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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Going by the political calculations of many Nigerians, the 2027 general elections appears to have been won and lost.
Daily Sun gathered that the reason may not be far-fetched and not unconnected with the apprehensions in many quarters that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) may end up being the only viable option on the ballot paper judging by the party’s complex tactical manoeuvring ahead of the polls. Besides, the amended Electoral Act, which among other things contained what many referred to as the caging of the opposition with compulsory electronic membership registration, unfavourable May 30th deadline for party primaries, and the choking legal encumbrances to weaken the opposition parties are part of the reasons the above conclusion was reached.
Curiously, the lukewarm disposition, the obscurity and feeble competitive existence of almost all the opposition parties, currently surviving only by names appears to be additional confirmations that the 2027 presidential election appears to be have been won and lost. Also, the frustrating legal quagmire confronting the ADC, the coalition party many Nigerians reposed their hopes on to salvage the country from APC’s alleged maladministration, appears to further confirm the assumption.
In every perspective, there seems to be a deliberate resolution and orchestrated scheme by the ruling party to ensure the country slides into not only a one-party state but also working to actualise the plot for President Bola Tinubu to emerge as the sole presidential candidate for his re-election.
The legal machination that incapacitated and destroyed hitherto viable opposition parties like the PDP, Labour Party (LP), and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) appears to be laying credence to the ease with which the victory of the incumbent President in next year’s presidential election will be facilitated.
Already, almost all the invincible and unviable opposition parties are basically struggling to survive and wriggle out of the suffocating factional leadership and electoral value ravaging them, which made them incapable of measurably competing against the APC presidential candidate.
Historically, this is not the first time Nigerians will be under the domineering influence of a ruling party. They were once under the PDP, its then national chairman, late Vincent Eze Ogbulafor, once boasted that the then ruling party would rule Nigeria for 60 uninterrupted years, just as former president Olusegun Obasanjo allegedly said that there was nothing wrong if Nigeria became a one-party state under the PDP.
With many Nigerian politicians as students of Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power, which enjoined them to crush their enemies totally, the leaders of the ruling party, holding tenaciously to such weapon of war, may have resolved to eclipse and extinguish the opposition parties.
Although some Nigerians are already moving into the Senator Serieka Dickson-led NDC, critical forces have however begun questioning the legality of the newly registered party.
Dismissing the claims by his long-time political associate, Umar Ardo, who insisted that the party’s registration did not follow due process and a valid court order, Dickson has described the claim as “misguided and sponsored propaganda.”
Conscious of the fact that his party could be incapacitated, Dickson, while providing a timeline, explained that “NDC’s registration process began as far back as 2017, long before Ardo contemplated registering a political party, speaks to a lack of respect and loyalty to friendship.
“The court enforced our rights to freedom of association, deemed us registered, and directed INEC to register us. The judgment has been accepted, implemented, and obeyed. There is nothing to appeal anymore,” Dickson said, exposing the legal vulnerability of his party, which could be deregistered by the order of the Supreme Court, despite the electoral commission complying with the court judgment through issuing a certificate of registration.
To members of the ruling party however, there is genuine reason to be afraid and to activate all its political armament after the rattling threat the second, third and fourth runners-up in the 2023 presidential election that collapsed into one united political family under one large canopy of coalition posed on the APC’s future.
Undoubtedly, the membership of Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, Rotimi Amaechi, and Rabiu Kwankwaso to ADC certainly constitutes a ferocious force to confront any form of principalities and powers from the leaders of the ruling party for next year’s presidential election.
More curiously, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s hurried decision to collapse his domineering, hyperactive political structure into the coalition party after the frightening massive political rally in Kano must have equally sent a shocking warning signal to the ruling party to bay its fangs and crush the penetrating influence of the coalition party before it becomes a consuming octopus.
As if the entanglement by the Bala Gombe-led faction was not enough, the recent announcement by the 25 ADC state chairmen that they have seized control of the party and subsequent pronouncement of the composition of an interim committee to oversee the party’s affairs might be the last straw to break the back of the coalition party.
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In what many pundits interpreted as the hand of Esau and voice of Jacob, the state chairmen had insisted that the coalition party has no faction, backing INEC’s recent controversial decision to suspend the David Mark-led National Working Committee (NWC).
Led by the Abia State Chairman, Don Norman Obinna, the ADC state chairmen, in disassociating the party from the sacked David Mark-led NWC and denouncing factional chairman, Nafiu Bala Gombe, as an official of the party, constituted an interim executive.
They announced Ogga Temitope Kingsley (Kogi); as National Chairman, Odion Kennedy (Edo), National Secretary, Muhamma Khala Jidda (Borno); Deputy Chairman, Kabiru Hussaini (Jigawa); Assistant Secretary, Dr. Charles Idowu Omidiji (Osun); National Organising Secretary, Johnny Tovi Derek (Bayelsa); Deputy Organising, Stella Chukwu (Enugu) Treasurer and Don Norman Obinna Publicity Secretary as the interim executive, noting that they will act for only three weeks.
“The members have been appointed to manage the day-to-day affairs of the party, pending the election of a new NWC…We urge INEC to accord them the necessary recognition and support…and save the ADC from total collapse. This is just for three weeks until we have the convention. We will be sending correspondence to INEC on this and let Nigerians know,” Obinna said.
Daily Sun can report that the decision to peg the duration of the constituted interim executive might be to coincide with the deadline date for the conduct of the party primary, which would have made it impossible for the coalition to achieve its desire to field a strong candidate against the APC.
The woes of the David Mark-led ADC did not end there as their decision to go ahead with the congresses at various states was marred by sponsored factions, which unfortunately resulted in the emergence of multiple chairmen in many states across the country.
From all indications, the ruling party seems to be celebrating the development and expectations that the coalition with an assemblage of heavyweight political class was completely frustrated and incapacitated from fielding a strong presidential candidate against the incumbent.
And the leaders of the ruling party have stopped at nothing in defending, justifying, and even boasting of how the 2027 presidential election has been won and lost.
In what looked like a crushing blow from the Lagos State APC chapter, it said Nigeria’s democracy will remain intact even if the opposition parties do not appear on the ballot paper in the forthcoming 2027 elections, nor will heaven fall.
The party, in a statement by its spokesman, Seye Oladejo, argued that democracy is guided by laws and institutional processes, not by sentiment, entitlement, alarmist propaganda, or political pressure.
“Compliance is not optional. Any political party that fails to meet the stipulated requirements must bear the full consequences of its own actions. The electoral process is bigger than any single political party. Heaven will not fall if the ADC or any other party fails to appear on the ballot as a result of its own non-compliance,” the Lagos chapter of the ruling party noted.
In all, the ADC has threatened to sustain acts of civil disobedience until Prof Joash Ojo Amupitan resigns as INEC chairman.
Tweeting a message titled, “Why Amupitan must resign now”, on his handle, ADC’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, noted that, “The recent revelation linking a pro-Bola Ahmed Tinubu tweet of 2023 to the Chairman of INEC, Prof Amupitan, is not merely disturbing, it is a grave affront to the integrity of our electoral system.
“In a democracy, the umpire must be above suspicion. He must not only be independent, but he must be seen, beyond any reasonable doubt, to be independent. That is the minimum standard required of anyone entrusted with the sacred duty of conducting free and fair elections. However, more troubling is the desperate attempt to tamper with digital records, to erase evidence of his previous partisanship.
“A man who manipulates records to save himself cannot be trusted to safeguard the mandate of millions. Over the past few days, it has been repeatedly revealed that Prof Amupitan, by his conduct, his utterances, and now by incontrovertible digital evidence, has fallen far below the standard expected of an electoral umpire. The referee cannot be running around in the shirt of one of the teams he is supposed to officiate in a match.
“This is why Prof Amupitan must resign now. Anything less is an insult to the Nigerian people and a dangerous precedent for our democracy. Relying on this evidence, ADC will be updating our petitions to all relevant institutions, including to foreign governments and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). We will also renew and escalate our civil disobedience action until the INEC Chairman leaves office,” he noted.
