ADC

[Jibrin Ibrahim]

The Tinubu Regime Seeks to Deny the Opposition a Party Platform

Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy Column, Daily Trust, 3rd April 2026

Power always creates an illusion that those who wield it can dismiss
the rule of law and do anything they like and get away with it.
History is however full of examples that show that it is often
impossible to get away with injustice or that the consequences for the
power wielder could be very serious. From the day of his swearing in,
President Bola Tinubu has been clear that the main purpose of his
first term in office is to use it to obtain a second term. His method
has been clear to all keen observers of Nigerian politics, to use the
judiciary and INEC to take over the opposition parties so that his
opponents would have no platform to contest against him. Surrogates
have been used to take over and break the ambitions of his opponents
in the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP) and the
New Nigerian Peoples’ Part (NNPP) so far. This approach however had an
unforeseen negative outcome for the ruling APC as all the disparate
opposition groups were then pushed into one single formidable
opposition party, the African Democratic Congress (ADC). This week,
INEC was used as a tool to scuttle the ADC in spite of the lack of
legal basis to do so.


Section 83 of the Electoral Act 2026 provides that no court shall
entertain suits relating to the internal affairs of a political party
and imposes mandatory cost sanctions of not less than N10 million
against both counsel and litigants who bring such suits. This is a
major shift in the law. It is clearly aimed at reducing the growing
number of court cases over party leadership, congresses, and internal
fights often instigated by surrogates of the ruling party.


The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has just
suspended recognition of all leadership factions of the African
Democratic Congress (ADC) following a ruling by the Court of Appeal
and ongoing litigation over the party’s leadership. In a statement by
its National Commissioner, Mohammed Haruna, INEC said its decision
followed the directive by the Court of Appeal, directing that the two
factions of the party maintain the status quo pending the
determination of a substantive suit currently before the Federal High
Court in Abuja. When did INEC become the interpreter of court
judgements? In any case, INEC has in its files the resignation letters
of the previous party leadership who left voluntarily and some of them
are now trying to claim they never left.



The real issue however is that since Tinubu became President, he has
thrown away his ancient toga of a veteran fighter for democratic
politics and has focused on creating a one-party State in which he is
personally in control of every aspect of Nigerian politics and
governance. There has been a vast programme to cajole, threaten,
blackmail and bribe elected governors and legislators from other
parties to join the ruling APC.

Nonetheless, the ADC has succeeded in becoming the last bastion for
Nigerian politicians opposed to Tinubu and his party. A big coalition
has been assembled around the party with people such as the perennial
presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar who adopted the party in July
2025. Peter Obi, the breakout candidate of the 2023 presidential
election who also joined the party. The latest to join the ADC is
Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the controller of the significant Kano vote. The
people who won second, third and fourth positions in the 2023
presidential elections are now all lined up against Tinubu in the ADC.
Other stalwarts in the ADC are former Senate President David Mark, who
chairs the party, the former Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola,
who serves as National Secretary, and former Minister of Youth and
Sports, Bolaji Abdullahi, who serves as the party’s spokesperson.
President Tinubu is an accountant, he has crunched the numbers and he
knows that they are not in his favour.

These leaders are not actually the main concern of the Tinubu
Administration. The government is in panic mode because the Federal
Government has been deepening and widening misery all over the country
because of concerns over the most dramatic level of corruption in the
country’s history, the incredibly high level of ethnicity and nepotism
in political appointments, the cost of living crisis that are linked
with the twin Tinubu policies of removing fuel subsidy and floating
the Naira and above all, the complete inability of the government to
address the security crisis confronting the people. The APC can lure
all the governors in the country to join their party but these
governors cannot deliver the votes of their people, who know their
suffering and misery comes from the government. Any opposition
coalition that speaks to the misery of Nigerians can therefore beat
Tinubu in the 2027 elections.


I have seen legal arguments circulating which show that both the court
and INEC are acting in total disrespect of the law on this matter. For
me, the main issue is that Nigerians know that the judiciary and INEC
are both working for candidate Tinubu as partisans. I know that in
Nigeria, it is not possible to dismantle all parties except those run
by APC surrogates and still pretend Nigeria is running a democratic
system of government. The more government agents disrupt political
platforms, the more Nigerians feel alienated from them. In this
context, the assumption that people are now so poor that the offer of
a few thousand naira can sway the electorate to vote fr the APC might
be mistaken. Red flags are emerging all over the country that Nigeria
is facing a moment of a real threat of democracy collapse and that
citizens must come out to save democracy. 2027 will be a vote over the
preservation of Nigerian democracy and at such moments Nigerians have
demonstrated their ability to take the moral high ground in the past.


Unfortunately for INEC, their newly appointed Chairman is not
inspiring confidence. His decision to withdraw recognition of the
David Mark ADC leadership is interpreted as partisan and illegal by
most analysts. INEC has also just announced it will commence a
nationwide revalidation of permanent voters cards of citizens. INEC
had always argued in the past that the massive bio-data embedded in
the card qualifies it to be permanent. Are they now trying to tinker
with the voter’s list beyond the traditional practice of adding
citizens who have turned 18-years or are replacing cards that are lost
or the owners have relocated. We shall see.

President Tinubu has almost total control of all branches of
government, executive, legislative and judicial. He also has vast
financial resources under his control. He is beginning to think he can
do anything he wants and get away with it. He is forgetting that
Nigerian citizens have consistently demonstrated a capacity to contest
power when it turns toxic.





Professor Jibrin Ibrahim
Senior Fellow
Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja
Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17