2027: TMSG Accuses Opposition of Shopping for Scandals Against Tinubu

The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG) has accused opposition politicians of adopting what it described as a “scandal-fishing” strategy to discredit the administration of President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 general election.

The group alleged that key opposition figures had resorted to distorting facts and amplifying unverified claims after concluding that defeating President Tinubu at the polls would be difficult.

In a statement issued and signed by its Chairman, Emeka Nwankpa, and Secretary, Dapo Okubanjo, TMSG urged Nigerians to scrutinise claims made against the administration, insisting that many recent allegations were politically motivated.

According to the group, one of the issues being exploited by the opposition is the recent observation by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Nigeria’s 2026 budget.

It noted that while the IMF pointed to what it described as an N8.83 trillion discrepancy—about two per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—the Federal Government had already provided clarification on the matter.

The statement said: “One of the major issues that opposition figures, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, are latching on to in recent times is the position of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the 2026 budget.”

TMSG said the Minister of Finance had explained that the expenditure in question covered statutory transfers, intervention funds backed by Acts of Parliament, capital projects approved through separate budgets and other legally recognised first-line charges.

It argued that such expenditures were neither new nor outside the country’s legal budgetary framework.

The group criticised former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for allegedly attempting to make political gains from the IMF’s observations despite his experience in government.

“It is exactly why we find it strange that a former Vice President, whom we expect to be conversant with governance and local laws guiding federal budgets in his eight years in office, would jump into the issue to make political capital out of it,” the statement said.

TMSG also took a swipe at the African Democratic Congress (ADC) over its claim that President Tinubu’s policies had pushed 17 million Nigerians into acute hunger.

According to the group, the opposition misrepresented findings by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), which reported that over 17 million people in nine conflict-affected northern states were facing severe food insecurity.

It argued that the humanitarian situation was largely driven by insecurity in the affected communities rather than the policies of the current administration.

“What the opposition did was to twist the report by the UN agency showing that more than 17 million Nigerians across nine conflict-affected Northern states are facing acute hunger and present it as the outcome of the policies of the President Tinubu administration,” the group stated.

TMSG maintained that the Federal Government was addressing insecurity through military operations and other interventions, insisting that attempts to portray the administration as indifferent to the plight of affected communities amounted to political mischief.

The group urged Nigerians to be wary of what it described as deliberate efforts by opposition politicians to manipulate public opinion through misleading narratives as preparations for the 2027 elections gather momentum.