CITIZENS COMPASS—The race for the 2027 general elections became more interesting on Wednesday as a coalition of opposition politicians formally took control of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), declaring it their official platform to unseat President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The high-profile event, held at the Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja, drew heavyweight politicians across party lines, including several former ministers, ex-governors, and top members of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The National Chairman of the ADC, Chief Ralph Okey Nwosu, who led the handover of the party structure, described the takeover as the outcome of “18 months of deliberations” and over a dozen meetings of the ADC’s National Executive Committee (NEC).
Nigeria is in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and needs to be revived,” Nwosu declared.
“We must agree to move Nigeria from ICU to global reckoning. For about 18 months, we have been on this journey of coalition, it is not about power that we are here; it is about transforming our country.”
At the event, Nwosu handed over ADC membership cards to former Senate President David Mark, naming him as Interim National Chairman, and to former Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola, who was appointed Interim National Secretary.
In his acceptance speech, Mark accused President Tinubu of hijacking Nigeria’s democratic institutions, warning that the country is on the verge of becoming a one-party state. Let it be known to all that this coalition goes beyond gaining political power. It is a concerted effort to build the pillars of Nigeria’s democracy,” Mark stated.
“Today marks the beginning of what we believe will be a long, tedious and difficult journey. However, this is a journey that we are prepared to undertake.”
Mark said Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope” agenda has instead birthed “Renewed Hopelessness,” accusing the president of ignoring the suffering of the people while “fiddling as the country burns.”
It is on record that within two years of the current administration coming into power, it has hijacked all democratic structures. This coalition is to prevent Nigeria’s descent into a one-party state,” he said.
He added that the National Assembly had been reduced to “cheerleaders and praise singers of the president,”
allowing the executive arm to act without checks.
He described the coalition as a platform for patriotic Nigerians who believe in rescuing the country from its current trajectory.
Addressing questions about the coalition’s strategy, especially with some opposition governors defecting to the APC, one of the coalition leaders revealed that talks are ongoing with APC governors in the North.
If I told you the number of APC governors in the North who are talking to us, you would be shocked,” he claimed.
No governor is going to defect to the APC in the North.”
Meanwhile, the 2023 presidential candidate of the ADC, Dumebi Kachikwu, denounced the takeover, describing it as “a dramedy” orchestrated by “yesterday’s men.”
In a strongly-worded statement,
Kachikwu said: “Can you build something on nothing? Can you shave a man’s hair in his absence? Can you enter a man’s house through the back door and declare yourself the landlord?”
He criticised the alliance between former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s group and the former ADC leadership under Ralph Nwosu, whose tenure, according to him, expired in August 2022 and remains a subject of ongoing litigation.
These yesterday’s men who represent a bad chapter in Nigeria’s past have bought a bad market from a man who represents a bad chapter in ADC’s past,” he added.
“We are a nation lacking in the basics but here we are watching those who set our nation on fire saying they are the fire brigade.”
Accusing the group of seeking political power at all costs, Kachikwu said, “You stand for nothing other than your interests and will pay any price to hold political office. Nigerians are tired of your generation and reject everything you have to offer, which is nothing.”
He warned them to “come through the front door” if they wished to join the ADC, adding: “We are a party of decent and well-behaved people. Our brand of opposition not only opposes but also proposes—something your group is not conversant with.”
Reacting swiftly, Chief Nwosu dismissed Kachikwu as irrelevant to the current structure of the party.
“Anybody who writes anything or says anything against what we have done today is not an ADC member,” he said.
Where has this person featured in any of our programmes or spoken for ADC? We shouldn’t be apologetic. We have to be ready for this battle.”
The event attracted a broad spectrum of political elites including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi and his running mate Datti Baba-Ahmed; former governors such as Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Emeka Ihedioha (Imo), and Idris Wada (Kogi); and former SGF Babachir Lawal.
Also in attendance were four ministers from the Buhari era—Rotimi Amaechi, Rauf Aregbesola, Abubakar Malami (SAN), and Solomon Dalung as well as top APC defectors like Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Bolaji Abdullahi, John Akpanudoedehe, and Salihu Lukman. The list included civil society voices like Aisha Yesufu, politicians like Ireti Kingibe, Dino Melaye, Uche Secondus, and others, signalling a massive political coalition forming ahead of the 2027 elections.
—PM News
