The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians, following their decision to commence zoning arrangements for the 2027 presidential election two years ahead of time.
Speaking on The Morning Brief programme on Channels Television, monitored by Core TV News on Tuesday, the ADC’s spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi, faulted the early preoccupation with power-sharing formulas instead of addressing pressing national challenges.
“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 political divides that we don’t care about them?” Abdullahi asked.
On Monday, the PDP’s National Executive Committee (NEC) in Abuja zoned its 2027 presidential ticket to the South while retaining the national chairmanship in the North. This followed a similar move by the APC, where 22 governors and top party stakeholders in May adopted President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the party’s sole candidate for the 2027 election.
Both major parties defended their actions, saying they were guided by Nigeria’s unwritten rule of rotating power between the North and South every eight years. But the ADC, a coalition of opposition heavyweights including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi, and ex-Minister Rotimi Amaechi, dismissed the reasoning as self-serving and premature.
Abdullahi suggested that the PDP might be playing “a predetermined game” by zoning this early. “They are very experienced people, and they know the implications of showing their way too early. So, it’s either they are playing a game or they are trying to bait certain people to come around,” he argued.
He stressed that the ADC is not short of credible aspirants willing to fly its flag in 2027. “When people say that the coalition was put together for a particular candidate, it is not true. Just yesterday, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar came out to say he would run for president. If the coalition was built around him, why would he need to declare again? Don’t forget we also have Peter Obi, Rotimi Amaechi, and others, all of whom have an equal chance,” he maintained.
The ADC urged Nigerians to focus on leaders with solutions to the country’s economic hardship, insecurity, and unemployment, rather than recycled zoning debates that, according to them, serve only the interests of the elite.
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