by Mohammed Bello Doka
6 May, 2026
Fellow Nigerians, wake up! The vultures are circling. As the 2027 elections loom, the desperate architects of perpetual power in Aso Rock have unleashed their deadliest weapon yet: engineered chaos in the opposition. They plant agents, fund factions, weaponize the courts, and then turn around with crocodile tears, whispering to Atiku Abubakar and every true patriot: “Leave the ADC. The party is in crisis. Abandon ship.”
Nonsense. Pure, diabolical nonsense.
If Atiku Abubakar walked into INEC headquarters today and registered as a voter or even offered himself as umpire, by tomorrow morning that same commission would splinter into rival factions—complete with parallel chairmen, court injunctions, and sponsored “stakeholders” screaming legitimacy. That is the level of sabotage we face. The ruling party does not tolerate strong institutions, clean platforms, or united challengers. Their specialty is division, infiltration, and demolition.
Look at the evidence, plain as daylight. The African Democratic Congress (ADC) became the rallying point for a powerful opposition coalition—Atiku, Peter Obi (before his exit), Rabiu Kwankwaso, Rotimi Amaechi, and others—precisely because it offered a viable platform against the APC’s stranglehold. Almost immediately, leadership disputes erupted. Factions multiplied. Court cases piled up. INEC distanced itself from certain conventions. State chairmen announced parallel structures. Supreme Court rulings flew. This is not organic party democracy. This is the classic APC playbook: sponsor crises in opposition parties to keep them fractured, bleeding, and unattractive.
We have seen this movie before—PDP riddled with parallel executives, Labour Party torn apart by internal wars, and now ADC under sustained assault. Ex-ministers and opposition voices have openly accused the ruling party of using “goons” and judicial instruments to weaken challengers. Even as some big names like Obi and Kwankwaso exited to the newly formed NDC citing “toxic” internal battles and “state agents,” the pattern remains unmistakable: divide, conquer, and hand victory back to Tinubu’s machine on a platter.
To those urging Atiku to abandon the ADC: You are either naive or complicit.
Negotiating the ADC away means surrendering the only credible vessel the opposition has built to challenge one-party dominance. It means rewarding the very saboteurs who manufactured the crises. Atiku, the battle-tested democrat who has refused to surrender his presidential aspiration for decades, understands this. He joined the ADC not as a refugee but as a general planting his flag on contested ground. Leaving now would signal to millions of frustrated Nigerians that resistance is futile—that every time the opposition coalesces, the APC’s invisible hand will scatter them like chaff.
No! The ADC must not be negotiated. It must be defended, consolidated, and weaponized. Crises are not new to Nigerian parties; they are the price of building something real against a ruthless incumbent that now controls 31 of 36 states. The solution is not flight. It is steel resolve, transparent primaries as Atiku himself insists, ruthless exposure of infiltrators, and unbreakable unity among genuine opposition forces.
Nigerians are suffering—skyrocketing costs of living, insecurity, institutional decay. They are watching. They remember 2015 when a united opposition swept away a tired regime. They see through the antics today: cronies in opposition garb, sponsored “third forces,” media campaigns painting the ADC as doomed. These are the same forces terrified of a credible challenge in 2027.
Stay! Fight! Rebuild!
To every opposition leader, youth, activist, and patriot still standing: Do not let them negotiate your future away. The ADC, despite the storms, remains a symbol of defiance. Atiku’s presence there is a declaration that the real opposition has only just begun. Let the ruling party’s agents keep sowing discord. True democrats will reap victory.
The umpire they control today will try to rig tomorrow. But a resolute, unyielding opposition platform will expose them, mobilize the people, and send this era of engineered poverty and division into the dustbin of history.
ADC is not for negotiation. It is for liberation.
Stand firm. The battle for Nigeria’s soul is on. History will remember those who stayed when the cowards fled. Atiku, hold the line. Nigerians are with you.
Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached via [email protected]
Abuja Network News
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