Nigerians, not INEC, will determine ADC’s fate — Party’s founding chairman, Nwosu

In this interview with WALE AKINSELURE, the founder and pioneer National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress, Ralph Nwosu, explains the origin of the David Mark-led coalition, addresses factional and legal disputes, and the party’s strategy ahead of the 2027 general election

A lot is going on with the African Democratic Congress, among which is litigation, factionalisation spearheaded by the likes of Nafiu Gombe and Dumebi Kachikwu, which gives us the genesis of the David Mark-led ADC coalition that is being disputed.

This coalition happened immediately after the court judgment on the last election. I was moving around seeking a coalition. I had meetings with former President Olusegun Obasanjo many times. He invited some leaders. I had a meeting with Rauf Aregbesola in his home in Lagos and Osun. After that, Emeka Nwajuiba approached me and said that he was talking for a larger group, that all the groups that had been wanting to get in, including the PDP group, the Congress for Progressive Change group, the All Progressives Congress group, and I said that it was good. So, I started working with that group. I insisted that we will form this coalition once all of the critical opposition figures have signed in. This is because ADC, working with one single party alone, cannot do it. After I had the first conversations, we set up a committee that included Dr Mani Ahmad from Niger State, Dr Bamidele Ajadi from Oyo State, and Godson Okoye from Anambra State. They were the ones that we put forward to handle the negotiations. When it becomes a bit difficult, I will get involved. Later, we added more people. We added Jumoke Olawoyin, Bala Nafiu, and a couple of others. We continued that conversation. This recent coalition started more than two years ago. And when we started to agree, there was a need for us to have a National Executive Council meeting so that all our members and leaders would be informed. Our NEC is all the state chairmen plus the Federal Capital Territory, that is 37 chairmen. Then it also includes all our zonal executives. Each zone has between nine and 13 members, multiplied by six, that is over 70 members. Then the National Working Committee had about 30 members. So, we have a total of over 130 members. We held our first NEC meeting at NICON Luxury. The committee reported to them that some people are approaching us to form a coalition, merger or alliance and asked all the NEC members if they approve for us to continue that journey. They all approved. It was 100 per cent approval. The records are there. The media was there. The Independent National Electoral Commission was there at our NEC. So, when we agreed that we are ready to work with other political parties, other individuals to form a mega coalition, we sent them our Constitution. They saw our constitution, and they saw some limitations, that is, things in our constitution that would limit them from fully participating. And they raised it. For instance, you have to be a member for two years before you can contest an election, or even want to be an executive of the party, unless you get a waiver. When they pointed that out to us, we met and told them that, under our Constitution, the NEC can do the work you can do during the convention. The NEC can act for the convention. Therefore, we need to call another NEC meeting and make the needed amendments to make the coalition work well and be constitutional. So, NEC was called. Over 130 people were there, and the documentation was done. INEC was also present. Members of these different groups will also send a few people as observers to make sure everything is going well. They all went well. There was one clause that, if the national chairman resigns or is voted out, the person to act should be the deputy national chairman in charge of politics and must come from the same zone as the national chairman. We had to make all these amendments to make it possible for anybody from anywhere to contest the election. We did it in the presence of INEC. INEC helped us. Prelude to all of this, we were having some issues before, caused by Dumebi Kachikwu.

Are you referring to the same Dumebi Kachikwu who was your presidential candidate?

Yes, the small party we were then, anybody can come and say they want to run for President. We were looking for people to come and run. A lot of people will go to the PDP and APC to run, and parties were struggling to get a candidate who could run. As a matter of fact, it was when Dumebi came to undermine and deal with our party that we put those clauses that nobody can come after two or three months, and we give the person the ticket to run because you don’t know their motives. So, when we redid our constitution, we included all that, because of the troublesomeness of Dumebi. Dumebi came to our party to cause problems.

If he was causing problems, what firm measures did you implement to deal with the situation?

During our convention, he was expelled. And our party was free to adopt the Labour Party presidential candidate during the election proper. He was expelled. Those who know Dumebi Kachikwu will know he is just looking to play a destructive game.

But he still claims to be a member…

Presently, he’s not our member. But, for some reason, the fact that he was a presidential candidate makes him feel that it doesn’t expire. You always see him on television claiming to be the presidential candidate of ADC. But you took our ticket and tried to damage the party. If you were a presidential candidate, it has expired now; you didn’t use it well. Now, the gains of ADC have created business for the people instead of thinking of nation-building. So, people like Kachikwu, and unfortunately, Bala Nafiu, have become victims. All that is happening is just the party in power and the media that is giving it this colouration.

Was Bala part of the various meetings you mentioned?

One hundred per cent, yes. There was no meeting he missed. The records are there. INEC records are there. When Bala went to court claiming something, one of the documents that was presented in the court was the one that INEC wrote. INEC presented a case against Bala that it was there and that Bala participated in everything. INEC had their record. But recently, we heard that INEC had gone back on what they presented when Bala started this troublesome thing.

So, what is happening now?

What is happening is that people are being induced to appear as if there is a crisis in ADC. How can one individual be a faction in a group that is now five million persons? We have had people who have run as presidential candidates even in the major parties before, and the moment that election year finishes, and you didn’t win, that is over. But as far as Dumebi is concerned, he is using anything that would make it look as if he influences ADC, as the government in place has so much money to throw away. This is money they have come to regard as an anti-opposition budget. A few people are looking that way. But that few, even if they are 20 or 30 or whatever number, is not a fraction in an organisation that is over five million registered members who are paying their dues.

There are those of the opinion that while you were reaching terms of agreement with Senator David Mark and his group, you sidelined Bala, Dumebi and others in some sharing formula…

Sharing what? I have never been a transactional leader. As far as ADC is concerned, as far as this coalition is concerned, nobody did any transaction. We are part of the party, and if by God’s grace, we win the election, we’ll be part of the government. From what we were before, that’s a big plus. We gave Pat Utomi the party to run for president. Ask him if there was any transaction. Instead, most leaders of the party were contributing to his election. When the former president Obasanjo came, ask him if Chief Nwosu or any executive of the party had come to him to collect a dime. None. We’re not into transactions. We are deeply vested in nation-building. But some people can be easily swayed, and they think that everything in politics is about transaction; it’s about money, and so on. And if we don’t change that, it will continue to hurt this country. That is why I said that the ADC is hope built on integrity, and nobody can take that away.

You have a lot of legal battles that you face, and you hope to participate in the 2027 elections. How do you hope to circumvent these battles?

Those legal battles started because of the coalition that we built. And how many? Even though all this legal battle is getting public attention, it is not up to one per cent of the legal battles within the APC itself. It’s not up to one per cent of the legal battle within PDP. It’s not up to one per cent of the legal battle within the All Progressives Grand Alliance. It’s not up to 50 per cent of the legal battle within all the other political parties that are in existence today. It’s just being hyped by people who want to create the impression that there’s too much trouble in ADC. Don’t go there. That’s the game. But the leadership of the party in place has also helped us navigate very well. It would be good as media professionals that you tell political parties and leaders, that it’s election time, go and focus on campaigning and convincing Nigerian people and not investing money to destroy the party, corrupting all the systems that we have. INEC was challenging Bala on their own because they have the records. Then, since Prof Joash Amupitan came, that challenge was withdrawn. INEC actually organised the Alternative Dispute Resolution. This is the ADR that brought together all the old chairmen more than two years back. And all those we brought back, we gave their position. And all these records were put together. INEC has them. And INEC got one of the best ADR firms to handle it at their own cost. And we were benevolent to bring everybody back. Now that it’s time for congresses, some of those chairmen who were giving problems that we brought back and whose tenure is over are now trying to blackmail the party so that all of them are returned. We said, go and face the election. They don’t want to do that. Instead, they’ve gone back to people who have the budget to stop all the coalition processes. When Nigerians are suffering, when we have a security situation, the APC has some billions of Naira to fund people who want to disrupt other political parties.

Does that include Leke Abejide, who is also in protest against the David Mark leadership?

Part of the thing pushing Leke Abejide is that, since he got elected in ADC, he became an APC supporter because APC got him and gave him the chairman of the House Committee on Customs. He’s in a minority party, and they gave him the position of chairman of customs, so he’s in alignment with the APC. In 2023, Leke Abejide made it clear that ADC is for President Bola Tinubu and their government because he’s the chairman of customs in the House of Representatives.

You went ahead with your Convention despite derecognition by the INEC. Some ex-staff of INEC and analysts fear that there might be consequences, including that INEC may not recognise that Convention.

It would be wrong if we did everything we needed to do, if all our processes are good, and then the umpire is out to de-market us. The umpire put out the time for the congresses to happen. The umpire set out the time for parties to choose candidates for the upcoming election. And when it is about one month to do your congresses and present your candidates, the umpire came out to interpret a ruling any way they like and continue to de-market ADC? We are a peace-loving party, and we are genuine in what we are doing. It’s a democracy, and we are doing everything we are doing transparently before the Nigerian public. All the agencies in this country, as far as democracy is concerned, whether you are the president, whether you are anything, report to the Nigerian people. We want the Nigerian people to take ownership. Nigerian people must take ownership of INEC. If the Chairman of INEC has become a tool, we’re now reporting to the Nigerian people. We can’t allow his whims and caprices to derail us. We won’t allow that. The media, international organisations, international agencies, and embassies witnessed our convention.

What if INEC declares that all your electoral processes from top to bottom are not recognised?

 INEC is supposed to oversee the electoral process, but the moment they start to fail, you hand it over to the Nigerian people, who own the country and own all the agencies and so on. We must stop Amupitan. If you love democracy, you’ll be very upset with Bola Tinubu. You mean we fought for democracy for him to become president and foist an undemocratic system like never before on the country? Is that why the military was chased away? For him to have the opportunity to become President, he has fallen short of expectations for his constituency and everybody. People like Obafemi Awolowo and MKO Abiola will be turning in their graves. Is this a democracy?

The ADC, PDP, and LP’s challenges are quite pronounced. Do you also share the fear that the 2027 presidential election might be a walkover for Tinubu?

That is what Bola Tinubu is planning, but it would not work.

Why won’t it work?

The Nigerian people will take over.

The same Nigerian people who are sometimes regarded as docile?

We have become accountable to the Nigerian people. My phone is always on silent mode because I receive over a thousand calls in a day. The ADC website, despite being upgraded to the Amazon portal, is still challenged because of the interest of the Nigerian people. Nigerians are alert. We will not allow a few, desperate, disingenuous individuals to run down the democracy in our country. Enough is enough.

When shall the ADC get to the point of zoning the presidency? Recently, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, during an interview on Arise Television, made a case for the North producing the president in 2027.

In ADC, it is open. When this coalition was happening, I had some young Northern people come to my office who argued against the South continuing. They said, ADC, you have to be fair. They argued that this republic started in 1999, and from then till the end of the current Bola Tinubu’s tenure, that the South would have done 18 years and the North 10 years. And that we are still saying that it is the turn of the South? I never thought in that light, but that is the reality. If the North is saying, leave it open. If the South gets it, they will be ready to work with them.

When you mean leaving it open, are you talking about direct primaries?

We are plotting two options. We are looking at a consensus if everybody agrees. But where there is disagreement, we do direct primaries. Whoever wins becomes the standard-bearer of the party. I have heard some of the candidates say that if they don’t win, they are in the party and would support whoever wins. Rotimi Amaechi, Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi have said that. We await Rabiu Kwankwaso to also say that publicly. But the day the document was signed, that was what we put forward. We were very clear on open ticket and transparency. That was part of the reason everybody agreed that one of the persons who can do transparent primaries, because of his transparent character, is the chairmanship of David Mark.

There is the view that your party could fall in place or fall apart with the choice of its presidential candidate. How crucial is it that you get this right?

By October, you will realise that with the party that we are building, anyone who gets the ticket will win the election. The frontrunners now are Peter Obi, Atiku Abubakar, Rotimi Amaechi, Emeka Nwajuiba, Rauf Aregbesola, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Aminu Tambuwal, and Babachir Lawal. Any of these is what we are looking at. One of them will become a candidate, but it is also possible that none of them will be because the party we are building will deliver anybody we put forward. So far, it’s going well with the party. The Nigerian people are in love with what we are doing. The only people trying to pour sand in our garri are the APC, which is unfortunate. It’s democracy. Go and campaign, and if God has helped you and you get into office, your campaign would have been the outcome of your good governance. The judiciary should tell politicians that it is not for the courts to give them victory; they should go and meet the Nigerian people.

In terms of zones, where do you think the strength of ADC lies?

From the membership registration of over five million that we have presently, the North-West has registered the most, followed by the North-East, then South-South and South-West, then North-Central. For some reason, the South-East has not done so well, but they are coming up.

But a five-million-member membership would not win the presidential election.

These are active men and women who are involved in the party. It is not up to five per cent of eligible Nigerians who want to be involved in parties as members. I am an ADC member; my children and wife are busy with their own professions. As a matter of fact, they don’t want anything to do with politics. And that is the same way in most homes. Most bankers are not members of any political party; most professionals are busy. But they are conscious, and they would vote. We are targeting 37.5million votes to win the election. ADC will win the election.

But you also have factions at the state level.

At the state level, ADC is one of the strongest organisations that we have. When David Mark took office, we only had about seven party offices at the state level that were working. But now we have 36 strong party offices as strong as any party in Nigeria. We have 774 local government offices, and we have 8,900 ward offices spread across Nigeria. We have set up different committees. Our intelligence committee is working very hard. Our contact and mobilisation committee is working. Our integrity committee is working. Recently, two major organisations came out of ADC. There is the one ADC movement chaired by Lauretta Onochie, and the idea is to make sure that all groups coalesce into one ADC. Then the other major group is the Coalition for Electoral Integrity, and within the next few months, it will ensure that Nigerians are properly educated about what their vote means. They would preach that even if somebody offers them N100,000 – which we heard is the budget they are setting for buying votes – it is not worth it. The coalition is taking off, and Nigerians will be educated more on how they should vote than they have ever been educated in our democracy before.

Funding continues to be crucial for parties to prosecute elections. You alluded that it was once the bane of the ADC. How do you intend to change that narrative with the 2027 election?

When we formed the party, I was clear with my colleagues that we were going to take this party, with our vision and DNA, into the Villa. Due to funding, it has taken us this long. But now, with the calibre of persons, stature of individuals who have joined the party, and with what Nigerians have seen, we won’t have any issue regarding funding. You see a lot of Nigerians working on their own, promoting ADC. We have had old, retired men and women asking us to send our account for them to send money, saying they love what we are doing. They are both military and civilians. We have had retired men of the Armed Forces who have seen their men killed, contractors who the government is not paying, who send their stipends seeking our help to rescue them. We will have more than enough money to prosecute the election. And a lot of people are not asking us for money.

What are we looking at in terms of the amount for your party forms for the various elective positions?

It will be out within the next fortnight.

You gave up your national chairmanship of the party. In what role do you now play in the party?

I am a floor member, and I like that. At times, it is good to lead from the floor. Nigerians need to be inspired to see that this bloated head about the leader, the president, is nothing. I am a floor member as well as a major stakeholder in the party. I have declined all the committees they put me on. I am only the chairman of the Integrity Committee.