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The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has launched a blistering attack on the Supreme Court over a judgment it says dangerously arms the President with the power to suspend elected governors and state assemblies under the guise of emergency rule, warning that the decision could fundamentally distort Nigeria’s democracy.

In a strongly worded press statement on Tuesday, December 16, 2025, signed by Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, National Publicity Secretary of the African Democratic Congress. the opposition party described the ruling as a historic misstep that, though cloaked in legal subtlety, represents a turning point with grave consequences for federalism and democratic governance.

According to the ADC, the apex court’s position that the President has the “discretion to determine the measures required to restore peace and security” following the declaration of a state of emergency effectively authorises the use of “extraordinary measures” at the President’s sole discretion. The party argued that this opens the door for abuse of power on a frightening scale.

“The clear implication,” the ADC said, “is that a President could easily manufacture or exploit a security crisis in any ‘unfriendly’ state and proceed to suspend both the Governor and the State House of Assembly.”

The party noted what it called a glaring contradiction in the judgment: while the court affirmed that no arm or tier of government is constitutionally superior to another, the practical effect of the ruling, it argued, is to place state governments firmly under presidential control.

Describing the judgment as “an extremely dangerous threat to Nigeria’s federalism,” the ADC warned that it hands the Presidency a legal weapon capable of neutralising opposition-controlled states under the pretext of restoring order.

The party dismissed the safeguards cited by the Supreme Court—proportionality, legislative oversight and judicial review—as hollow and unrealistic in Nigeria’s current political climate.

“With a President willing to do anything to retain power, including the systematic decimation of opposition parties, proportionality is a dead letter,” the ADC said, accusing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration of presiding over an unprecedented erosion of democratic space.

On legislative oversight, the party was even more scathing, describing the National Assembly as a body that has “shamefully reduced itself to a mere appendage of the Presidency,” making any meaningful check on executive excess impossible.

The ADC further argued that the judgment itself has exposed the limits of judicial review, accusing the Supreme Court of prioritising the technical letter of the law over its democratic spirit—one designed, it said, to prevent exactly the kind of power grab the ruling now legitimises.

“In doing so,” the party warned, “the Supreme Court has inadvertently aided the rise of constitutional tyranny—a dangerous form of autocracy in which leaders exploit legal frameworks and constitutional loopholes to entrench absolute power.”

The party cautioned Nigerians against complacency, stressing that democratic collapse does not always come through military coups but often through a gradual erosion of institutions and norms.

“What has now become painfully clear,” the statement concluded, “is that neither the legislature nor the judiciary can be relied upon to halt this descent.”