From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

National chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Chief Ralph Okey Nwosu, has said that the 2027 general elections would be crucial to the country’s democracy. However, Nwosu, who spoke in an interview with journalists in Abuja, said the ADC is putting together a grand coalition to wrestle power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). He also spoke on plans by the party’s leadership to transition to a new generation of leaders, among other issues.

Excerpts:

One would think that ADC would use the Anambra governorship election holding in November this year to make a bold statement towards the 2027 general election, but not much has been heard from the party. What is the problem?

Twenty-Twenty -Seven (2027) is a project of massive nature, one that will affect Nigeria like nothing before. It will determine the future of our democracy and our country and therefore requires special skills to actualize meaningfully. Moving forward, for Anambra and all elections, we have a well-thought-out strategy. Leadership in this age is like choreographing an opera. The orchestra has different parts. To get the desired outcome, just like the instrumentalists, the conductors do not need distractions. My answer for you is, wait for the symphony. Do not forget that Anambra is my home state. We are at work on many fronts.

As part of ADC’s build-up for the next general election is the planned National Convention, which you announced at the last NEC meeting. Of course, you said you’re going to step down as national chairman. When is the convention holding? Has a date been fixed?

During our last NWC and NEC meetings, we took a decision on both congresses and the National Convention to create room for all new entrants to be part of leadership, policy formulation, and contest in all elections as full-fledged members. By now, we could have even concluded the process. We are looking for funding; we are not a money-bag party. But I can tell you, ADC is transitioning fast.

Many organisations and youth groups have joined our party. The membership has grown in millions. We are consolidating things so as to have a seamless exercise. The security situation in the country is a major challenge. But give and take, in two to three months, we must conclude, and the new ADC will emerge.

By 2027, the party will be participating in six general elections since 2007. Are you happy with the party’s performance, and how would you like your successor to sustain the tempo?

It has been challenging, but we have done well. I thought it would have been easier. The APGA project, which I championed in Anambra, took power in the state within the first general election cycle of its birth. But I have realized that our politicians are opportunists and mercantile in nature. The experience has given me, particularly, a broad perspective of the political and public service disposition of our people from all parts of the country. Within the last 20 years, over 100 political parties have been deregistered, and ADC is still standing strong and has never compromised our principles.

Within these years, we built a party that a former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has identified with and pronounced to be the most principled, progressive, and purpose-led organisation in Nigeria; a party that has controlled over 65 percent of members of the Oyo State House of Assembly. ADC has had three Senators and over 12 members of the House of Representatives at a time. We have produced elected persons from the South West, South-South, North East, and North Central. If not for institutional abuses, ADC values would be pasted in many more federal, state, and local council seats.

There have been talks of coalition by opposition political parties, including the PDP, even though governors of the party have dissociated from it. Do you see the possibility of opposition parties working together in 2027? Where does ADC stand on the coalition Atiku and others are proposing?

I get offended when people talk about governors, be they PDP, APC, or of any other party. Most of them are not sure of winning their wards without money. Once they get into office, they lose their voices for public advocacy or to stand against the president for fear of EFCC. So, that is what is going on.

But come to think about it, the Labour Party, with Peter Obi, won Lagos, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, and FCT, and other states without any governor or support of any strong politician and political party except ADC. It simply means that Nigerians are tired of all the shenanigans about party and big names. Any serious-minded leader who does not look back or allow themselves to be stampeded by busybodies will gain the citizens’ trust.

=ADC is in serious coalition talks with the Peoples Redemption Party, and we have made this public. We have reached out to a handful of other parties. In a short while, party leaders will finish their consultations, and then we shall adopt a viable candidate whose worldview aligns with our purpose.

I am upset when party leaders chase after men of the moment who are usurping power at different levels. Such persons make all of us look horrible and dirty. How can a people choose to make corruption, bigotry, dichotomy a way of being? Such an organisation, estate, or country where such things become normal cannot go too far. It will collapse. But I believe we are going to get it right this time.

The coalition we have built so far centers more on youth and women groups, students, civil societies, and labor. I want you to remember that in 2022/23, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and their Trade Union Congress (TUC) had settled to work with ADC, but due to the shortness of time, we were not able to consummate the relationship in full. On second thought, it has turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

We now have the time to build an enduring citizens’ structure together with these congresses and other thought leaders and organizations. The Coalition for Protection of Democracy (COPDEM), African Farmers Club, Justice Group, and Citizens for Good Government, as well as The Progressive Alliance for Change, are onboard. There are so many. During our last NWC meeting, we counted 73 of them. It means Nigerians are pooling together. The ADC diaspora network is doing their own.

In specific terms, is ADC in talks with PDP, SDP, and breakaway APC?

As you know, the ADC symbol of handshake and DNA elements of forward-looking, inclusion, diversity, and respectful engagement and accommodation make us welcoming to all. But we have gone far beyond joining any other alliance or coalition. We have gone too far in our formation and structuring.

The ADC Continental Youth Council is everywhere, and our messaging is already in sync with the yearning of over 20 million Nigerians. That aside, the ADC directorate of Civil Society & Progressives mobilization National coordinators have built a membership structure that can deliver every polling unit in this country. So, ADC is good, prepared, and ready. Any of them can join us if they so desire.

For the kind of mega citizens’ movement that we are building, these leaders cannot lead the new campaign. But they have patriots with diverse knowledge that I admire, like Atiku Abubakar, Ben Obi, David Mark of PDP, (former) Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Emeka Nwajiuba, and Hon. Saliu Lukman of APC, and Dr. Tanko Yinusa and Peter Ameh of LP are great guys any patriot can work with.

If former Vice President Atiku Abubakar desires to contest the 2027 presidential election on the ADC platform, will you allow it?

Why not? If he comes out boldly to join the party, he may be elected to carry the ADC flag. He has the best qualifications and tutelage of anyone in the field at the moment.

Atiku has been in the presidential race since 1993. Don’t you think it is time for him to yield the stage for younger ones?

No one is better qualified than Atiku to deal with the complex and complicated problem the country is facing now. I am not being patronising; if he wishes, he can come into ADC. But for someone who has worked under Obasanjo for eight years, if nothing else, he will have a Nigeria perspective to governance. Atiku can go to any local government in Nigeria, and his friends will host a big party for him, politics or no politics. No one else has the reach. He is urbane and cosmopolitan. He can help Nigeria at this stage to build unity and bring to rest the disgusting divide that our recent politics has been promoting.

Many people are of the opinion that the ADC should lobby Peter Obi to run on its platform. Do you think so?

Peter is busy with his LP wahala, and I respect that. I have never spoken to Obi for over one year now. Since after the last election, we may have seen each other twice or thrice; twice I looked for him, and once we met at a function. Remember, in 2023, ADC was the only party that threw their weight behind Peter Obi and the Labour Party. We did so because we are a responsible citizens party. We supported the Obi/Datti ticket and stood with them all through the ordeals following the general elections. One would expect that if Mr. Obi’s party was having challenges, ADC should be their best option. But he thinks otherwise, and we respect that. ADC will strategize to win the next general elections with or without anyone.

Recently, a group of youths came to me and said they have 20 million young voters they will deliver to ADC if we can trust to welcome their candidates. So, we have many paths to this coalition and to the villa. No desperation on our part.

As one of the opposition leaders in the country, what best strategy would you suggest to defeat the All Progressives Congress and President Tinubu in 2027?

It beats me when people feel that President Bola Tinubu is difficult to defeat. I wonder why. I went to Lagos, and all I hear is “Ebi n pa everybody,” and this echoes in all parts of the country. So, where will he get the votes? We are all hungry, from the streets in Lagos, to Port Harcourt, Kano, Uyo, and Sokoto. Poverty and insecurity, occasioned by bad government, are devouring the nation. The APC governments have failed woefully. APC as a party is in delusion. They will sweep themselves out with their broom, or we get the citizens to do so.