Ayomide Otitoju
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has criticised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) for focusing on zoning their 2027 presidential tickets two years before the polls, saying the move shows disregard for the challenges facing Nigerians.
“The general election is still in 2027; it’s still two years away. Why are we so preoccupied and behaving in such a way that Nigerians begin to look at the political elite across the divides as people who don’t care about them?” ADC spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi, said on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Tuesday.
On Monday, the PDP’s National Executive Council (NEC) in Abuja zoned its 2027 presidential ticket to the South while retaining its national chairmanship in the North. Earlier in May, 22 APC governors and other key organs of the ruling party adopted President Bola Tinubu as their sole candidate for the 2027 election. Both parties argued their decisions aligned with Nigeria’s unwritten rotational power-sharing arrangement between North and South.
But Abdullahi, speaking for the ADC — a coalition comprising political heavyweights including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, ex-Labour Party candidate Peter Obi and former minister Rotimi Amaechi — dismissed the move as premature.
“They are very experienced people, and they know the implications of showing their hand too early. So it’s either they are playing a predetermined game or courting certain individuals because they’ve been shopping around for who will be their presidential candidate,” he said.
Abdullahi stressed that the ADC was not short of qualified aspirants. “Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has already declared interest in running for president. We also have Peter Obi, Rotimi Amaechi, and others who are equally interested. They all stand an equal chance,” he said.
The ADC spokesman emphasised that the coalition’s priority was building its structures and mobilising Nigerians at the grassroots rather than engaging in zoning debates.
“We are not bothered by what the PDP and APC are doing. Nigerians can see right through it. For us, there are now two major parties in Nigeria — the APC, which is the ruling party, and the ADC, the main opposition coalition,” Abdullahi said.
He added that zoning within the ADC would be discussed at the appropriate time. “What is most important to us now is convincing Nigerians that we represent the real alternative that can bring relief to their current sufferings,” he noted.
