Political analysts as well as critics have predicted that the competing presidential ambitions of Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, Rotimi Amaechi and Rabiu Kwankwaso will derail the African Democratic Congress (ADC). Gbade OGUNWALE writes
Not a few Nigerians and political observers believed it was a breath of fresh air when the African Democratic Congress (ADC) started attracting opposition heavyweights into its fold in May 2025. Many saw it as a relief for the opposition when high profile political figures whose parties were plagued by leadership crises, started moving into the otherwise fringe party.
To give the party a national outlook, incumbent leaders of the ADC, in the Ralph Nwosu-led National Working Committee (NWC), relinquished their positions to accommodate the influential opposition politicians in their midst. And by the last quarter of 2025, a former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, was already entrenched in the ADC. Atiku was practically chased out of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by a rival camp, led by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.
The Wazirin Adamawa had contested for president in 2019 and 2023 on the platform of the PDP. He lost to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, and also lost to Bola Tinubu in 2023. Buhari and Tinubu were both candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Also in the ADC fold is a former Rivers State Governor and immediate past Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi who opted out of the APC to join forces with the opposition.
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Peter Obi has also found a political abode in the ADC. Obi left the Labour Party for the same reasons Atiku abandoned the PDP. A former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso who joined the party a few weeks ago, was the latest entrant into the ADC among the heavyweights. Kwankwaso also contested for president in the 2023 election on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
Atiku was smoked out of the PDP by Wike, whose appointment in 2023 as Minister by APC’s President Bola Tinubu has compelled him to work for the president’s 2027 re-election. And the former Rivers State governor is not looking back.
Obi could no longer find accommodation in the Labour Party, owing to divisions triggered by what has turned out to be an intractable leadership crisis.
Amaechi had long before now, sworn that for no reason would he work with Tinubu, now or in the future. Besides, the Rivers State chapter of the APC, where he used to be the leader of the party, was hijacked by divisive forces within and outside the APC. Kwankwaso was also forced to abandon the NNPP at the peak of divisions in the party’s leadership. An opposing faction eventually announced his expulsion from the NNPP.
The Social Democratic Party (SDP), to which a former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai defected, from the APC, similarly got entangled in unresolved leadership crisis. The crisis led to the expulsion of the party’s National Chairman, Shehu Gabam shortly after admitting El-Rufai into the SDP. The ensuing instability in the party forced El-Rufai to ditch the SDP a few months after he joined it. Like other opposition figures, he decided to pitch his tent with the ADC.
The Birth Of A Strong Opposition Force
With the assemblage of the high profile opposition politicians in the ADC, the party started taking shape as the leading opposition party in the in the political space. It has obviously displaced the PDP in that role. All the political heavyweights had moved into the ADC with their supporters across the country, thereby imbuing the erstwhile dormant party with a national outlook.
The presence of these high profile political figures in the ADC has attracted quite a sizable number of politicians from other parties into the emerging coalition.
Everything seemed to be going well with the party and the leaders were upbeat about their mission to unseat Tinubu and his APC in the 2027 election.
It was apparent that the growing influence of the ADC has been causing discomfort within the ruling APC. The conduct of the party’s national convention on April 14 despite all odds, must have heightened apprehension within the APC.
Speaking during the convention, the ADC leaders took their turns to criticise the APC-led administration, sending a clear message to President Tinubu that they were more than ready to send him packing in 2027.
At the convention, Obi accused Tinubu of causing divisions among Nigerians with his policies, noting that the country has never been so divided in all its history that it is under the administration.
“The country is so divided; we need unity. The present government has ensured that it will remain more divided. Your unity is important. Your country is collapsing, and if you allow it to go further, it will be worse,” Obi told the gathering. Also taking a swipe at Tinubu, Amaechi described the APC government as one without shame. “You call them thieves, they say they are thieves. They won’t even deny that they are thieves. You call them land grabbers, they say, yes, we grab land. So what are you going to tell them? Tell me what you will tell them so I can tell them,” Amaechi said.
The ADC National Secretary, Rauf Aregbesola, warned Tinubu that there would not be coronation for him in 2027, vowing that the president would be ousted in the coming election. Addressing delegates and party leaders at the convention, Aregbesola said, “There will be no coronation in 2027. There will be no Kabiyesi in the Presidential Villa come 2027.” Knocking the APC for being intolerant of opposition, Aregbesola said, “Under this administration, it is a crime to be in the opposition. But what is happening today is that many people are moving into the ADC. Those who have not moved are preparing to move, even from the APC.”
Ironically, Aregbesola had been one of Tinubu’s long-standing political associates for over 27 years, since when Tinubu was first elected governor of Lagos State in 1999. They parted ways in January 2025 when the APC expelled the former Osun State governor from the party. In his address, Atiku rued the delisting of the ADC leadership by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) following a ruling of the Court of Appeal.
Accusing the electoral body of partisanship, Atiku vowed that “INEC would not get away with what he described as illegalities.” In a direct indictment of the INEC chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan, Atiku said the delisting of the ADC leadership would not stand. The party is currently in court to challenge the action.
The former vice president described the challenges faced by the ADC and other opposition parties as a struggle for all Nigerians, adding that the APC administration would be ousted the same way the military was chased away in 1999. “What I would like to appeal to Nigerians, and particularly members of the ADC, is to make sure that this time around, we really need to change the situation in the country,” he said.
Resorting to hyperbole, another ADC chieftain, Buba Galadima declared that even a corpse would defeat Tinubu in the 2027 presidential contest, highlighting what could be a decline in the president’s approval rating. While addressing the gathering, the ADC National Chairman, Senator David Mark, vowed that the ADC would not be intimidated by the ruling party. Mark also accused the INEC of being in cahoots with the APC to frustrate the opposition, led by the ADC.
“Recent developments involving the INEC have raised fundamental questions about the processes that govern our democracy,” Mark said. “Forces that feared what a united ADC represents came for us; through the courts, through institutions, through bureaucratic obstruction,” the party chairman added.
Atiku, Obi, Amaechi, Kwankwaso Divided By Competing Ambitions?
While the ADC is still struggling with multiple cases in court over leadership disputes, those with presidential ambitions among them are scheming aggressively to outdo one another. Those gunning for the party’s ticket are Atiku, Obi, Amaechi and Kwankwaso. They have all taken their campaigns to the media space, with their aides and supporters engaging in supremacy battles.
In what could be a reaffirmation of his determination to run the race, Atiku has declared that the 2027 election would be his last attempt at the presidential contest. The former vice president rubbed it in when he declared that all the aspirants would go for primaries if the consensus option fails. This might be a reinforcement of his well known fixation on the ticket and could as well mean that he would not be agreeable to the emergence of any other candidate other than himself.
Political analysts observe that with his latest position on the contest, Atiku appears to have renounced his earlier statement, that he would support whoever emerged as the party’s flag bearer.
On the other hand, supporters of Obi and Kwankwaso have been canvassing an Obi-Kwankwaso ticket. Kwankwaso has shifted from his earlier position not to be a running mate to Obi whom he hitherto described as “junior” to him in the Nigerian political hierarchy. According to a recent statement by his Kwankwasiyya group, the former Kano State governor would not have rejected being Obi’s running mate if he had known that Obi could win over six million votes in the 2023 presidential election. It’s apparent that Kwankwaso may be willing to accept the vice presidential slot with Obi as the candidate.
Among all the aspirants, Amaechi appears to be the only one with temperate disposition to his presidential aspiration. The former Rivers State governor had declared his unwillingness to run as a vice presidential candidate, stating his preference for a ministerial position in a worst case scenario. With his utterances and body language so far, Amaechi has not given any indication that he would not support whoever emerged as the ADC presidential candidate other than himself. Even though he has also stepped up the campaign for the ticket, he has not been associated with any extreme position on the matter.
Will They Heed Tambuwal’s Warning?
At the ADC convention, Tambuwal had warned that the aspirants could derail the party if they failed to put their individual ambitions in check.
Addressing party leaders and delegates at convention, Tambuwal emphasised the need for the aspirants to put the collective interest of the party above their individual ambitions.
In a subtle but direct admonition to them, the former Sokoto State Governor spoke directly to the presidential aspirants who were also seated in the hall. “The next set of people I will appeal to are those sitting here. When we started, it was not possible. They could not come together.”
“But today, in this hall, Vice President Atiku Abubakar is seated. Today, in this hall, Peter Obi is seated. Today, in this hall, Kwankwaso is seated, and today, Rotimi Amaechi is also seated, along with many other leaders,” he said. He continued, “It is about unity of purpose and ambition for this country. It is not about an individual. It is about our vision and collective desire to rescue Nigeria.”
Emphasising the need for unity of purpose, he said, “No sacrifice will be too great.
When that time comes, all of you are leaders. We will speak to you as your children, your brothers, and co-travellers, that it is about this country and not individual ambition.” “We must all work together towards a common mission of rescuing this country. And the ADC is that platform. We must therefore work to preserve the unity of this platform and ensure we achieve that objective,” he added.
Critics, including some leaders of the APC, have been relentless in predicting that the inordinate ambitions of some of the ADC presidential aspirants might be the undoing of the party.
Will the doomsday prediction come to pass? Will the aspirants heed Tambuwal’s warning by sacrificing their individual interests for the overall interest of the party? Time will tell.
ADC: United By Adversity, Divided By Competing Ambitions is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
