Will ADC Survive Internal Crisis?

With the court actions against the Senator David Mark-led leadership of the African Democratic Congress by some members of the party, Ejiofor Alike writes that the ADC may suffer the same internal crisis and protracted litigation that weakened the other major opposition parties

Barely one month after the opposition coalition seeking to unseat President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election adopted the African Democratic Party (ADC) following the leadership crises in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), there is evidence of widening crack in the wall of the coalition.

Protracted litigations over the leadership tussles in the PDP and the LP had forced the chieftains of the two parties to join forces with the aggrieved members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to adopt the ADC as the alternative platform to challenge Tinubu in 2027.   

But early signs of crack in the wall of the ADC emerged when the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 general election and Chief Executive Officer of Roots TV, Mr. Dumebi Kachikwu, kicked against the ‘hijack’ of the leadership of the party by defectors from other parties.

Kachikwu also criticised former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; former Senate President, David Mark, and other members of the alliance for allegedly taking over the leadership of the party through a “back door.”

He claimed that the tenure of Ralph Nwosu, who handed over the leadership of the party to Mark, had expired on August 21, 2022.

Though many analysts had dismissed Kachikwu’s position, saying that being a former presidential candidate of the party does not confer any right to him to speak for the party, he shocked his critics with the announcement that five state chairmen of the party had filed a lawsuit at the Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking to stop what they described as the unlawful takeover of the party by Mark and others.

The suit also questions the role of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in recognising the interim leadership of the ADC.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja, Kachikwu, while confirming the legal action, accused the coalition of trying to undermine the ADC’s constitution through inducement and coercion.

“Some of the state chairmen are being offered as much as ₦20 million to step down. But even if they succeed, our constitution does not allow such an illegal assumption of office,” Kachikwu said.

He emphasised that the ADC was not, in his words, established as “a political retirement home for failed elites.”

Before the court action by the five state chairmen, three aggrieved members of the party had approached the Federal High Court in Abuja, asking it to sack the Mark-led interim leadership of the party.

The plaintiffs in the suit – Adeyemi Emmanuel, Ayodeji Victor Tolu and Haruna Ismaila – further challenged the membership of Senator Mark and others who were appointed as interim leaders of the party.

They prayed the court to, among other things, determine whether the purported handover of the party’s leadership structure to individuals involved in a merger was not a direct violation of a subsisting judgment.

The plaintiffs in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1328, posed legal questions for the court to determine, among which included:

“Whether the current Executive Committee of the 1st Defendant ought not to have been dissolved or replaced only through a properly convened National Convention or a valid decision of the National Executive Committee (NEC).”

Upon the determination of the questions, the plaintiffs urged the court to hold that the appointment and nomination of interim leadership for the party “is unconstitutional, unlawful, null and void.”

However, the camp of the ADC promoters swelled up when the chairman of the party in Niger State, Musa Hassan, announced his withdrawal of intent to prosecute the Mark-led coalition, in a letter addressed to the party.

He urged the ADC lawyers to file a motion of discontinuance at the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court.

“I do not intend to continue the prosecution of the case against my great party, Africa Democratic Congress,” wrote the Niger State ADC chairman.

“I sincerely plead that the notice of discontinuance be filed to tomorrow morning, as the case was adjourned to 23/7/2025 for hearing and a copy of the application sent to me,” Hassan wrote.

In response to the court action by the three aggrieved members of the ADC, the party announced that at least 97 lawyers were ready to represent it in the court case.

In a statement issued by its media unit, the ADC accused the APC of sponsoring a lawsuit using the names of individuals who are not members of the ADC to challenge the party and its interim leadership.

ADC claimed that the individuals whose names were used by the APC to file the suit are not listed in the party’s physical or digital membership records in either Kogi or Nasarawa State.

“It smacks of desperation that a party elected in charge of the lives of no fewer than 200 million people can engage in shopping for the names of its citizens in pursuit of Machiavellian politics,” the party said.

The National Legal Support Group for ADC had also expressed its readiness to represent the ADC in the courts over the matter filed against the party and its interim officers.

Speaking in Abuja, the leader of the group, Mohammed Sheriff, said no fewer than 97 lawyers had indicated their preparedness to stand for the party.

Similar litigations over leadership tussles believed to have been instigated by the agents of the APC in the PDP and the LP had weakened the two main opposition parties.

 Kachikwu’s critics alleged that he is working secretly for the APC and was also rumoured to have instigated the court action to also destablise the ADC, at the instance of the ruling APC.

ADC’s Interim National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi had accused the agents of the Tinubu’s administration of orchestrating a covert plan to weaken and destabilise the opposition coalition.

The party raised concerns over an alleged secret meeting convened by some federal government officials with former state chairmen and key members of the ADC’s executive committees in the North-east and North-west regions of the country.

Abdullahi, in a statement, said the meeting’s purpose was not related to national security or peacebuilding but aimed at intimidating and coercing opposition figures.

Abdullahi described the move as sabotage rather than politics.

He claimed the plot seeks to create confusion within the party, undermine its new leadership, and halt its growing influence as a credible opposition force in Nigeria.

He noted that such tactics are threats to democracy and capable of turning the country into a one-party state through intimidation.

“The July 1st coalition declaration and the July 2nd unveiling of the ADC have clearly unsettled the ruling party,” the statement said.

With the PDP yet to recover from protracted litigations over leadership tussle and the LP split into two factions following controversial court judgments, can ADC survive similar internal crisis with the ongoing leadership dispute in court?