The African Democratic Congress (ADC) was never supposed to be the belle of the political ball. Long relegated to the periphery, the party had little more than a poetic name and a patchwork base. But politics, like rainfall in Lagos, often rewards the most unlikely puddle. Suddenly, everyone’s umbrella is pointing toward ADC.
This week, a host of opposition titans, names like Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, and Nasir El-Rufai, descended upon Abuja and crowned the ADC as the vessel for their 2027 redemption dreams. With grand speeches and recycled symbolism, they announced a merger. New chairs were named. An interim secretary was picked. Photo ops captured smiles. And yet, inside the ADC, the music was off-key.
While elder statesmen posed for unity, the actual custodians of the party were lighting warning flares. One faction cried foul, dismissing the gathering as political theatre without choreography. They hadn’t been invited. They hadn’t been consulted. And now, they say, the party risks being turned into a Trojan horse for elite ambition.
One of the party’s spokesmen voiced what many in the base had whispered: it wasn’t so much a coalition as it was a parasitic occupation. According to him, the declaration of new leadership lacked constitutional approval. No vote. No NEC ratification. No grassroots mandate. Just velvet chairs filled with familiar faces, trying to borrow legitimacy.
What was meant to be a grand alliance now looks like a wedding without the bride’s consent. The ADC is divided, with one half offering the altar and the other barring the door. Worse still, legal ghosts from 2023 continue to haunt the party. Pending lawsuits remain unresolved, and some warn that any new arrangement is built on judicial quicksand.
For a coalition meant to symbolise rebirth, this one already seems fragile. The message is clear: unity cannot be outsourced. It must be cultivated. Otherwise, what’s dressed up as coordination is little more than a scramble: old power in new packaging, fumbling for cohesion in a room that’s already split.
And the ADC? It remains both the venue and the battleground, caught in a coalition that mistook proximity for consent.
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