ABC of the ADC crisis

Everything looked seamless but, again, those searching for a party to take over did questionable due diligence. If they had been thorough they would have found that their bright new acquisition had been sown with legal land mines by aggrieved individuals.

One of them is Nafiu Bala Gombe whose lawsuit has now become a nightmare for the party’s new owners. His argument was simple. Under the ADC constitution, he as Deputy National Chairman ought to have taken over leadership following the resignation of other members of the National Executive Committee (NEC), insisting he never left his position.

Ever since the matter blew up, social media has been awash with videos purporting to show Gombe attending an event where the new Mark-led executive was unveiled. A form which he allegedly filled, indicating he had resigned has also been flying around. He says the document is fake and eventually some court would weigh in on its authenticity.

What I find amusing though is the desperate efforts of ADC supporters to win an argument online, rather than in the real court room where it matters. The leaders of the party cannot claim ignorance of Gombe’s legal challenge because they filed an appeal against an innocuous ruling of the court.

They were either overconfident or arrogantly dismissed Gombe as a nobody whose legal troublemaking would come to nought. On both counts they were wrong. Today, that nonentity has secured an order of the Appeal Court that has forced the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to derecognise the Mark leadership and severe communications with the two claimants of the party’s chairmanship. They had time to detonate the Gombe legal IED but arrogantly chose to do nothing about it.

Former Senator Elisha Abbo recently introduced a new dimension with his claim that Gombe became disaffected because he was denied a position in the new hierarchy after the Mark-led takeover. What was to come to him was allegedly handed over to former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, who supposedly had a higher profile. The allegation has not been denied by party leaders.

With deadlines in the electoral timetable looming, ADC faces the very real prospect of not presenting candidates. The party has readily admitted this possibility. But how has it responded to what is a serious existential threat? With the usual mix of threats and allegations!

It has accused President Bola Tinubu, APC and INEC of being behind its troubles. A few days ago it announced it had appointed envoys to make the case in 12 foreign capitals that democracy was on its death bed in Nigeria. How does this resolve the dilemma in which the party currently finds itself? Donald Trump who is desperately trying to break through the Strait of Hormuz is not about to abandon that to force Prof. Joash Amupitan to reinstate Mark and company.

The fact of the matter is that ADC’s problems were created in court and can only be resolved in that space. It doesn’t matter who put the litigators to their mischief. It doesn’t matter how conspiracy theories are put out there. It doesn’t matter how many abusive press releases are churned out demonising the INEC chairman, unless the courts vacate the existing orders before certain deadlines, the party won’t be on the ballot.

As to whether that translates into the death of democracy in these parts, suffice it to say it won’t be the first time that such dark prophecies have been made. Fortunately, they haven’t come to pass.

However, it does it appear with each passing day that some ADC leaders are coming to terms with the gravity of the situation. Former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, who just dumped his New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) for ADC, has been talking of his efforts at getting Gombe to drop his legal challenge. That may be the quickest way of breaking the stalemate, and something that someone ought to have thought of before now, but so far it has come to nought.

But even if he was successful, there are other law suits that challenge the status of Nwosu who handed over to Mark, among other issues. Put simply, some of the biggest names in Nigerian politics have just landed themselves in an amateurish mess from which they are having difficulty extricating themselves. Even their efforts at blaming others for their self-inflicted troubles are starting to ring hollow.

One option at this point is to abandon another sinking ship and continue the search for the next special purpose vehicle. That would just be the latest chapter in the political nomadism for which they have become known. It’s an odyssey that eats away at their credibility.

Take former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for example. In 1998, he was in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). By 2006 he had jumped into Action Congress (AC), from where he returned to PDP. In 2014, he was on the move again – joining the founders of APC. Restless as ever, he was back in PDP in 2017 and now finds himself weighing in options in ADC.

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Former Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, started with the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in 2002. He vowed never to leave the platform. But by 2014 he moved to PDP, only to dart from there to LP in 2022. Now, he’s in ADC dreaming of the presidential ticket.

It’s the same story with Kwankwaso who was one of the founding members of PDP in 1998. By 2014, he defected to APC, only to return to his erstwhile home in 2018. By 2022, he left for NNPP with which it was thought he would build a political fortress in Kano. But unbelievably, he abandoned his home for greener pastures in ADC. Much to his chagrin, what he thought was lush green is increasingly looking like weather-beaten brown.

So, if the current exceptional conditions actually force these men to move again, some would have been in three different parties with a space of twelve months! Don’t ask if these organisations have something in common because the reason for their movement isn’t ideological compatibility but desperation for a platform that can serve their electoral needs.

After running around in circles looking for a platform, it would be interesting hearing what these perennial drifters have to say to cynical voters seeking for knowledgeable hands who can chart a course to a safe harbour for the country.