2027: Firestorm as APC, coalition battle for Northern ADC leaders
Less than two years to the 2027 presidential election, political tensions are rising as the African Democratic Congress and the ruling All Progressives Congress engage in a war of words over allegations that President Bola Tinubu is after opposition leaders in the North East and North West to weaken the coalition gearing up to challenge him in the upcoming poll.
Meanwhile, three ADC members have petitioned the Federal High Court in Abuja to remove the party’s interim leadership led by Senator David Mark.
The ADC, through a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, on Monday accused President Tinubu’s administration of intentionally going after its northern leaders in an attempt to weaken the emerging opposition coalition and pave the way for a one-party system in the country.
Responding, APC National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru, in an exclusive interview with The PUNCH, dismissed Abdullahi’s claims, labelling him an impostor and questioning the legitimacy of the interim leadership of David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola (ADC secretary).
He argued that the ADC should first secure recognition from the Independent National Electoral Commission before making sweeping allegations.
Similarly, APC Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim, urged Nigerians to disregard any statements from the ADC spokesman, claiming that Abdullahi had previously admitted to being untruthful.
While the Tinubu administration has made notable strides alongside ongoing challenges across various sectors, opposition leaders continue to criticise the APC-led government as ineffective.
In a bid to strengthen opposition unity ahead of the 2027 elections, key political figures, including 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and former Governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna) and Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) gathered in Abuja on July 1 to formally adopt the African Democratic Congress as the coalition’s official platform.
The decision followed the prolonged internal crises plaguing the major opposition parties the Labour Party, Peoples Democratic Party, and New Nigeria Peoples Party.
This coalition has triggered widespread debate across the country, with mixed reactions from the public — some expressing support, while others remain skeptical.
Responding to concerns raised by the Labour Party, the PDP and other opposition figures, President Tinubu, during his June 12 address to a joint session of the National Assembly and the Nigerian people, assured that Nigeria would not turn into a one-party state.
He stated that such a move would amount to repeating the PDP’s past error of political overreach.
However, the ADC on Monday raised the alarm, alleging attempts by President Tinubu to destabilise its platform.
The party warned that the opposition coalition would not watch as some Nigerians steered the country towards a one-party state.
Abdullahi claimed that former state chairmen and senior members of the ADC’s state executive committees in the North East and North West had been covertly invited to a closed-door meeting with high-ranking officials of the Federal Government.
He stated, “We have credible intelligence that the aim of this meeting is not for national security or peace building. It is to intimidate, coerce, and if possible, co-opt these individuals into a fabricated scheme against the opposition coalition. This is not politics. This is sabotage.
“The motive is clear: to sow confusion within the party, delegitimise its new leadership, and derail its rising momentum as the new face of the opposition in Nigeria.
“Let it be clear, this surreptitious dalliance with the ADC state chairpersons by appointees of the Federal Government who should be focused on urgent national security priorities and challenges that the country is facing is a coordinated assault on multiparty democracy. This is how one-party states are born — through intimidation.
“The July 1st Coalition Declaration and the July 2nd unveiling of the ADC have clearly rattled the ruling party. It is now obvious that the Tinubu administration — having lost the trust of the Nigerian people — cannot withstand the pressure of a united and credible opposition. But rather than correct its ways, it has resorted to its old playbook of destabilising opposition parties.”
Abdullahi emphasised that the ADC was a party owned by the people.
He added, “Let it be clear: the coalition movement is an idea whose time has come. This party belongs to every Nigerian who is tired of the lies, the manipulation, and the hardship. It belongs to every Nigerian who wants to restore decency, vision, and justice to governance.
“We would therefore not allow a handful of desperate men to turn Nigeria into a one-party dictatorship. And it would be our patriotic duty to resist it with every democratic means available to us.
“We call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take note of these sinister moves by some of his appointees and call them to order. The president needs to prove to Nigerians that he is indeed a Democrat.
“He needs to remind his men that if the Goodluck Jonathan administration were as intolerant and as subversive of the opposition, the APC would not have come to power in 2015 and he would not have been a President today.”
In response, the APC Publicity Secretary dismissed Abdullahi as an impostor who should be disregarded.
He added that the ADC Publicity Secretary and other party leaders should first formalise their status with INEC before making baseless accusations.
He stated, “We don’t recognise him as speaking for ADC. He should first go and regularise his position with INEC.
“Abdullahi and other ADC leaders are not recognised by INEC. Let him go and get himself properly registered and recognised before we can begin to comment about him. So, he’s an imposter as far as I am concerned.”
Speaking exclusively to The PUNCH, APC Director of Publicity, Ibrahim, recalled that Abdullahi once admitted he couldn’t serve as a party’s Publicity Secretary without lying.
Ibrahim labeled Abdullahi a habitual liar and maintained that the APC does not see the ADC as a threat.
He stated, “Well, I think for Bolaji Abdullahi to make such sweeping statements, there is the need for him to revisit his conscience and tell Nigerians that he is a repentant spokesperson.
“This is the same Bolaji Abdullahi that said the most difficult job he had done in his life was being the spokesperson of the APC, because, according to him, you cannot do the job without lying. Is he saying now that he has repented from lying, or is he still lying?
“We came on board the publicity department of the APC after he left, and we have not seen anywhere where the party has a creed that directs its spokesperson to lie. So, if Bolaji lied when he was the spokesperson of the APC, he did that out of his lying instinct, not the party’s instinct.
“So, I leave Nigerians with this: the same person who said he trained to lie, or he was trained to lie, what he is doing now is nothing but what he admitted to doing, lying.”
The APC Publicity Secretary stated that the ADC has been in disarray since the day it was unveiled.
“So, the ADC leaders are a bunch of liars and that they are not a threat to APC. They cannot be, because they don’t have what it takes to be a threat to the ruling APC. You see, this is a coalition that is already in disarray. They are not united. They’re having problems. People came to the coalition meeting under false pretext, under false invitation.
“Some were told it was going to be a PDP caucus meeting, that’s why they were there. Some said they were invited for a different purpose, only for them to be photographed and flashed across various media houses as members of the coalition and they are not.
“All those who came and admitted, yes, they came for the coalition, also said they are not going to leave their parties. And you cannot be on a divided platform. You cannot. It’s either you are a member of the party you belong to, or you are a member of the party you intend to move into. And this is their spokesperson who said he was trained to be a liar.”
‘Sack Mark-led coalition’
In a dramatic move, three ADC members asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to sack the Mark-led interim leadership of the party.
The plaintiffs, in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1328, prayed the court to determine, among other things, whether the purported handover of the party’s leadership structure to individuals involved in a political merger did not amount to a violation of an existing judgment.
The suit, which was instituted by Adeyemi Emmanuel, Ayodeji Tolu, and Haruna Ismaila, also questioned the legitimacy of Senator Mark’s membership and that of other individuals appointed as interim leaders of the party.
Following the coalition’s formation, the ADC’s founding national chairman, Ralph Nwosu, announced the collapse of the party’s existing structures to make way for new leadership aimed at driving the alliance ahead of the 2027 general election.
The plaintiffs, in the suit, list the ADC as the first defendant, the Independent National Electoral Commission as the second defendant and Ralph Nwosu as the third defendant, while, Mark, former Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola and Bolaji Abdullahi are joined as the fourth, fifth, and sixth defendants respectively.
The plaintiffs posed several legal questions for the court to determine, including, “Whether the appointments of the fourth, 5fifth, and sixth defendants were made in violation of the ADC Constitution (2018, as amended).
“Whether the said individuals are qualified to hold the respective offices based on the provisions of Article 9, paragraph D of the ADC Constitution.
“Whether those involved in the merger, including the fourth, fifth, and sixth defendants were duly registered members of the ADC at the time of their appointments.
“Whether the ADC Constitution, as that of an existing and not a newly formed political party, makes provision for interim leadership positions.
“Whether the party’s Executive Committee could be validly dissolved or replaced other than through a properly convened National Convention or a valid decision of the National Executive Committee.
“Whether INEC (the second defendant) can lawfully recognise the fourth, fifth, and sixth defendants as interim national officers of the ADC in line with its constitution And whether the third defendant’s handover of the party’s leadership structure to the newly constituted leadership is not in direct violation of a judgment delivered by Justice Binta Nyako in suit No. FHC/ABJ/1541/2022 on December 21, 2022.”
Following the resolution of these legal questions, the plaintiffs urged the court to declare the appointments of the interim leadership as unconstitutional, unlawful, null and void.
They also asked the court to declare that the appointments of the fourth, fifth, and sixth defendants were inconsistent with and contrary to the provisions of the ADC Constitution (2018, as amended).
A hearing date is yet to be fixed.
ADC exco dissolved
Meanwhile, the ADC took a significant step towards strengthening its presence in Jigawa State with the inauguration of its new state leadership led by former Jigawa State Deputy Governor, Ahmed Gumel, as the new state coordinator.
In his inaugural speech on Monday at the ADC Jigawa headquarters in Dutse, Gumel stated that “the coalition aims to reshape Nigeria’s political landscape and provide an alternative to the APC-led government.”
“We call on Jigawa people and all Nigerians to join hands with the party to create a better future for the country,” he said.
Gumel highlighted the party’s vision for a prosperous Nigeria, emphasising the need for unity and collective efforts to achieve the party’s goals, noting that the ADC offered a viable alternative to Nigerians disillusioned with the current government.
According to him, the ADC coalition has been gaining traction nationwide, with several political groups and individuals defecting to the party.
“The party’s leadership has welcomed these coalition developments, emphasising its commitment to building a robust and inclusive democratic process. We assure you that we are ready to continue doing the needful to bring about positive change in our country,” he said.
Earlier, the members of the previous executive in the state, led by Kabiru Hussaini, declared their decision to step down as state executives and dissolved all other executives in the 27 Local Government Areas in the state.
Hussaini said, “This bold move was made to pave the way for the successful taking over of the leadership of the party, as well as its structures, by the new members of the coalition led by the new state coordinator, Ahmed Gumel.”
Commenting, a stalwart of the coalition from the PDP, Bashir Adamu, a former member of the House of Representatives from Kazaure, Roni, Gwiwa, Yankawashi Federal Constituency, commended the party’s leadership for the appointment, saying it was a welcome development.
“We must work together to build a strong presence in Jigawa State and challenge APC’s dominance in the 2027 general elections,” he said.
“The ADC coalition represents a new political force in Nigeria,; it’s the only one that could potentially challenge the APC’s dominance, it’s the party that has t
he ability to attract prominent politicians and build a strong presence nationwide to reshape the country’s political landscape.”
