on Sunday and proposed replacing Nigeria’s tariff-band system.
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Atiku’s intervention followed the All Progressives Congress’ (APC’s) defence of President Tinubu’s apparent failure to deliver on his 2023 campaign promise to provide reliable electricity and end estimated billing.
In a statement by campaign spokesperson Dele Alake, the APC argued that the president’s pledge should be considered alongside his undertaking to explain any shortfall before seeking a second term.
The party cited the Electricity Act 2023, metering programmes, transmission investments, state-level regulatory reforms and a ₦4 trillion bond programme intended to settle verified legacy debts in the power sector.
It also claimed that more than 1.5 million electricity customers had been metered under the administration.
Atiku rejected the defence in a response issued through Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council.
“The APC should spare Nigerians the spectacle of celebrating paperwork while homes and businesses remain in darkness,” he said.
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He argued that outages and estimated billing persisted despite the administration’s interventions and questioned the fairness of the existing tariff-band system.
Under the system, consumers pay different tariffs according to the number of hours of electricity they are expected to receive.
Atiku said Band A customers often paid approximately ₦209.50 per kilowatt-hour before value-added tax, even when supply was unreliable.
He also questioned the administration’s reported plan to end electricity subsidies from 2027 and its possible effect on household bills.
His proposed alternative would involve working with state governments and regulators to replace the tariff bands with a pricing arrangement more closely tied to electricity actually delivered.
The proposal has not been accompanied by a tariff formula, subsidy plan or costings.
The competing positions address different aspects of the electricity problem. The APC points to legislation, infrastructure, and debt settlement, while Atiku proposes changes to consumer pricing.
Neither the government’s cited interventions nor a different tariff structure, on their own, establish that households will receive more reliable electricity.
Regulatory records on metering, service hours and distribution performance would provide a firmer basis for assessing the APC’s claims. Atiku’s campaign, meanwhile, would need to explain how its alternative would affect consumers’ bills and electricity providers’ revenues.
Kwankwaso questions Atiku’s presidential bid
Meanwhile, Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) vice-presidential candidate Rabiu Kwankwaso has questioned the regional basis of Atiku’s candidacy.
Speaking to journalists in Kano on Sunday, the former governor urged Atiku to withdraw from the presidential contest and support Peter Obi, the NDC candidate.
Mr Kwankwaso argued that the South had not completed its turn under Nigeria’s informal arrangement for rotating the presidency between North and South.
He said respecting that understanding remained important to national cohesion and said his acceptance of the vice-presidential nomination was consistent with the principle.
He questioned the ADC’s choice of a northern presidential candidate.
The public disagreement exposes a potential obstacle to cooperation between the two camps. Any attempt to negotiate a common presidential ticket would have to address their competing positions on zoning.
The principle is political rather than constitutional. Nigeria’s Constitution does not reserve the presidency for either region, and Atiku remains eligible to contest if he meets the applicable electoral requirements.
Neither Atiku nor the ADC had issued a verified response to Mr Kwankwaso’s remarks by filing time.
The intervention also came as Atiku’s campaign faced complaints from within the ADC about established party officials’ involvement in election preparations
South-west complaints follow Atiku towards Sokoto launch
A Sunday PUNCH investigation reported complaints by ADC officials in the South-west that Atiku’s associates were organising campaign activities without sufficiently involving established party structures.
The concerns had been raised during a meeting with ADC National Secretary Rauf Aregbesola in Ibadan on 4 September.
Atiku subsequently met officials virtually and requested five nominees from each of the six South-west states for campaign appointments.
Some officials said the consultations had not resolved their complaints.
Adewole Ijaogbomo, chairman of ADC local government chairmen in Lagos, alleged that recognised officials were being sidelined.
Some chairmen who travelled to Abuja for a meeting on 17 September also reportedly complained that they received no transport support.
Mr Shaibu’s explanation addresses the allegation of exclusion from formally constituted councils. It does not settle the separate complaint about how campaign activities are being coordinated before those appointments.
PREMIUM TIMES had not received a response from ADC National Publicity Secretary Bolaji Abdullahi by filing time.
The dispute comes ahead of the party’s presidential campaign launch in Sokoto on Wednesday, 4 November.
The event was postponed from 31 October, with the party citing planning and coordination considerations.
Preparations have also been accompanied by allegations of interference, including a reported confrontation involving ADC governorship candidate Manir Dan’iya.
Atiku and former Sokoto governor Aminu Tambuwal condemned the reported incident and demanded an investigation.
The Sokoto APC disputed allegations of politically motivated interference, while the police said they were investigating.
The confrontation was reported to have occurred on Friday. The subsequent reactions and demands for security protection did not establish another attack on Sunday.
The ADC also faces a separate challenge from a faction associated with Nafiu Gombe, which announced a North-west campaign council on Saturday.
That announcement did not, by itself, change INEC’s recognition of the party’s leadership or presidential candidate.
Wednesday’s launch will bring the campaign’s organisational and security concerns into public view as Atiku seeks to focus attention on his policy proposals.
Court orders complicate nominations in Kano and Zamfara
The disputes over party arrangements were not confined to presidential campaigns.
In Kano, an INEC official cited a Federal High Court order to explain why NDC governorship candidate Abdulsalam Gwarzo and his running mate, Rabiu Mustapha, were missing from the commission’s updated candidate list.
According to a report by the Nigerian Tribune, the unnamed senior official said INEC had no objection to Mr Gwarzo’s candidacy but was restrained from publishing the names by an ex parte order issued on 27 October.
That account differs from the NDC’s earlier explanation that the omission resulted from a computer error.
It also distinguishes a cshows ourt-reshows shows shows lated restriction on publication from an outright rejection of the nominations.
PREMIUM TIMES had not independently examined the order or established the next hearing date.
In Cross River, meanwhile, LEADERSHIP reported that Nkoyo Toyo and Magam Dino Ntui appeared on INEC’s updated listt as the ADC’s governorship and deputy governorship candidates.
The APC faced a separate court-related dispute in Zamfara North, where a fresh senatorial primary was scheduled for Monday, 2 November, after a Federal High Court nullified the May exercise and the Court of Appeal upheld that decision.
Aspirant Sani Abdullahi Shinkafi objected to the arrangements, saying he learnt of the timetable through social media.
He complained about the short notice, questioned security arrangements and raised concerns about the involvement of former governor Bello Matawalle.
Mr Shinkafi also referred to further litigation involving Senator Sahabi Ya’u.
The operative effect of any pending Supreme Court proceedings needs to be established from court records.
The dispute puts the conduct of the fresh primary, aspirants’ participation, and INEC’s monitoring of the exercise under scrutiny.
Campaign assistance and questions over funding
Political mobilisation continued to attract donations and empowerment pledges, but the full financial arrangements were not publicly detailed.
In Osun on Saturday, the PBAT Door-to-Door Movement received 30 campaign vehicles reportedly donated by Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo.
A similar donation of 30 vehicles had previously been reported by PREMIUM TIMES in Imo State.
The reported donations total 60 vehicles across the two states. Their purchase costs, ownership arrangements and applicable campaign-finance disclosures were not established in the cited accounts.
Other initiatives combined financial assistance with political mobilisation.
On 29 October, First Lady Oluremi Tinubu announced Renewed Hope Initiative assistance for elderly citizens and persons with disabilities, with APC senatorial candidates assigned coordination roles.
She said beneficiaries should not be selected on the basis of party affiliation.
The announced allocation was ₦110 million per participating senatorial district, divided into two ₦55 million components.
However, the specified payments of ₦200,000 each to 500 beneficiaries amount to ₦100 million.
The published direct-payment figures therefore leave ₦10 million unaccounted for in the breakdown. That difference does not establish wrongdoing, but the programme’s detailed budget would be needed to explain it.
In Kano, the Leke Abejide Foundation announced a ₦600 million programme comprising ₦500 million in interest-free loans and ₦100 million for widows at an event associated with mobilisation for Tinubu and APC candidates.
Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf reportedly pledged another ₦100 million, while organisers discussed recruiting polling-unit coordinators from among participating women.
The reports do not establish that assistance was conditional on support for any candidate or that campaign-finance rules were breached.
In Jigawa, some PDP and NDC members reportedly defected to the APC during the inauguration of a pro-Tinubu grassroots campaign office.
Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), led the event.
Some defectors cited development interventions associated with the agency among their reasons for joining the APC.
There is no established evidence that NITDA resources were improperly used for the political activity.
The funding arrangements for these initiatives matter because private political donations, charitable assistance and expenditure involving public institutions are subject to different accountability requirements.