Bolaji Abdullahi is former Minister of Youths and Sports, ex-spokesman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and current National Publicity Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). In this interview, he speaks on why the opposition coalition is building the ADC, its agenda for Nigeria and how the party?s 2027 presidential candidate will emerge. Excerpts.

Some analysts have predicted that the ADC may be a third force in the 2027 election. What is your view?

Which one is the first force and which is the second force? And why do you say ADC is the third force? We don?t see ourselves as a third force. We see ourselves as the only viable opposition party in Nigeria. So it?s either you are in APC, the ruling party, or you are in ADC, the opposition party. When you are talking about a third force, how will you categorise the Labour Party and SDP. They are also forces, right? But the majority of PDP members today are in ADC; from former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, to Chief Dele Momodu, among others, who are more or less foundational members of the PDP. They have realised that the PDP ship has sunk and they know that the only option left for Nigerians today is the ADC. So, the compartmentalization about first, second or third force may no longer be valid in the prevailing circumstances. ADC is not just a political party, it?s a movement of the people.

By deliberately subverting other political parties, they created a condition that made it inevitable for people to find accommodation elsewhere and that is part of the reasons that led to this coalition. People try to draw a parallel between what happened in 2014-2015, that is the APC, and the emergence of ADC now. But no, that would be like comparing apples and oranges, they are not the same.

In 2014-2015, what you had was a merger of different political parties to form the APC. The ACN, the CPC, APGA, ANPP, and part of the new PDP formed the party but what you find this time is not a merger of political parties, what you find is a coalition of politicians under the umbrella of ADC. What has brought this coalition is the desperate desire to save Nigeria from what is clearly becoming a descent into a one-party state.

So what is the ADC?s zoning arrangement? Is your presidential candidate coming from the North or the South? Is it Peter Obi or Atiku Abubakar?

Peter Obi has not said if he is not a candidate, then this coalition will end. No. Same for Atiku. Obi has been part of this coalition from day one. And these are the exact things that we want to correct as a party. The leadership of ADC will not do anybody any favour. We don?t have any preconceived agenda. ADC does not have a candidate in mind.

ADC is not going to twist the system to favour anybody, because we want to hold our party together. We are going to take care to make sure that everything is done transparently in a way that gives confidence to everybody. And there are two options. If we are able to engineer a consensus, that is fine. If not able to engineer a consensus, then we?ll go to the field and the party will back whoever emerges. But to say you will now say to somebody, don?t contest, because we want to give it to somebody, that?s the PDP way, that?s not the ADC way.

But there are arguments that the ADC has no structures across the 36 states and the FCT to command its victory in 2027. What do you make of this?

If they say ADC has no structure, that means it?s inconsequential, politically speaking, and it does not pose any threat to anybody. So, why are they worried that we are poaching members? Is it not a contradiction? For the avoidance of doubt, nobody is preaching to anybody to come to ADC. We want Nigerians to embrace ADC, because it?s a party that gives Nigerians an alternative, a party that is saying that this hunger must come to an end. It?s a party that is saying that the amount of money you are paying to buy fuel is too much, that we cannot continue, that there is an alternative to this suffering. That is a message that Nigerians are connecting with.

You see, I don?t know what people think is called structure. Maybe they think of physical construction somewhere. Structure is the people on ground. Even if a person has like 20 people following him, that is structure, even if it?s just his family. All of them vote in one polling unit or the other. What other structure are you talking about?

But the most important thing I want to assure you of is this: We are aware that we are a new party. We know we have a lot of work to do, and we are committed to doing it.

We are trying to build a party that is not just trying to win the election in 2027, but a party that will endure for a very long time and become a tradition.

Political parties in Nigeria are known for their lack of internal democracy. What is the assurance that the ADC will do things differently?

Nigerians have the right to be cynical because of the failure of the past. But what we are saying is that with the ADC, we are asking Nigerians, especially the youths, to have the courage to believe. Because every politician today knows that the political class entirely is discredited, there are many people who are also seeing this as an opportunity for redemption. Can we at least do something differently? Can we at least build a real political party? Where did these other parties get it wrong? So, what we?re asking is: Do we have the opportunity to press the reset button and do something different? You can see the way we have started. The caliber of people in the leadership, yes, they have been around; you cannot impeach their integrity. Whether it?s the national chairman or the national secretary, you may disagree with them, you can say that you don?t like them, but you cannot say these are corrupt people. And the way and manner we are going about this is to set a new standard for Nigerian politics and to set a rule that everybody will abide by. To build a political party that is capable of disciplining its own membership, not the other way round. (Daily Trust, but headline rejigged)

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