The crisis anticipated to rock the opposition coalition due to the presence of several bigwig politicians might just have started.
This comes as Nafi’u Bala, a former gubernatorial candidate who contested on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Gombe State, has announced himself as the national chairman of the party.
Nafi’u Bala takes control of party as National Chairman
Only days back Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had described the ADC as a fragile political experiment driven by conflicting presidential ambitions.
At a press conference held Wednesday night in Abuja, the former national deputy chairman of the ADC accused the leadership under David Mark of seizing control of the party unlawfully and violating its constitution.
It would be recalled that in a bid to form a coalition against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressive Congress (APC), several notable politicians, including former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, ex-senate president David Mark, former PDP national chairman Uche Secondus, ex-Niger governor Babangida Aliyu, former Ebonyi governor Sam Egwu, ex-governor of Sokoto Aminu Tambuwal, and former Cross River governor Liyel Imoke, he picked the ADC as the opposition platform for the 2017 election.
Other politicians such as ex-Kaduna governor Nasir el-Rufai, 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi, former interior minister Rauf Aregbesola, ex-transportation minister Rotimi Amaechi, former sports minister Solomon Dalung, ex-APC chairman Odigie Oyegun, and former sports minister Bolaji Abdullahi, among others, also threw their weight behind the opposition coalition.
On July 2, the party’s founder and former national chairman, Ralph Nwosu, announced the resignation of the national working committee (NWC) and endorsed an interim leadership headed by Mark.
Later, on July 29, Nwosu claimed he was offered three ministerial slots as an incentive to abandon plans of turning the party into an opposition coalition platform.
Also, a faction within the ADC expressed opposition to this move, insisting the party should not be treated as a “private coalition platform” controlled by a select elite.
The party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Dumebi Kachikwu, also voiced disapproval over the opposition alliance’s adoption of the ADC.
At the press conference recently held, Bala stated that “bona fide” members of the party intend to take legal action over what he described as an illegal takeover.
“We wish to draw the attention of all members of our great party and Nigerians at large, to the ongoing acts of political hooliganism being perpetrated by some individuals who were hitherto entrusted with the leadership of the party,” he said.
“We are all living witnesses to the show of shame and acts of lawlessness being displayed by these unscrupulous leaders, who, without any qualm or sense of moral restraint, plunged our party into a needless crisis and leadership uncertainty.
“The idea of mortgaging the future of our great party, by abdicating the constitutional duties and responsibilities of all elected officers of the party, to some powerful outsiders who never belong to the party, is condemnable.
“Recently, the nation woke up only to be greeted by a shoddily rehearsed political melodrama, in which elected roles were switched with certain groups of political strangers to facilitate the complete takeover of the party structures and their political appurtenances.
“This total surrender and capitulation is without any known precedent in our democratic journey to constitutional order. We are therefore strongly resolved and collectively determined to challenge this affront and ensure that the party’s laid down rules and stipulated provisions are respected and strictly adhered to by all those who belong to it.
“In case these individuals choose to ignore our urgent calls to obey our constitutional guidelines and thus remain very obdurate and recalcitrant in their aberrant behaviour, we shall proceed with gusto to challenge these gross acts of impunity in the courts and bring them to justice.
“It gives us enormous pain to inundate you with these scandalous happenings in our party, but we have been left with no other option to take in defence of our inalienable constitutional rights, as evident by the prevailing situation we now find ourselves in the party.
“In the history of democracy all over the world, no party leader or any group of leaders have the power to arbitrarily transfer elected mandate or political authority to non-members who never belonged or contested for political office.”
He explained that the ADC constitution clearly outlines the process for succession and how to fill any leadership vacancies.
Following those guidelines, Bala announced that he has taken on the position of interim national chairman of the party.
He called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to “urgently” recognise him as the party’s legitimate chairman.
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