The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) clashed on Thursday following the ADC’s criticism of President Bola Tinubu over the current economic hardships in the country.

During his monthly media chat in Abuja, Wike dismissed talks of a 2027 political coalition, insisting that only the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has the capacity to defeat the sitting president. He also claimed that Nigerians are not giving any serious consideration to the ADC.

Meanwhile, the PDP’s National Working Committee, through its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, clarified on Thursday that the party has not taken an official stance on any coalition plans.

Additionally, Dumebi Kachikwu, the ADC’s 2023 presidential candidate, accused a faction of the party led by former Senate President David Mark of plotting to position former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the party’s presidential candidate in 2027. He vowed to challenge the new party leadership in court.

Responding to Wike’s remarks, ADC’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, stated on Thursday that the FCT Minister is rattled because the emerging coalition presents a serious challenge to the administration he represents.

Abdullahi maintained that the ADC-led coalition belongs to the Nigerian people.

On Wednesday, a coterie of politicians unveiled the ADC as the coalition platform to oust Tinubu in 2027 following his alleged failure to improve the lot of Nigerians.

Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai, ex-Rivers Governor Rotimi Amaechi, and other prominent politicians attended the unveiling of the ADC.

Though most of these figures have not formally joined the ADC, they publicly declared their support for the party, which is now led by an interim leadership team headed by David Mark as national chairman and Rauf Aregbesola as national secretary, following the resignation of Ralph Nwosu and his team.

Wike mocks coalition

Commenting on the coalition, Wike criticised the opposition leaders, urging them to stop exploiting Nigerians.

The minister also dismissed claims that Nigerians were angry, pointing out that many members of the coalition were once in power but failed to improve the lives of the people during their time in office.

He said, “I heard David Mark say, to rescue Nigeria, Nigerians are angry. David Mark was Senate President for how many terms? Two terms, is it not? Nigerians were happy? Nigerians were happy when he was Senate President for eight years? And there was no single project to Otukpo; not one. He was flying in a helicopter to go to Otukpo. Nigerians were not angry then, but Nigerians are only angry now.

“When Rotimi Amaechi was minister for eight years, Nigerians were not angry. When Nigeria became indebted, Chinese loans, Nigerians were happy. It’s now that Nigerians are angry. I saw Seriake (Dickson). They are saying Nigerians are angry. They want to rescue Nigeria. So, I’m asking this simple question. What happened to Air Nigeria? Nigerians were happy then.

“When they went to APC in 2015 and took over the reins of power in 2023, Nigerians were happy. Was it under Tinubu’s government that banditry came? Tambuwal, you were the speaker for four years. What did you do to make Nigerians not angry? You were a governor in Sokoto State,” he said.

Wike added that he would only agree that Nigerians are angry if such claims came from individuals who never held public office.

He emphasised that Tinubu was actively working to improve the nation’s condition.

The former Rivers state governor noted, “When you want to go to power, tell us. If there are people who have not been in power in this country, who are coming up with such an idea, I can listen to them.

“But not people who were the ones at the helm of affairs of this country for how many years? Look at where this country is. If this President had not taken certain decisions, which may be very challenging, you would have known where we would have been by now.

“A President came and said it’s a scam; took that bold step, we will not allow that. States are getting more money. Nigerians are angry that states are getting more money. Nigerians are angry that we are providing infrastructure in Abuja. I cannot say that there are no challenges. There are challenges. But for Christ’s sake, stop using Nigerians.”

The minister reasoned that only the PDP could challenge Tinubu in 2027 if they got their acts together, stating, however, that the opposition has succeeded in decimating itself.

“The opposition has even decimated itself. Let me tell you why I said so, now you are talking about a coalition. What is the coalition? The only party today that, if they put themselves well, can still challenge this government, assuming, is PDP,” Wike added.

Coalition reacts

The ADC Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, said if Wike’s government had kept its promises, the coalition wouldn’t have been necessary, nor would he be so uneasy.

The former sports minister stated, “The ADC has taken note of the virulent attacks launched on the various leaders of the coalition movement by the Hon. Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike, in his media chat today.

“Without justifying this behaviour that we find incompatible with the office of a Federal minister, we believe Minister Wike could only descend to that level because of his mortal fear of the threat that the successful unveiling of the coalition of opposition political parties constitutes to the government that he serves.

“We observe that if Minister Wike and the government that he serves had kept their promises to the Nigerian people, the coalition movement would not have been necessary, and he would not have had a need to be so jittery.

“If Minister Wike had paid the salaries of primary school teachers who have been on strike for several months and if he had not treated FCT workers with so much contempt, while he goes about commissioning white elephants running into billions of naira, he would not have needed to be afraid of the coalition.”

Abdullahi further said the coalition leaders are upset that Wike ‘’let himself be used by the government to ruin the PDP, once a leading political force in Africa.’’

He stated, “Minister Wike claimed in his media chat that the coalition leaders are driven only by grievances. If we have any grievances, it is the way the government he is a part, has driven the majority of Nigerians into poverty and misery.

“We are aggrieved to see children of the poor unable to get an education because he would not pay their teachers’ salaries. We are aggrieved to watch the growing insecurity in the FCT that he superintends.

“We are aggrieved that Minister Wike has allowed himself to be used by the government he serves to destroy one of the most powerful political parties in Africa, the PDP.

“But it is rather too late in the day to cry. The coalition movement belongs to the Nigerian people who had been promised renewed hope, but have been served renewed hopelessness. Therefore, no amount of tirade against the leaders of the coalition could stem the tide of this popular movement.”

Joining the fray, the All Progressives Congress described the newly adopted platform for the 2027 opposition coalition as “a gathering of deceivers and self-centered individuals driven by personal grudges.”

In a statement on Thursday, APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, said, “The vaunted opposition coalition platform of choice, the African Democratic Congress, was unveiled yesterday, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, with a gasping whimper, not the roar that its promoters loudly touted.

“However, in reality, it was an unveiling of a coalition of hoaxers and self-obsessed merchants of vendetta, a roll call of Nigeria’s me-or-nothing politicians, who equate their selfish interest with the interest of Nigerians, who cannot bear to be out of the corridors of power and patronage, who are desperate to grab power for themselves by guile and subterfuge, who lay claim to an immoral birthright to power, even while draped in odious record of betrayal of public trust, and rapacious public service.

“Not surprisingly, the speech delivered by Senator David Mark, the alleged National Chairman of ADC, was disgracefully vacant, without substance or purpose, nothing but stitches of untruths, diatribe, and regurgitated and baseless allegations against the APC-led administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”

Presidency slams coalition

The Presidency on Thursday said the ADC had no semblance of the 2013 merger that birthed the All Progressives Congress.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, asserted this in his latest post on his verified X handle (@SundayDareSD) on Thursday.

He wrote, “Heads up for Nigerians about ADC — There is no injustice to redress — only avaricious ambition to satisfy.”

He added that unlike the APC’s emergence in 2013, the new coalition was not driven by national interest, saying the ADC is being led by “a serial election loser, clutching at what he clearly sees as his last shot at the presidency.”

“Unlike Tinubu, he enters the coalition alone — without the backing of his state governor, his region, or any meaningful political structure. His ambition is personal, not patriotic. So also that of his many co-travellers,” Dare wrote.

He compared the ADC’s founding to the APC’s, saying the 2013 merger that produced the latter was built on strategic discipline and collective sacrifice.

“In 2013, the merger that birthed the APC was driven by selflessness, national interest, and strategic discipline.

“Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, despite commanding the loyalty of several sitting governors, chose to wait.

“He bided his time, played the long game, and focused on building a viable political platform,” he said.

Dare also cited the unifying influence of then-General Muhammadu Buhari, whom he described as “a man seen as a symbol of integrity” and a rallying figure with a strong national grassroots following, a quality, he says, the current coalition lacks.

“No one in this coalition commands that kind of loyalty or trust. Not one of them could genuinely unite a ward, let alone a country,” he reasoned.

He argued that the APC merger was rooted in legitimate grievances, including what he described as the constitutional denial of power to a marginalised region and a collective desire to end what many saw as 16 years of misrule by the People’s Democratic Party.

Dare said, “The APC coalition emerged to address real grievances: the constitutional denial of power to a region that had been unfairly sidelined and to end the 16 years of ruinous governance by the PDP. It was a coalition grounded in justice and balance.”

The current attempt by the ADC, he said, lacks any ideological or national cause since the presidency is already zoned to a region that, he notes, is “rightfully due.

“This new coalition? It’s purely opportunistic. The presidency already rests with the region rightfully due. And that’s where it will be till 2031,” he declared.

Sunday Dare insisted that the political forces that created the APC and ADC are different.

“Let’s be clear – this is not 2013 — and this is not the APC,” he concluded.

Also reacting to the unveiling of the ADC’s new leadership in Abuja on Wednesday, Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, on his X handle, @BwalaDaniel, described the political realignment as “a dead on arrival party.”

“Association of wild goose chasers, consisting of internally displaced politicians forming a dead on arrival party; better described in the words of @PeterObi as ‘structure of criminality,’” Bwala wrote in his post.

While Bwala did not name individuals, his remarks appeared to target the architects and promoters of the ADC, a platform touted as a broad coalition of opposition politicians aiming to challenge the ruling All Progressives Congress in the 2027 general elections.

Bwala, himself a former PDP chieftain who defected to the APC in 2023, had defended the Tinubu administration until his eventual appointment in 2024.

Amaechi formula

Meanwhile, former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, said the only way to stop President Bola Tinubu from returning to power in 2027 was for citizens to take their fate into their own hands.

Amaechi spoke on Thursday at the public presentation of the 2025 Nigeria Social Cohesion Survey Report by the Africa Polling Institute in Abuja.

He said, “The only way you can stop Tinubu from being the President of Nigeria in 2027 is to run an election of Nigerians versus the bandits. If you think you will just sit down and do that, may God be with you.”

Amaechi criticised the citizens for grumbling in private while remaining passive in the face of what he described as elite domination.

He said, “The elites who are stealing Nigeria’s money are not up to 100,000 but you have 200 million Nigerians who can’t fight 100,000 men.

“You sit down in your house and complain and grumble. What makes you think the elites would remove their hands completely? Who told you the elites don’t know how you are feeling? They know you are not happy. But you are helpless not because the elites made you helpless, you made yourself helpless.“

He also cited examples of countries like Bangladesh, Peru, and Kenya, where mass protests forced unpopular leaders out of office.

“Go to Bangladesh, right? The day they got tired of that woman, what did they do? They chased her out. Go to, is it Peru or Chile? Nigeria is the most docile society I’ve seen in my life. Please tell me, has there been any revolution without blood? Any revolution without blood is a failure,” he said.

He said if not for his wife, he would have left the country.

Amaechi said, “I told my wife, I want to Japa like you people do. They will give me official visa to stay in their country, any country. She said, ‘no, we can’t leave Nigeria because Nigeria is lovable. It’s lovely.’”

Recalling how NANS, NLC, and ASUU once joined forces to pressurise the government, he said the NLC was now shying away from protests.

“Now, NLC can’t even mobilise their people. Why? Ethnicity. I’ve spoken to them before. I even told them, ‘I will join you in the protest.’ They said they can’t. So, Nigeria has totally collapsed.”

He said the political class had outperformed the military in worsening the citizens’ sufferings.

“We pushed away the military and brought in the politicians. The politicians have shown they are worse than the military.”

The Executive Director, Africa Polling Institute, Professor Bell Ihua, presented a survey data which showed that 83 per cent of Nigerians had little or no trust in the Tinubu government, while 80 per cent distrust the National Assembly, and 79 per cent distrust the judiciary.

He said, “This report has very telling information. Citizens are united in shared struggle based on economic realities. The government needs to act based on this scientific data to rebuild public confidence.”

PDP undecided

On its part, the PDP clarified that it has yet to make any official decision regarding the 2027 coalition movement seeking to challenge President Tinubu.

In a statement on Thursday, the PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said the party is focused on preparations for its upcoming national convention.

The PDP has been grappling with internal crises since the 2023 presidential election, which intensified in 2024 following disputes over the National Secretary position.

The issue was eventually resolved in favour of Samuel Anyanwu during the party’s 100th National Executive Committee meeting held on Monday.

Despite the development, the party has witnessed defections to other political platforms, with some members pledging allegiance to the ADC.

Earlier, on April 15, PDP governors meeting in Ibadan, Oyo State, declared that the party would not participate in any coalition aimed at challenging Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election.

Aligning with this, the PDP National Working Committee, under the leadership of the acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, reiterated that while the party is open to receiving defectors from other parties, it is not interested in joining a coalition.

However, this position contrasts with the actions of key PDP figures like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, ex-Senate President and Interim National Chairman of ADC, David Mark, and former Jigawa Governor Sule Lamido, who have called on party members and Nigerians to support the ADC-led coalition.

In PDP’s latest response, Ologunagba stated, “The attention of the National Working Committee of PDP has been drawn to a misrepresenting report in a section of the social media claiming that the PDP had directed its members to join the coalition group.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the NWC states in clear terms that the PDP has not taken any official position on the issue of coalition.

“The PDP is for now focused on building and consolidating on attained unity, stability and strengthening of its structures and capacity to play its roles as the leading opposition Party determined to return to power in 2027.”

The PDP assured it is actively putting necessary structures in place to restore its winning momentum ahead of the 2027 general election.

“Our party is currently working conscientiously towards a successful national convention, which will further revamp and reposition the PDP for the task ahead. Nevertheless, as a major opposition party with a very strong presence and bond with Nigerians across the country, the PDP restates that it remains open to working with other well-meaning, like-minded citizens in the collective effort to rescue our nation from the stranglehold of the rudderless and insensitive All Progressives Congress-led administration.”

LP’s Obi ultimatum

Meanwhile, the Julius Abure-led Labour Party has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to its 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to resign over his alliance with the ADC.

In a statement on Thursday, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, stated that ‘’desperate politicians cannot be the architects of a new Nigeria.’’

He noted, “We are aware of several nocturnal meetings between Peter Obi and some of our members, lobbying them to join him in his new party. We’re also aware that a number of them have refused to defect with him.

“Labour Party has consistently said it is not part of the coalition and therefore, any of our members who are part of the coalition are given 48 hours to formally resign their membership of the party.”

Ifoh reaffirmed that the Labour Party has no interest in joining the coalition, describing its members as ‘’power-hungry individuals driven by personal ambition rather than the welfare of the people.’’

The statement read in part, “Labour Party is not available for people with a dual agenda, people with a deceptive persona. The party will not avail itself to individuals who have one leg in one party and another leg elsewhere. People who in the morning, they will claim to be in the Labour Party and in the evening, they are in coalition.

“Nearly 70 percent of the Nigerian population are youths who are tired of the old order, tired of gerontocrats deciding their fate. The new Nigeria that the youths are dreaming of is not what can be realised from what we are seeing in the coalition.

“These people are opportunistic politicians who are only interested in re-launching themselves into the cycle of power, people who are desperate to continue holding on to power.”

The party maintained that the vision for a new Nigeria can only be achieved through the Labour Party, emphasising its readiness to guide Nigerians on that path.

In a swift response, the caretaker committee headed by Nenadi Usman, dismissed the 48-hour deadline given to Obi.

In a statement by Eluma Asogwa, Senior Special Adviser on Media to Usman, the factional LP described Abure’s ultimatum to Obi as mischievous and devoid of any legal or moral authority.

“The attention of the Labour Party has been drawn to misleading reports and commentaries suggesting that His Excellency, Mr Peter Obi, has been issued a 48-hour ultimatum to resign from the party following his participation in the recent coalition talks and the unveiling of the African Democratic Congress in Abuja.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the leadership of the Labour Party, on May 26, 2025, publicly declared its full support for Mr Peter Obi’s involvement in the coalition efforts aimed at creating a robust political alternative to rescue Nigeria from the disastrous misrule of the APC. That position has not changed.

“We wish to reaffirm that Mr Peter Obi’s participation in the coalition activities, including the ADC unveiling, was done with the full knowledge, approval, and support of the Labour Party leadership.

“The individuals claiming to have issued an ultimatum to Mr Obi are political jesters with no legitimate standing in the Labour Party.

“They are neither recognised by the party nor by the law, having long been sacked by the Supreme Court of Nigeria – the highest court in the land – and suspended from the party for their serial acts of indiscipline and anti-party activities.”

‘Contract with Nigerians’

Former National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress, Ralph Nwosu, told The Punch that the coalition would, in the coming weeks, unveil its blueprint tagged “Contract with Nigerians.”

This, he said, would set the nation on the path of real progress and development.

Nwosu explained that the coalition was agreed upon after no fewer than 10 National Working Committee and National Executive Committee meetings of the party, as well as meetings with coalition partners spanning the last 18 months.

He said, “I’m part of the people making the decisions. We volunteered our party for this purpose because we knew that this day would come, from the day we formed our party. And, the real building of Nigeria has just begun. The real building of Nigerian democracy and development has just begun.

“Following the launch of the coalition, the contract with Nigerians will be unveiled within a few weeks. This is because there has to be a new contract. Nigeria cannot continue to follow this way. So, that contract will be unveiled.

“So, this is the real coalition now? I always continue to say this is the coalition. All the others are distractions by agents of government and agents of doom.”

Nwosu added that the coalition had begun to have its foothold on the 774 local government areas and all wards across the country.

“We’ve been on this for the last 18 months. We’ve held over 10 different NWC and NEC meetings. And then, on our party side, we are preparing the party. We’ve also had meetings with all the coalition partners. And, we are telling them, come.

“That is why, within three weeks, we’ve held convergences of all the coalition partners across Nigeria. We’ve held a convergence of coalition partners under the ADC platform across the 36 states and the FCT.

“And now, the same convergence of coalition partners is being taken to the 774 local governments, and all the wards in the country,” Nwosu said.

Speaking on the new leadership of the ADC, the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Dumebi Kachikwu, said the faction of the party led by David Mark was deliberately structured to produce Atiku as the 2027 presidential flag bearer.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on Thursday, Kachikwu said the group told him during their meeting that their main interest was reclaiming power.

He dared the coalition leaders to prove him wrong by publicly declaring that the 2027 presidential ticket would be zoned to the South.

Kachikwu stated, “It’s a coalition that has been designed and engineered to produce Atiku Abubakar as its flag bearer, and that is the absolute truth.”

When questioned about his next steps to regain control of the party from the Mark-led faction, Kachikwu responded, “We will get INEC involved and also go to court if need be.”

Recounting his encounter with the coalition leaders, he stated, “Late last year, they approached me concerning this coalition. Eventually, early this year, I agreed to have a meeting with them; a close friend of mine persuaded me to go for a meeting and hear these people out.

“I went to this meeting that had former ministers, highly placed persons in the last government, and they presented their case to me: the need for a coalition. Everything they said was about Bola Ahmed Tinubu and how his government has destroyed Nigeria.

“But I had only one question, because in opposition, you have only one ambition: for you to be the ruling party. So, for us as a party, our plan is how, in the next election, we can win the elections, or we can ensure that we have more people from the party emerge in various offices across the country.

“So, if somebody wants to speak about coalition and how to achieve this, we are willing to listen. But I had one question, and my question was this: seeing that we just finished eight years of President Buhari and that President Tinubu is in his first term, and that you people here, you old politicians that practice politics of north and south, of regions, do you agree and accept that, if there is a coalition, the south is in its first term and that the south will produce the flagbearer of this coalition? And the response — not considered, immediate response—was, ‘We are taking our power back.’

“Now, imagine my situation as someone who was the presidential flagbearer of a party that came fifth in the last elections. You are saying to me that I cannot aspire for office, that I should foreclose my ambition, that because I happen to be from the south of Nigeria and that there is a presumed majority from the north of Nigeria, you will take your power back.

“So, that’s a question for me, and that was an absolute no-no for me, and that ended every talk about coalition, because it was very clear that the coalition was engineered to produce Atiku Abubakar as its flag bearer.

“Now, I still say this today: I’m throwing this challenge to this coalition, to make a pronouncement today that the flag bearer of this coalition will be someone from the southern part of Nigeria so that the second term of the southerners will be finished. Make a categorical statement and we’ll admit you through the front door and say that there is a conversation to be had.”

PDP, LP chieftains

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party and National Coordinator of the Alternative Movement, Otunba Segun Showunmi on Thursday said the newly formed coalition with the

Showunmi stated that the coalition lacked the capacity to unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027 and Nigerians should rather not give them any befitting attention.

“Can’t you see the kind of people calling themselves coalition now? People who at every election season it must be about them, and the Quran and the Bible is very clear. God will not give you what he will not give you and man will not give you what God has not given you.

“You cannot be using your inordinate ambition to disturb the country up and down. The ADC as a party has been there for some time, some of our people are having been there.

“Yet today they have left their own party and rushed into another party and if they had gone in there quietly like decent people, may be one one would have respected them but they are coming in with their destructive attitude which they had used to destroy their former parties.

“They are just puffing and behaving as if the party is without people before they join, who will follow these people? In any case, where is the evidence of the development that they have done in all the places that they had been given responsibilities?”

Also, the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Abayomi Arabambi, said the arrowheads of the coalition were failed leaders only trying to recycle themselves.

He stated that while President Tinubu “was working to stabilise the patient, the very physicians who poisoned the nation have returned with new prescriptions.”

“What we reject – what every sane Nigerian must reject – is the repackaging of certified failures as reformers. I call on all Nigerians to reject them; it is a coalition of failures.”

Credit: The Punch