FOR over one year, leading opposition figures in Nigeria have been criticising the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC -administration of President Bola Tinubu. Apart from pooh-poohing his policies, which they said had brought suffering and hardship on the citizenry, they claimed that the government was muzzling the opposition to enthrone a one-party state, which they said is a threat to democracy.
Top opposition leaders, who started the crusade include former Vice President and 2023 Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; former Anambra State Governor and 2023 Presidential Standard bearer of the Labour Party, LP, Mr.Peter Obi; Former Kano State Governor and 2023 Presidential flag bearer of the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP,, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso; and National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Chief Ralphs Okey Nwosu among others.
Emergence of ADC coalition
Several months after, and after wide consultations, a coalition was formed. The leaders resolved to adopt the ADC as it’s platform for the 2027 polls.
At the unveiling of the ADC coalition on July 2, 2025, a host of opposition leaders from many parties including APC, LP, and PDP, signed up. They include former Senate President David Mark; former Rivers State Governor and Transport Minister, Mr Rotimi Amaechi; former Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai; former Osun State Governor and Interior Minister, Engr Rauf Aregbesola and serving lawmakers at federal and state levels.
National officers of the ADC led by Nwosu resigned their posts for a new leadership led by Mark (interim national chairman) and Aregbesola (interim national secretary) to mount the saddle with a vow to beat Tinubu in 2027.
Can the coalition stop Tinubu in 2027? Will the coalition repeat the 2015 feat? In the annals of electioneering in Nigeria, the then nascent APC became the first opposition party to beat a ruling party in a presidential election. It was also the first time the opposition forged a successful alliance in the country.
How APC floored the ruling party
The move to berth APC started before 2010 but could not be concretised in time for the 2011 polls. The work continued after and in 2013, less than two years to the 2015 election, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN; Congress for Progressive Change, CPC; All Nigeria People’s Party, ANPP; factions of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, and Democratic People’s Party, DPP, joined forces to form APC. They applied to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and got listed.
Fielding former Military Head of State, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, who died recently, as presidential standard bearer, the APC, in a keen contest, beat re-election-seeking President Goodluck Jonathan and ended the 16 years reign of the PDP.