Political Coalition Turns to ADC Following INEC’s ADA Registration Delay

Plans to formally accept the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as the vehicle for opposing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 2027 campaign for a second term were finalized by the coalition of opposition forces on Wednesday.
After the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) delayed the All Democratic Alliance’s (ADA) registration, coalition leaders reportedly decided to switch to ADC.
Following the breakdown of negotiations with the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the ADC has garnered popularity as the new political bride.

Note that prominent politicians such former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, the 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, and Nasir El-Rufai, the former governor of Kaduna State, were among the members of the alliance when it was publicly announced on March 20.
In an interview with Daily Trust on Monday, coalition chairman Dr. Umar Ardo affirmed that although the majority of leaders have embraced the ADC, the coalition has also decided to keep working on ADA registration.

The majority of the leaders will formally declare their stance on Wednesday, having already adopted ADC. However, we also decided that the new party registration and the ADC adoption could go on at the same time,” Ardo stated.

He revealed that those who support the registration of a new party are still certain that INEC will follow the law.

He stated that the coalition secretariat is dedicated to fulfilling all legal and procedural obligations.

He went on to say that supporting ADA registration and embracing the ADC are complementing rather than antagonistic.

“Registering a new party is a process, just like adopting an existing one,” Ardo stated. Both initiatives entail membership drives and grassroots mobilization. In the end, they both aim for the same goal.

Ardo gave two main arguments in favor of a new party’s registration. In the first place, he voiced concerns about “external manipulations” if the alliance merely merges into an already-existing party.

“Unfair influence is one of our biggest worries. A new party’s opponents worry that the government would meddle with INEC. However, because you have to deal with established interests, joining an existing party actually makes us more vulnerable to influence.

“You participate in transactional politics with current party owners rather than going to court in a clear registration process. Executives in the ADC, for example, who were elected in December 2022, have stated that they will not resign until December 2026, well after the primaries. “It’s a legal minefield that could lead to litigation, and a single court decision could turn everything upside down,” he warned.

His second worry was that devoted coalition members would be left out of the process. “You might make a lot of people feel excluded,” he said.

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The political forces who overthrew Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 are no different from us if our only objective is to overthrow Tinubu in 2027. We need to do more than that. He stated, “The coalition ought to lead a renaissance—to transform the way things are done in this nation.”

In the meantime, Okey Ralph Nwosu, the longtime chairman and founding leader of the ADC, has been replaced as interim national chairman by former Senate President David Mark, a senior coalition member confirmed to Daily Trust.

Mark will guide the party through a period of transition and preside over the convention that will elect a meaningful National Working Committee, which is anticipated to take place in 2026.

Rauf Aregbesola, the former governor of Osun State, rejected the offer, hence the position of interim national secretary is still open.

The party’s reorganization and the planning of its national convention, which is anticipated to take place in 2026 and elect a substantive chairman and more members of the National Working Committee, will be supervised by David Mark, it has been decided. The secretary position, however, is still open. According to the source, the leaders have returned to locate a more suitable candidate.