The unfolding crisis within the African Democratic Congress (ADC) is fast becoming a classic case study in political self-destruction, misplaced priorities and the consequences of treating political expediency as a substitute for established rules and democratic procedures.<\/p>\n
What should ordinarily have been an internal party disagreement has now escalated into a full-blown leadership crisis, judicial confrontation and an embarrassing spectacle of political recriminations. More troubling, however, is the apparent determination of some ADC leaders to externalise responsibility for a crisis substantially rooted in their own internal contradictions.<\/p>\n
The recent Federal High Court judgment nullifying the Senator David Mark-led interim leadership structure and the consequential decisions taken under its authority has exposed the dangerous legal and political implications of the unresolved leadership tussle within the party. The ruling has also thrown the party\u2019s 2027 electoral preparations, including the process that produced former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate, into considerable uncertainty.<\/p>\n
Rather than confront the fundamental issues that brought the party to this unfortunate crossroads, some ADC leaders have chosen the familiar but unconvincing route of pointing accusing fingers at the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), questioning the judiciary and portraying themselves as victims of a grand political conspiracy.<\/p>\n
This is not only an exercise in political escapism; it is an unfortunate demonstration of a party struggling to distinguish between the consequences of its own decisions and the actions of imaginary external enemies.<\/p>\n
THE RULE OF LAW IS NOT AN OPTIONAL POLITICAL CONVENIENCE<\/p>\n
The first lesson from the ADC debacle is that the rule of law must remain supreme in our democratic enterprise. Political parties are not private estates, personal possessions or convenient vehicles for the advancement of individual ambitions. They are institutions governed by constitutions, regulations, established procedures and the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
No political heavyweight, regardless of pedigree, political experience or presidential ambition, should imagine that the rules governing a political party can be circumvented or suspended simply because the political circumstances demand it.<\/p>\n
Internal democracy is not merely a campaign slogan to be deployed against political opponents. It must be practised within one\u2019s own political organisation.<\/p>\n
The allegations surrounding the emergence of the Mark-led interim leadership, the grievances of aggrieved party stakeholders and the competing claims to legitimate authority were matters that required careful internal resolution and strict adherence to the party\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n
It is therefore rather curious that a political organisation aspiring to govern Nigeria would appear to have difficulty governing its own affairs in accordance with its established rules.<\/p>\n
The courts exist precisely to adjudicate disputes, interpret the law and provide remedies where rights are allegedly violated. If the ADC disagrees with the judgment, the appropriate response is to pursue its appeal through the judicial hierarchy, as it has indicated it will do. It is neither necessary nor productive to convert every unfavourable judicial outcome into an indictment of the judiciary or an alleged conspiracy by the ruling party.<\/p>\n
The independence of the judiciary is not determined by whether a judgment favours our political preferences. A judiciary that is celebrated only when it delivers favourable verdicts is a judiciary being subjected to political convenience rather than constitutional respect.<\/p>\n
STOP THE BUCK-PASSING: THE APC IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ADC\u2019S INTERNAL CONTRADICTIONS<\/p>\n
The attempt to drag the APC into the ADC\u2019s self-inflicted predicament is particularly amusing and intellectually dishonest.<\/p>\n
How does the ruling party become responsible for the internal leadership disagreements, competing claims to party authority and litigation initiated by aggrieved members of the ADC itself?<\/p>\n
Was it the APC that appointed the ADC\u2019s interim leadership? Was it the APC that created the disagreements over the succession arrangements? Was it the APC that failed to reconcile the competing interests within the party before embarking on an ambitious coalition-building project?<\/p>\n
These are questions the ADC must answer honestly.<\/p>\n
The case that produced the latest judgment originated from an internal dispute brought before the court by a party stakeholder, Nafiu Bala Gombe. The ruling was therefore the outcome of a judicial process arising from the ADC\u2019s own internal affairs, not an executive pronouncement by the APC.<\/p>\n
The APC cannot be expected to take responsibility for disputes it neither initiated nor adjudicated.<\/p>\n
Indeed, there is something fundamentally contradictory about a political party that routinely invokes the language of democracy, institutional independence and the rule of law but appears uncomfortable with those same institutions when their decisions become inconvenient.<\/p>\n
Democracy is not a buffet from which political actors select only the outcomes that suit their ambitions.<\/p>\n
THE POLITICAL SUICIDE OF AMBITION WITHOUT STRUCTURE<\/p>\n
The ADC crisis also exposes the inherent danger of assembling a political coalition around personalities and presidential ambitions without first establishing a credible, functional and universally acceptable institutional framework.<\/p>\n
A coalition is not sustained by the political weight of its prominent members alone. It requires trust, internal cohesion, transparent decision-making, constitutional compliance and a shared understanding of how power and responsibilities are distributed.<\/p>\n
The ADC appears to have put the cart before the horse. In the apparent rush to provide a political platform for some of the country\u2019s most prominent opposition figures, fundamental questions about party ownership, leadership succession, internal legitimacy and institutional authority were either inadequately addressed or left to fester.<\/p>\n
The consequences are now unfolding before the entire nation.<\/p>\n
The irony is difficult to miss. A party presenting itself as a credible alternative for managing Nigeria\u2019s complex national challenges is struggling to manage its own internal arrangements.<\/p>\n
If a political organisation cannot satisfactorily resolve questions about who legitimately leads it, how decisions are taken and whose authority is binding, what assurances can it offer Nigerians about its capacity to manage a country of more than 200 million people?<\/p>\n
Political ambition without institutional discipline is a recipe for instability. The ADC must now contend with the consequences of what appears to be an avoidable political misadventure.<\/p>\n
THREATS, PROTESTS AND POLITICAL DRAMA WILL NOT CURE A SELF-INFLICTED INJURY<\/p>\n
Even more disturbing is the resort to threats of nationwide protests against INEC and increasingly combative rhetoric directed at the judiciary and the ruling party.<\/p>\n
The reported threat by a faction of ADC state and local government chairmen to mobilise nationwide protests if INEC fails to implement the court judgment or recognise their preferred leadership is a particularly misplaced response.<\/p>\n
What exactly does the ADC hope to achieve by threatening the electoral umpire over a dispute that requires legal clarification and resolution?<\/p>\n
Is the party suggesting that the courts should be intimidated into reversing their decisions? Or that INEC should substitute political pressure for its constitutional and statutory responsibilities?<\/p>\n
Neither proposition is acceptable in a constitutional democracy.<\/p>\n
The right to peaceful protest is guaranteed, but it cannot be transformed into an instrument for intimidating independent institutions or compelling them to act outside the law.<\/p>\n
The ADC should understand that volume does not confer validity, threats do not create legitimacy, and political rallies cannot substitute for compliance with the law.<\/p>\n
There is also a fundamental difference between defending democratic rights and attempting to weaponise public anger to escape the consequences of internal administrative and constitutional failures.<\/p>\n
The ADC should concentrate its energy on resolving its leadership crisis, pursuing its legal options and rebuilding confidence among its members rather than threatening institutions that have a responsibility to discharge their mandates without fear or favour.<\/p>\n
One cannot set one\u2019s political house on fire and then accuse the neighbour of arson simply because the flames are visible from across the street.<\/p>\n
THE APC REMAINS COMMITTED TO DEMOCRATIC COMPETITION<\/p>\n
For the avoidance of doubt, the APC has no interest in weakening Nigeria\u2019s multiparty democracy. We believe that a credible opposition has an important role to play in strengthening democratic accountability and providing Nigerians with political choices.<\/p>\n
However, the existence of a credible opposition does not mean that any political party should enjoy immunity from the consequences of its internal decisions or be exempted from the laws governing political organisations.<\/p>\n
The APC is confident in its record, its political organisation and the democratic mandate of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. We are prepared to engage every political platform in the marketplace of ideas, performance, policy alternatives and electoral persuasion.<\/p>\n
We do not need to manufacture crises within opposition parties, nor do we need to take responsibility for the internal contradictions of our political competitors.<\/p>\n
The ADC should therefore stop looking for external scapegoats and undertake the necessary introspection. Its present predicament is a timely reminder that political consolidation cannot be achieved through shortcuts, that personal ambitions must submit to institutional discipline and that no political platform can successfully build a national future on a foundation of unresolved internal disputes.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the greatest tragedy of the ADC crisis may not be the immediate uncertainty surrounding its leadership or its 2027 electoral prospects. It is the damaging message it sends about the preparedness of a political organisation that wants Nigerians to entrust it with national leadership.<\/p>\n
Nigeria deserves an opposition that is organised, disciplined, internally democratic and committed to the rule of law. It does not need an opposition perpetually at war with itself, blaming the government for its own mistakes and mistaking political theatrics for political strategy.<\/p>\n
The ADC must learn a simple but enduring lesson: political suicide is often not inflicted by one\u2019s opponents. Sometimes, it is the inevitable consequence of one\u2019s own choices.<\/p>\n
Mogaji (Hon) Seye Oladejo
\nLagos APC Spokesman
\n07\/11\/26<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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