By Jude Opara
As the much talked about 2027 general elections draw nearer, political parties have started preparing to participate in the all-important exercise which will culminate in the election of new set of leaders that will pilot the affairs of the country and the sub-nationals.
While some parties have already started having their wards, state and zonal congresses which will lead to the holding of national conventions, other will be having theirs in the next coming days.
The national convention is usually the place where the members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the parties are elected. They will in turn midwife the party primaries where the candidates that will fly the flag of the various parties in the general elections would be elected.
But with the processes leading to the election already in progress, one political party that is now in a huge dilemma is the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) which recently got suspended by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from participating in all its activities.
The electoral body had last week removed the names of the leadership of the ADC from its portal where all the leaders of all recognized political parties are.
The crisis started last year when some members of other opposition parties like the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP), the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPC) and a few others in their quest to form a coalition joined the ADC. These people were mostly driven away from their parties due to the lingering crisis still rocking them.
People like former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, former Senate President, David Mark, former presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, former governor of Osun state, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola former governor of Rivers state, Rotimi Amaechi, former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Oyegun and many more top dignitaries all converged on the ADC.
These new entrants probably reached an understanding with the party which led to the NWC led by former National Chairman, Chief Ralph Nwosu to have resigned and yielded the party apparatus to David Mark and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as National Chairman and Secretary respectively.
All the former members of the ADC were alleged to have voluntarily resigned to pave way for the new leadership. Therefore, on the 29th of July 2025, the Ralph Nwosu led NWC was dissolved and a Caretaker Committee headed by Mark was inaugurated.
According to the ADC, apart from witnessing the whole exercise by INEC, the party also formally wrote the electoral umpire on the development. On September 25, INEC then uploaded the names of Mark and Aregbesola based on the resolution of the NEC.
But the former Deputy National Chairman, Nafiu Bala Gombe who was even said to have been in attendance the day the change of leadership was consummated went to court on September 2nd, 2025, claiming that power ought to have returned to him because he was the next in the hierarchy with the resignation of Nwosu.
David Mark in a statement last week claimed that Gombe had on the 25th of May resigned his position just like other NWC members. He added that his resignation was transmitted to INEC on August 12, 2025.
The Federal High Court in its own efforts to end the crisis, was said to have asked the ADC to come and respond to the suit brought against them. But without first responding to the demands of the court, the ADC decided to head to the Court of Appeal.
The Appeal Court in its ruling on the matter asked the ADC to go back to the lower court to exercise its jurisdiction on the originating summons. The Appeal Court also slammed a #2 Million fine on the National Chairman of the party, Sen. David Mark for bringing to the applet court a case that was yet to be decided in the lower court.
In its ruling the Appeal Court ordered the parties to maintain status quo ante bellum. This simple means that all the parties to the conflict should return to its state of affairs before the litigation began.
Ironically, the position of the Appeal Court has become a huge source of controversy involving the ADC, INEC and the ruling APC. INEC had on the 1st April 2026 delisted the ADC, meaning that it will no longer be in correspondence with the party. The Commission had in a statement said it will not recognize both the David Mark and Nafiu Gombe led factions pending the determination of the substantive suit.
While the ADC alleges that INEC was being teleguided by the APC, the ruling party has fired back, urging the opposition party to blame itself for its woes for allegedly failing to do their due diligence before taking over the ADC. For instance, ADC argued that since the Court said that parties should maintain the situation before the litigation, that INEC erred in delisting the party because there was no crisis until when Gombe went to court.
However, there is a disturbing pattern where all the top political parties that could give the APC and President Tinubu a run for their money in the 2027 presidential election are in one crisis or the other.
The PDP is fast losing whatever qualify it should have as a political party and this has resulted in most of the governors elected under its platform dumping the party for the APC. Presently, it’s only Governors Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state and Seyi Makinde of Oyo state that are remaining, though we are hearing that they too will be defecting in nearest future.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Nyesom Wike has vowed to continue working for the reelection of President Tinubu, despite claiming to be a member of the PDP. Last week, the faction loyal to him organized its convention and none of the two remaining governors attended.
The Labour Party after the great outing it had in the 2023 election is now a shadow of itself. Despite doing so well by coming third in the presidential election and end up winning many seats on the Senate, the House of Representatives and State Assemblies has lost almost every seat through defection.
For reasons best known to him, the former National Chairman, Barr. Julius Abure developed a sit-tight mentality despite a Supreme Court ruling that his tenure has elapsed. The seeming intractable crisis led to the exit of Peter Obi.
The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has not faired any better with both the former Presidential candidate, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso and the only governor, Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf defecting to the ADC and the APC respectively.
With the ADC now in what appears to even be a bigger crisis because by the hard and extreme position of INEC, the party is as good as dead because they can’t even organize any function again.
A critical assessment of the development without any equivocation paints INEC as a body that is not consistent in the way and manner it deals with the political parties.
For instance, the Supreme Court has on 4th April, 2025 ruled that the Julius Abure led NWC has overstayed in office, but curiously INEC that is now quick to sanction the ADC with the speed of light did not remove Abure from its portal. And when public opinion on the matter became overwhelming, they only removed his name and left his phone number. It was not until Peter Obi left the party that INEC now recognized the Interim Management Committee led by Sen. Nenadi Usman.
It is no longer a hidden fact that many political watchers believe that the APC doesn’t want a strong challenger to face President Tinubu in 2027. Those in this school of thought will point to all these developments in the notable opposition parties.
Even the National Assembly with about 85% of APC members is being accused of making laws that tend to favour the incumbent. The new Electoral Act which was recently signed into law by the President has some questionable items. The way and manner they cramped the time table for the election and the inclusion of such items like the one making it difficult for an aspirant to leave his party for another 21 days to the primary to contest in his new party.
Many analysts believe that the incumbent and his ruling party are going to be the beneficiaries of this.
However, the APC has distanced itself and the President from the crisis in the ADC and other parties. Addressing newsmen recently to counter the claims of the ADC, National Secretary of the party, Sen. Ajibola Basiru said the APC is not supposed to teach the opposition how to organize and run a formidable party.
He further questioned if it was the party and President Tinubu that asked the ADC to go to Court of Appeal instead of responding to the summons of the High Court?
In any case, since what we are running is a multi-party democracy, all the players must play according to the rules. INEC should not and must not be seen as being partisan in the conduct of the elections. Therefore, they must use the same yardstick to measure each and every issue that has to do with the conduct of the elections.
Also, the ruling party must ensure that institutions function. They must give the opposition a free hand to organize themselves. It’s not enough to just deny involvement in the crisis rocking the main opposition parties, it must be seen that they are not truly involved.
Honestly with about 31 governors and hundreds of members of the legislature in the APC, the party is advantaged more than others, so making moves that suggest desperation shouldn’t be their call.
