ADC coalition racing against time
Opposition parties have major hurdles to cross before the deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), including the submission of the party membership register, the adoption of a
Opposition parties have major hurdles to cross before the deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), including the submission of the party membership register, the adoption of a consensus presidential candidate, and agreement on a single party for the poll. Also, the ‘coalition’ is anxious about the Supreme Court’s anticipated judgment. Can the ‘coalition’ beat the deadline? Deputy Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU examines the preparation for the 2027 general election by the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the factional Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other parties outside government.
Unlike the much more organised, stable and focused ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), opposition parties are in disarray and unable to put their houses in order ahead of next year’s general election.
The so-called coalition is fighting the law, the court, the umpire and the due process out of frustration.
Beyond internal disagreements, the coalition faces acute legal and structural constraints. Although they toyed with the idea of a consensus candidacy, it is a Herculean option. The electoral framework requires candidates for elections to run under a single party. Indeed, rules governing primaries, consensus, and timelines for merger or fusion also tend to limit coalition options.
Distracted by protracted leadership crises, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faction are apparently lagging behind and struggling to align their preparations for the 2027 polls with the revised timetable released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Instead of confronting the reality of time constraint, they are attributing the effects of their laxities and failures to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC, the electoral commission and the judiciary.
ADC and the factional PDP have spent more time in court and expended much energy on intra-party conflicts than on genuine plans for the contest.
These perilous times were never anticipated by the divided opposition groups pretending to cohabit in shapeless coalition.
Up to now, the parties or factions lack a recognised National Working Committee (NWC). Acting on the Court of Appeal judgment, INEC has withdrawn its recognition of General David Mark and Chief Rauf Aregbesola as interim national chairman and interim secretary, respectively. Also, the Turaki faction of the PDP is battling the Wike group in court over the legality of its controversial Ibadan Convention. Between that jamboree at Adamasingba Stadium and now, the Wike group has successfully held a national convention, which elected Alhaji Abdulrahman Mohammed as chairman.
Both factions hinge their arguments in court on the highly contentious notion of court interference in the internal affairs of political parties.
Last month, INEC released a revised timetable for the polls. It rescheduled the Presidential and National Assembly elections for January 16, 2027, in line with the new Electoral Act 2026.
According to the commission, the governorship and Houses of Assembly elections will now hold on February 6, 2027, while the Osun Governorship election will not hold on August 15, 2026, as previously scheduled for August 8.
Although ADC and PDP factions claim to be participating in the Ekiti and Osun elections, the chapters are not counting on their support for now because they are not recognised by the umpire.
INEC, in a statement signed by the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Kudu Haruna, had earlier scheduled the presidential election for February 20, 2027. But the decision was met with an outcry from a section of Nigerians who said the date fell during the Ramadan period. Due to the outcry, the National Assembly also reduced the period for the election notice from 360 days to 300 days.
Haruna said: “Following the repeal of the Electoral Act, 2022 and the enactment of the Electoral Act, 2026, which introduced adjustments to statutory timelines governing pre-election and electoral activities, the commission has reviewed and realigned the schedule to ensure full compliance with the new legal framework.”
The national commissioner said that, in accordance with the approved schedule of activities, the conduct of party primaries, including the resolution of disputes arising from primaries, will commence on April 23, 2026 and end on 30th May 2026.
Haruna added: “Presidential and National Assembly campaigns will commence on August 19, 2026, while the governorship and Houses of Assembly campaigns will commence on September 9, 2026.”
“As provided by law, campaigns shall end 24 hours before Election Day. Political parties are strongly advised to adhere strictly to these timelines. The commission will enforce compliance with the law.
“The revised timetable and schedule of activities for the 2027 general election, reflecting these adjustments, have been issued and can be accessed on the commission’s official website and other official communication platforms.”
Party membership register submission:
A particular challenge for the opposition gang is compliance with the Electoral Act regarding the submission of the party membership register. While the ruling APC had complied with the law and released guidelines for primaries, opposition leaders are livid.
Following concerns raised by the opposition leaders at the Tuesday, March 24, 2026, parley, INEC had to extend the deadline for the submission of party registers. The initial schedule had fixed the submission period from April 1 to April 21, 2026.
However, INEC has revised the timeline to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2026.
Haruna said: “The commission agreed to adjust the period for the submission of the Political Parties’ Registers of Members to align the 21 days prescribed by Section 77(4) of the Electoral Act, 2026, with the actual dates fixed by political parties themselves.”
INEC further emphasised that political parties may now conduct their primaries within a window from April 23 to May 30, 2026.
The National Commissioner stressed: “Political parties are accordingly informed that they are free to fix the dates of their primaries within the approved period from the 23rd of April 2026 to the 30th of May 2026.”
However, INEC emphasised that strict adherence to the revised timeline is critical to ensuring a smooth electoral process, insisting that parties must submit their membership registers not later than 21 days before their respective primaries.
Haruna said: “This means that the final deadline for the submission of political parties’ registers of members is extended to 10th May 2026, from the 21st April 2026 originally contained in the revised timetable.”
The question is: within 12 days, can the distressed opposition parties mooting the idea of a coalition and consensus candidacy meet the deadline, given the anticipated Supreme Court judgment expected to provide direction on the way forward?
Yesterday, the Mark-led faction of the ADC wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kurdirat Kekere-Ekun, seeking the timely delivery of the Supreme Court judgment on the disputes. Last week, the apex court reserved judgment in the appeal filed by the faction over the leadership tussle.
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Mark had argued that the appellate court exceeded its jurisdiction by intervening in the internal affairs of a political party.
The appeal stemmed from a ruling delivered by the Court of Appeal on March 12, which dismissed Mark’s appeal against a September 4, 2025, ruling of the federal high court.
The suit at the Federal High Court was filed by Nafiu Bala, a factional national chairman, who is challenging the takeover of the ADC by the Mark-led faction.
In a letter of April 28, 2026, by Shaibu Enejoh Aruwa, ADC counsel, the Mark-led faction said if the judgment of the apex court is not delivered within the next three days, the party “stands the grave and irreversible risk of being excluded from participating in the 2027 general election.”
“My Lord, the ADC’s ability to comply with these statutory requirements to participate in the 2027 general elections is wholly dependent on the timely delivery of the judgment in the instant Appeal,” he added.
Electoral Act and defection:
The Electoral Act also tends to discourage frivolous defections. It is now difficult for any politician to secure another party’s ticket after losing out in an earlier contest in his party.
Destiny Young, a political commentator, observed the requirement for political parties to maintain and submit a digital membership register to the INEC before their primaries may make subsequent defection an odd route. “Under the Act, this register must be filed at least 21 days before any primary, congress or convention. More importantly, only members whose names are contained in that submitted register can vote or be voted for during the primary,” he said.
Young added: “ Once a party has submitted its membership register to INEC, any new entrant whose name is not on that list cannot lawfully participate in that party’s primary as a contestant. In practical terms, this shuts the door on the common practice of losing a primary in one party and then seeking refuge in another party’s nomination process at the last minute.
“The Act clearly forces aspirants to make their political choices earlier. It reduces the room for emergency defections after primaries. It tightens party processes. It places greater weight on compliance with timelines and official records. For politicians who once relied on late moves between parties to stay in the race, the Electoral Act 2026 has made that strategy far more difficult to sustain.
“In effect, the law does not entirely outlaw defection after primaries, but it makes it far less useful for anyone seeking to emerge as a valid candidate in another party after losing out in the first round.”
Consensus candidacy:
At its recent Ibadan Summit, hosted by Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, the arrowheads of opposition parties proposed sponsoring a consensus candidate on a political party’s platform.
The coalition is made up of three crisis-ridden platforms - ADC and factional PDP, and about 12 fringe parties. Major opposition presidential aspirants are from ADC. They are former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso and former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi.
There are two puzzles: Who among them would be willing to step down for a consensus candidate?
Also, on the platform of which political party would the consensus candidate run? Put succinctly, which platform - ADC or PDP - would be adopted?
What about other layers of elections - senatorial, House of Representatives, governorship and state assemblies?
In 1999, Olu Falae of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and Umaru Shinkafi of the All Peoples Party (APP) collaborated. Falae was fielded on the APP platform. Shinkafi was his running mate.
However, under the Electoral Act, today, both presidential candidates and their running mates must be from the same party.
Under the law, no Nigerian may be a member of two parties at the same time. According to the Electoral Act 2026, violators face a fine of N10 million, a two-year prison term, or both. Also, if a person is found to hold multiple memberships, those memberships are voided, and they cease to be recognised by any party.
Since the parties are expected to submit their registers to INEC within a set timeframe, how will the opposition be able to make adjustments if the proposed arrangement suddenly runs into turbulence?
According to analysts, the difference between the strategy of alignment among 14 opposition parties and the historic 2013/ 2014 APC merger or fusion is that the latter was characterised by the formal unification of legacy political parties - Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), a faction of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and n-PDP - in one platform.
In contrast, the current permutation relates a coalition of political interests rather than a merger of structures and platforms, with the collective objective of displacing APC at the centre. A political commentator, Magnus Onyibe, said while it took the merger of the ACN, CPC, ANPP, and a faction of the PDP and APGA to defeat the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, the opposition now hopes to achieve a similar outcome without dissolving their parties.
“Instead, they aim to consolidate the ambitions of leading opposition figures into a single candidacy—one they believe will be strong enough to challenge Tinubu and deny him a second term,” he added.
It is instructive to note that the opposition space has been over-exaggerated. It is not growing at a rapid pace. It is not expanding. Indeed, of the 36 governors, APC has 32. Of the remaining four, only two - Makinde (Oyo) and Senator Bala Mohammed (Bauchi) - belong to the PDP; Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo is from APGA, and Alex Otti of Abia State is from the Labour Party (LP).
Remarkably, Soludo and Otti had declared their support for President Tinubu. APGA is not likely to field a presidential candidate. Although LP had zoned its ticket to the South, there are signs that the party would eventually back the president during the election.
