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.

Source:- Punch