African Democratic Congress (ADC) has raised the red flag at the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Nigeria and the United States, saying there are sharp conflicting public descriptions of the agreement by both governments that clearly violate the constitution.
The opposition party further called on the Federal Government to immediately clarify the contents of the recently signed health agreement. ADC feels dissatisfied despite the Federal Government’s presentation of the MoU as a technical, inclusive framework to strengthen health security and expand primary healthcare.
ADC notes that official statements from the United States introduce identity-based framing that may be in breach of Nigeria’s constitutional provisions on non-discrimination, as well as discretionary termination powers that subordinate Nigeria’s interests and raise serious questions about national sovereignty.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC argued that while the Federal Government had presented the MoU as a technical and inclusive framework aimed at strengthening health security, expanding primary healthcare, and increasing domestic health financing, official statements released by the United States Embassy describe the same agreement in materially different terms.
ADC noted: “The U.S. characterisation introduces religious, identity-based framing, indicating that spending under the MoU should be targeted at health institutions backed by a particular religion only.
“It is the ADC’s considered view that the Nigerian government should not enter into any agreement that is sectional or potentially inimical to Nigeria’s constitutional commitment to inclusion and national unity. We find it particularly curious that these troubling conditionalities, including those that grant the United States unilateral powers of termination, are conspicuously missing from the Federal Government’s public rendering of the agreement.
“The ADC believes that this divergence is not a mere communications issue.”
Instead, it appears calculated to avoid public scrutiny, thereby raising fundamental questions about transparency, constitutional compliance, and Nigeria’s sovereignty. Nigerians are entitled to know which version of this agreement reflects the actual terms that were signed, and why such consequential differences exist between Abuja’s account and Washington’s.”
The ADC, therefore, called on the Federal Government to come clean by publishing the full text of the signed MoU, including any annexes or accompanying instruments, and to clearly explain whether the identity-based and security-linked elements referenced by the United States form part of the agreement Nigeria actually signed or exist solely within foreign policy interpretations.